Meghan B. Brennan

Barriers and facilitators of hepatitis C screening among people who inject drugs: a multi-city, mixed-methods study

BackgroundPeople who inject drugs (PWID) are at high risk of contracting and transmitting and hepatitis C virus (HCV). While accurate screening tests and effective treatment are increasingly available, prior research indicates that many PWID are unaware of their HCV status.MethodsWe examined characteristics associated with HCV screening among 553 PWID utilizing a free, multi-site syringe exchange program (SEP) in 7 cities throughout Wisconsin. All participants completed an 88-item, computerized survey assessing past experiences with HCV testing, HCV transmission risk behaviors, and drug use patterns. A subset of 362 clients responded to a series of open-ended questions eliciting their perceptions of barriers and facilitators to screening for HCV. Transcripts of these responses were analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis.ResultsMost respondents (88%) reported receiving a HCV test in the past, and most of these (74%) were tested during the preceding 12 months. Despite the availability of free HCV screening at the SEP, fewer than 20% of respondents had ever received a test at a syringe exchange site. Clients were more likely to receive HCV screening in the past year if they had a primary care provider, higher educational attainment, lived in a large metropolitan area, and a prior history of opioid overdose. Themes identified through qualitative analysis suggested important roles of access to medical care and prevention services, and nonjudgmental providers.ConclusionsOur results suggest that drug-injecting individuals who reside in non-urban settings, who have poor access to primary care, or who have less education may encounter significant barriers to routine HCV screening. Expanded access to primary health care and prevention services, especially in non-urban areas, could address an unmet need for individuals at high risk for HCV.

Afraid of being "witchy with a 'b'": a qualitative study of how gender influences residents' experiences leading cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Purpose Ineffective leadership during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (“code”) can negatively affect a patient’s likelihood of survival. In most teaching hospitals, internal medicine residents lead codes. In this study, the authors explored internal medicine residents’ experiences leading codes, with a particular focus on how gender influences the code leadership experience. Method The authors conducted individual, semistructured telephone or in-person interviews with 25 residents (May 2012 to February 2013) from 9 U.S. internal medicine residency programs. They audio recorded and transcribed the interviews and then thematically analyzed the transcribed text. Results Participants viewed a successful code as one with effective leadership. They agreed that the ideal code leader was an authoritative presence; spoke with a deep, loud voice; used clear, direct communication; and appeared calm. Although equally able to lead codes as their male colleagues, female participants described feeling stress from having to violate gender behavioral norms in the role of code leader. In response, some female participants adopted rituals to signal the suspension of gender norms while leading a code. Others apologized afterwards for their counternormative behavior. Conclusions Ideal code leadership embodies highly agentic, stereotypical male behaviors. Female residents employed strategies to better integrate the competing identities of code leader and female gender. In the future, residency training should acknowledge how female gender stereotypes may conflict with the behaviors required to enact code leadership and offer some strategies, such as those used by the female residents in this study, to help women integrate these dual identities.

Diabetic foot ulcer severity predicts mortality among veterans with type 2 diabetes

AIM Diabetic foot ulcers are associated with an increased risk of death. We evaluated whether ulcer severity at presentation predicts mortality. METHODS Patients from a national, retrospective, cohort of veterans with type 2 diabetes who developed incident diabetic foot ulcers between January 1, 2006 and September 1, 2010, were followed until death or the end of the study period, January 1, 2012. Ulcers were characterized as early stage, osteomyelitis, or gangrene at presentation. Cox proportional hazard regression identified independent predictors of death, controlling for comorbidities, laboratory parameters, and healthcare utilization. RESULTS 66,323 veterans were included in the cohort and followed for a mean of 27.7months: 1-, 2-, and 5-year survival rates were 80.80%, 69.01% and 28.64%, respectively. Compared to early stage ulcers, gangrene was associated with an increased risk of mortality (HR 1.70, 95% CI 1.57-1.83, p<0.001). The magnitude of this effect was greater than diagnosed vascular disease, i.e., coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease, or stroke. CONCLUSION Initial diabetic foot ulcer severity is a more significant predictor of subsequent mortality than coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease, or stroke. Unrecognized or under-estimated vascular disease and/or sepsis secondary to gangrene should be explored as possible causal explanations.

