Retention and Career Success of Faculty: The Case for Building a Sense of Belonging to the Academic Medicine Community

As attrition in the healthcare workforce rises, factors that positively impact retention, engagement, work satisfaction, and vitality for faculty in Colleges of Medicine are of critical importance. One important factor that is less often discussed is the need to develop a sense of belonging and connectedness to the institutional community. Underrepresented minority faculty particularly feel the benefit of feeling like they belong. Recommendations for enhancing faculty connectedness to a community in support of developing a sense of belonging to that community are offered

Distinctions between sociometric status groups : internalizing difficulties

Theoretical conceptualizations of internalizing difficulties, particularly depression, suggest that there is a relationship between social relationships and internalizing difficulties. The present study examined one important social relationship in preadolescence--peer relationships--and its association with internalizing difficulties. Seven sociometric status groups or subgroups were identified, and multiple indices of internalizing difficulties were assessed, including depressed mood, hopelessness, loneliness, fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance and distress, and negative self-worth. Fourth and fifth graders participated in group sociometric testing (conducted in three data collection waves at various southeastern elementary schools), and, from this sample, children who satisfied the criteria for one of seven sociometric status groups participated. These children (n= 1092) were mailed questionnaire packets, completed them at home, and then returned them via mail (n = 251). Results indicate different means for each sociometric status group or subgroup across the measures of internalizing difficulties. Internalizing difficulties were particularly pronounced for the rejected-submissive and neglected status groups

Interprofessional Education: Current State in Psychology Training

Healthcare reform has led to the consideration of interprofessional team-based, collaborative care as a way to provide comprehensive, high-quality care to patients and families. Interprofessional education is the mechanism by which the next generation health professional workforce is preparing for the future of health care-team-based, collaborative care. This literature review explored the extent and content of published studies documenting Interprofessional Education (IPE) activities with psychology trainees across learner level. A systematic review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted of studies describing IPE involving psychology learners. Electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and EMBASE) were searched for the following terms: inter/multi-professional education/practice, inter/multidisciplinary education/practice, and psychology/psychologists. Thirty-seven articles were identified that included psychology in clinical outcome studies or other reviews of interprofessional education initiatives. The review addresses the nature of current IPE learning activities, the impact of IPE activities on participating trainees, opportunities for, and challenges of, involving psychology trainees in IPE, and future directions for research. This review illuminates the relative paucity of the literature about IPE in psychology training. Given the trend toward increasing team-based collaborative care, the limited inclusion of psychology in the IPE literature is concerning. The next generation of health professional trainees is learning about, from, and with each other with the objective of building collaboration and teamwork. Given the few articles documenting psychology trainees\u27 involvement in IPE, future health professionals quite possibly will have limited understanding of, and contact with, psychologists. Our findings are a call to action for greater psychology involvement in IPE

An evaluation of collaborative research partnerships in occupational therapy education

A lack of skills and confidence in carrying out research has been identified amongst occupational therapists (Pighills et al, 2013). The consequent predominance of university-led research threatens to exacerbate the practice-research gap (Kielhofner, 2005). This poster describes the benefits and challenges of collaborative research partnerships (Crist, 2010) for occupational therapy students, practice partners and academic supervisors. The aim of the project was to explore the benefits and challenges of the research partnerships from the perspectives of key stakeholders. Action research methodology was used. Five BSc, two MSc (pre-registration) students, six practice partners and four academic supervisors were recruited. Data was collected using questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. All data were analysed thematically. Ethical and research governance approvals were gained from University of Cumbria and relevant NHS trusts respectively. The study was funded by the Higher Education Academy and the University of Cumbria. Findings identified benefits for each stakeholder group. Students emphasised increased confidence and a sense of value and purpose in contributing to future service improvements. Practice partners valued the research findings to aid reflection on working practices and potential service development. Academic supervisors described satisfaction in building enhanced research capacity through practice-based projects. Communication challenges and increased stress and workload were reported; however, these did not outweigh the benefits. Importantly, the research collaborations were perceived to contribute to service enhancements and therefore yield benefits for service-users. These findings illustrate the potential of collaborative research partnerships to build confidence and research capacity in future occupational therapists and thereby assist in reduction of the practice-research divide and support service development. Crist, P.A. (2010) Adapting Research Instruction to Support the Scholarship of Practice: Practice-Scholar Partnerships. Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 24(1), 39–55. Kielhofner, G. (2005) A scholarship of practice: Creating discourse between theory, research and practice. Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 19(1/2), 7–16. Pighills, A. C., Plummer, D., Harvey, D., Pain, T. (2013) Positioning occupational therapy as a discipline on the research continuum: Results of a cross-sectional survey of research experience. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 60(4), 241–251

DNA methylation and body mass index:investigating identified methylation sites at HIF3A in a causal framework