Systolic blood pressure variability and lower extremity amputation in a non-elderly population with diabetes

OBJECTIVE Systolic blood pressure (SBP) variability is emerging as a new risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, diabetic nephropathy, and other atherosclerotic conditions. Our objective is to examine whether it has any prognostic value for lower-extremity amputations. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This is a nested case-control study of a cohort of patients with diabetes aged<60 years and treated in the US Department of Veterans Healthcare system in 2003. They were followed over five years for any above-ankle (major) amputations. For each case with a major amputation (event), we randomly selected up to five matched controls based on age, sex, race/ethnicity, and calendar time. SBP variability was computed using three or more blood pressure measures taken during the one-year period before the event. Patients were classified into quartiles according to their SBP variability. RESULTS The study sample included 1038 cases and 2932 controls. Compared to Quartile 1 (lowest variability), Quartile 2 had 1.4 times (OR=1.44, 95% CI=1.00-2.07) and Quartiles 3 and 4 (highest) had 2.5 times (OR for Quartile 3=2.62, 95% CI=1.85-3.72; OR for Quartile 4=2.50, 95% CI=1.74-3.59) higher risk of major amputation (P for trend<0.001). This gradient relationship held in both normotensive and hypertensive groups as well as for individuals without prior peripheral vascular disease. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study to show a significant graded relationship between SBP variability and risk of major amputation among non-elderly persons with diabetes.

''Oops! I forgot HIV'': Resident physician self-audits and universal HIV screening

BACKGROUND Innovations are needed to increase universal HIV screening by primary care providers. One potential intervention is self-audit feedback, which describes the process of a clinician reviewing their own patient charts and reflecting on their performance. METHODS The effectiveness of self-audit feedback was investigated using a mixed methods approach. A total of 2111 patient charts were analyzed in a quantitative pre-post intervention study design, where the intervention was providing self-audit feedback to all internal medicine residents at one institution through an annual chart review. Qualitative data generated from the subsequent resident focus group discussions explored the motivation and mechanism for change using a knowledge-attitude-behavior framework. RESULTS The proportion of primary care patients screened for HIV increased from 17.9% (190/1060) to 40.3% (423/1051). The adjusted odds ratio of a patient being screened following resident self-audited feedback was 3.17 (95% CI 2.11, 4.76, p<0.001). Focus group participants attributed the improved performance to the self-audit feedback. CONCLUSIONS Self-audit feedback is a potentially effective intervention for increasing universal HIV screening in primary care. This strategy may be most useful in settings where (1) baseline performance is low, (2) behavioral change is provider-driven, and (3) resident trainees are targeted.

Septic Arthritis in the Native Joint

Septic arthritis of the native joint is an uncommon infection but, when present, creates a significant risk for functional impairment of the affected joint or, in severe cases, mortality. Knowledge of the most common pathogens, as well as appropriate diagnostics, can facilitate earlier diagnosis and treatment, which, ideally, leads to improved long-term outcomes. In this article, we discuss recent microbiologic trends and diagnostic tests, with an update on use of molecular testing. Empiric antibiotic regimens for native joint septic arthritis are reviewed, as well as potential new therapies on the horizon.

Impact of Low Procalcitonin Results on Antibiotic Administration in Hospitalized Patients at a Tertiary Care Center

Procalcitonin is a sensitive and specific marker of bacterial infection; low results allow clinicians to safely de-escalate antibiotics. This retrospective cohort study aimed to determine the effect of low procalcitonin results on withholding, discontinuing, or de-escalating antibiotics in hospitalized patients at a tertiary care center. Antibiotics were initiated or continued without de-escalation in 55% of patients with low procalcitonin results. Among patients with low procalcitonin results, the primary service, but not measures of patient complexity, disease severity, or underlying disease process (lower respiratory tract infection evaluation versus systemic inflammatory response syndrome/possible sepsis) was associated with initiation or continued broad-spectrum antibiotic use. Provider-level factors may be an important variable in the initiation or continued use of broad-spectrum antibiotics for patients with low procalcitonin levels.

Longitudinal trends and predictors of statin use among patients with diabetes

AIM Statins reduce morbidity and mortality among patients with diabetes, but their use remains suboptimal. Understanding trends in statin use may inform strategies for improvement. METHODS We enrolled a national, retrospective cohort of 899,664 veterans aged≥40years with diabetes in 2003. We followed them through 2011, dividing the nine-year follow-up into 90-day periods. For each period, we determined statin use, defined as possession of ≥30-day supply. We examine factors associated with statin uptake among baseline non-users with a multivariate model. RESULTS Baseline prevalence of statin use was 43%, increased by 1.8% per period (p for trend<0.001), and reached a maximum of ~59%. Statin use among non-Hispanic racial/ethnic minorities lagged behind their white counterparts. Among baseline non-users, statin use was 9% after Year 1 and reached 36% by Year 9. Factors associated with statin uptake included use of hypoglycemic agents, HbA1c between 7 and 8.9% (53-74mmol/mol), hypertension, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, and Hispanic ethnicity. CONCLUSION Statin use is slowly increasing among patients with diabetes, and at varying rates within subgroups of this population. Policies that prioritize these subgroups for statin promotion may help guide future, intervention-based research to increase compliance with current guidelines.

The role of the microbiome in nonhealing diabetic wounds

Wound healing is a highly coordinated and complex process, and there can be devastating consequences if it is interrupted. It is believed that, in combination with host factors, microorganisms in a wound bed can not only impair wound healing but can lead to stalled, chronic wounds. It is hypothesized that the wound microbiota persists in chronic wounds as a biofilm, recalcitrant to antibiotic and mechanical intervention. Cultivation‐based methods are the gold standard for identification of pathogens residing in wounds. However, these methods are biased against fastidious organisms, and do not capture the full extent of microbial diversity in chronic wounds. Thus, the link between specific microbes and impaired healing remains tenuous. This is partially because local infection and, more specifically, the formation of a biofilm, is difficult to diagnose. This has led to research efforts aimed at understanding if biofilm formation delays healing and leads to persistent and chronic infection. Circumventing challenges associated with culture‐based estimations, advances in high‐throughput sequencing analysis has revealed that chronic wounds are host to complex, diverse microbiomes comprising multiple species of bacteria and fungi. Here, we discuss how the use of genomic methodologies to study wound microbiomes has advanced the current understanding of infection and biofilm formation in chronic wounds.

The Association Between Geographic Density of Infectious Disease Physicians and Limb Preservation in Patients With Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Abstract Background Avoiding major (above-ankle) amputation in patients with diabetic foot ulcers is best accomplished by multidisciplinary care teams with access to infectious disease specialists. However, access to infectious disease physicians is partially influenced by geography. We assessed the effect of living in a hospital referral region with a high geographic density of infectious disease physicians on major amputation for patients with diabetic foot ulcers. We studied geographic density, rather than infectious disease consultation, to capture both the direct and indirect (eg, informal consultation) effects of access to these providers on major amputation. Methods We used a national retrospective cohort of 56440 Medicare enrollees with incident diabetic foot ulcers. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the relationship between infectious disease physician density and major amputation, while controlling for patient demographics, comorbidities, and ulcer severity. Results Living in hospital referral regions with high geographic density of infectious disease physicians was associated with a reduced risk of major amputation after controlling for demographics, comorbidities, and ulcer severity (hazard ratio, .83; 95% confidence interval, .75–.91; P < .001). The relationship between the geographic density of infectious disease physicians and major amputation was not different based on ulcer severity and was maintained when adjusting for socioeconomic factors and modeling amputation-free survival. Conclusions Infectious disease physicians may play an important role in limb salvage. Future studies should explore whether improved access to infectious disease physicians results in fewer major amputations.