Multiple differentially methylated sites and regions associated with adiposity have now been identified in large-scale cross-sectional studies. We tested for replication of associations between previously identified CpG sites at HIF3A and adiposity in ∼1,000 mother-offspring pairs from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Availability of methylation and adiposity measures at multiple time points, as well as genetic data, allowed us to assess the temporal associations between adiposity and methylation and to make inferences regarding causality and directionality. Overall, our results were discordant with those expected if HIF3A methylation has a causal effect on BMI and provided more evidence for causality in the reverse direction (i.e., an effect of BMI on HIF3A methylation). These results are based on robust evidence from longitudinal analyses and were also partially supported by Mendelian randomization analysis, although this latter analysis was underpowered to detect a causal effect of BMI on HIF3A methylation. Our results also highlight an apparent long-lasting intergenerational influence of maternal BMI on offspring methylation at this locus, which may confound associations between own adiposity and HIF3A methylation. Further work is required to replicate and uncover the mechanisms underlying the direct and intergenerational effect of adiposity on DNA methylation.Rebecca C. Richmond, Gemma C. Sharp, Mary E. Ward, Abigail Fraser, Oliver Lyttleton, Wendy L. McArdle, Susan M. Ring, Tom R. Gaunt, Debbie A. Lawlor, George Davey Smith, and Caroline L. Relto

Heart and kidney organoids maintain organ-specific function in a microfluidic system

Heart and kidney communicate with one another in an interdependent relationship and they influence each other's behavior reciprocally, as pathological changes in one organ can damage the other. Although independent human in vitro models for heart and kidney exist, they do not capture their dynamic crosstalk. We have developed a microfluidic system which can be used to study heart and kidney interaction in vitro. Cardiac microtissues (cMTs) and kidney organoids (kOs) derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) were generated and loaded into two separated communicating chambers of a perfusion chip. Static culture conditions were compared with dynamic culture under unidirectional flow. Tissue viability was maintained for minimally 72 h under both conditions, as indicated by the presence of sarcomeric structures coupled with beating activity in cMTs and the presence of nephron structures and albumin uptake in kOs. We concluded that this system enables the study of human cardiac and kidney organoid interaction in vitro while controlling parameters like fluidic flow speed and direction. Together, this “cardiorenal-unit” provides a new in vitro model to study the cardiorenal axis and it may be further developed to investigate diseases involving both two organs and their potential treatments.</p

The ESR1 (6q25) locus is associated with calcaneal ultrasound parameters and radial volumetric bone mineral density in European men

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Purpose:&lt;/b&gt; Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 6q25, which incorporates the oestrogen receptor alpha gene (ESR1), as a quantitative trait locus for areal bone mineral density (BMD(a)) of the hip and lumbar spine. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of this locus on other bone health outcomes; calcaneal ultrasound (QUS) parameters, radial peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) parameters and markers of bone turnover in a population sample of European men.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Methods:&lt;/b&gt; Eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the 6q25 locus were genotyped in men aged 40-79 years from 7 European countries, participating in the European Male Ageing Study (EMAS). The associations between SNPs and measured bone parameters were tested under an additive genetic model adjusting for centre using linear regression.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Results:&lt;/b&gt; 2468 men, mean (SD) aged 59.9 (11.1) years had QUS measurements performed and bone turnover marker levels measured. A subset of 628 men had DXA and pQCT measurements. Multiple independent SNPs showed significant associations with BMD using all three measurement techniques. Most notably, rs1999805 was associated with a 0.10 SD (95%CI 0.05, 0.16; p = 0.0001) lower estimated BMD at the calcaneus, a 0.14 SD (95%CI 0.05, 0.24; p = 0.004) lower total hip BMD(a), a 0.12 SD (95%CI 0.02, 0.23; p = 0.026) lower lumbar spine BMD(a) and a 0.18 SD (95%CI 0.06, 0.29; p = 0.003) lower trabecular BMD at the distal radius for each copy of the minor allele. There was no association with serum levels of bone turnover markers and a single SNP which was associated with cortical density was also associated with cortical BMC and thickness.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/b&gt; Our data replicate previous associations found between SNPs in the 6q25 locus and BMD(a) at the hip and extend these data to include associations with calcaneal ultrasound parameters and radial volumetric BMD.&lt;/p&gt

Prenatal and early life influences on epigenetic age in children:a study of mother-offspring pairs from two cohort studies

DNA methylation-based biomarkers of aging are highly correlated with actual age. Departures of methylation-estimated age from actual age can be used to define epigenetic measures of child development or age acceleration (AA) in adults. Very little is known about genetic or environmental determinants of these epigenetic measures of aging. We obtained DNA methylation profiles using Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChips across five time-points in 1018 mother-child pairs from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Using the Horvath age estimation method, we calculated epigenetic age for these samples. AA was defined as the residuals from regressing epigenetic age on actual age. AA was tested for associations with cross-sectional clinical variables in children. We identified associations between AA and sex, birth weight, birth by caesarean section and several maternal characteristics in pregnancy, namely smoking, weight, BMI, selenium and cholesterol level. Offspring of non-drinkers had higher AA on average but this difference appeared to resolve during childhood. The associations between sex, birth weight and AA found in ARIES were replicated in an independent cohort (GOYA). In children, epigenetic AA measures are associated with several clinically relevant variables, and early life exposures appear to be associated with changes in AA during adolescence. Further research into epigenetic aging, including the use of causal inference methods, is required to better our understanding of aging

Swallowing, nutrition and patient-rated functional outcomes at 6 months following two non-surgical treatments for T1-T3 oropharyngeal cancer

Altered fractionation radiotherapy with concomitant boost (AFRT-CB) may be considered an alternative treatment for patients not appropriate for chemoradiation (CRT). As functional outcomes following AFRT-CB have been minimally reported, this exploratory paper describes the outcomes of patients managed with AFRT-CB or CRT at 6 months post-treatment