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Joint Commission Journal on Quality and... Jul 2024Although access to a professional medical interpreter is federally mandated, surgeons report underutilization during informed consent. Improvement requires understanding...
BACKGROUND
Although access to a professional medical interpreter is federally mandated, surgeons report underutilization during informed consent. Improvement requires understanding the extent of the lapses. Adoption of electronic consent (eConsent) has been associated with improvements in documentation and identification of practice improvement opportunities. The authors evaluated the impact of the transition from paper to eConsent on language-concordant surgical consent delivery for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP).
METHODS
The study period (February 8, 2023, to June 14, 2023) corresponds to the period immediately following the institutional adoption of eConsents. Inclusion criteria included age > 18 years, documented preferred language other than English, and self-signed eConsent form. The authors assessed documentation of language-concordant interpreter-mediated verbal consent discussion and delivery of the written surgical consent form in a language-concordant template. Performance was compared to a preimplementation baseline derived from monthly random audits of paper consents between January and December 2022.
RESULTS
A total of 1,016 eConsent encounters for patients with LEP were included, with patients speaking 49 different languages, most commonly Spanish (46.5%), Chinese (22.1%), and Russian (6.8%). After the implementation of eConsent, overall documentation of language-concordant interpreter-mediated consents increased from 56.9% to 83.9% (p < 0.001), although there was variation between surgical services and between languages, suggesting that there is still likely room for improvement. Most patients (94.1%) whose preferred language had an associated translated written consent template (Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic), received a language-concordant written consent.
CONCLUSION
The transition to eConsent was associated with improved documentation of language-concordant informed consent in surgery, both in terms of providing written materials in the patient's preferred language and in the documentation of interpreter use, and allowed for the identification of areas to target for practice improvement with interpreter use.
Topics: Humans; Limited English Proficiency; Informed Consent; Documentation; Female; Male; Translating; Middle Aged; Adult; Consent Forms; Language; Electronic Health Records; Communication Barriers
PubMed: 38565472
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcjq.2024.03.005 -
Digital Health 2024In a growing number of countries, patients are offered access to their full online clinical records, including the narrative reports written by clinicians (the latter,...
BACKGROUND
In a growing number of countries, patients are offered access to their full online clinical records, including the narrative reports written by clinicians (the latter, referred to as "open notes"). Even in countries with mature patient online record access, access to psychotherapy notes is not mandatory. To date, no research has explored the views of psychotherapy trainees about open notes.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to explore the opinions of psychotherapy trainees in Switzerland about patients' access to psychotherapists' free-text summaries.
METHODS
We administered a web-based mixed methods survey to 201 psychotherapy trainees to explore their familiarity with and opinions about the impact on patients and psychotherapy practice of offering patients online access to their psychotherapy notes. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the 42-item survey, and qualitative descriptive analysis was employed to examine written responses to four open-ended questions.
RESULTS
Seventy-two (35.8%) trainees completed the survey. Quantitative results revealed mixed views about open notes. 75% agreed that, in general open notes were a good idea, and 94.1% agreed that education about open notes should be part of psychotherapy training. When considering impact on patients and psychotherapy, four themes emerged: (a) negative impact on therapy; (b) positive impact on therapy; (c) impact on patients; and (d) documentation. Students identified concerns related to increase in workload, harm to the psychotherapeutic relationship, and compromised quality of records. They also identified many potential benefits including better patient communication and informed consent processes. In describing impact on different therapy types, students believed that open notes might have differential impact depending on the psychotherapy approaches.
CONCLUSIONS
Sharing psychotherapy notes is not routine but is likely to expand. This mixed methods study provides timely insights into the views of psychotherapy trainees regarding the impact of open notes on patient care and psychotherapy practice.
PubMed: 38559581
DOI: 10.1177/20552076241242772 -
Journal of Sport Rehabilitation May 2024The primary aim of this study was to investigate the immediate and delayed effects of kinesiotape (KT) on postural control and patient-reported outcome measures under... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
OBJECTIVE
The primary aim of this study was to investigate the immediate and delayed effects of kinesiotape (KT) on postural control and patient-reported outcome measures under challenging conditions in individuals with anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions.
METHODS
Thirty-two anterior cruciate ligament-reconstructed patients for whom 6 months had passed since their operation were randomly assigned to either the KT (n = 16, aged 21.8 [5.5] y) or the placebo KT (n = 16, aged 24.0 [5.1] y) groups. Initially, both groups stood barefoot on a force platform while performing postural tasks in 4 randomized conditions (eyes open, eyes closed, cognitive task, and foam). Before the experiment, patients would bring the 4 conditions, which were written on folded papers, one by one, and in this way, the order of conditions for the examiners was determined. The patients' evaluations were conducted immediately and 48 hours after KT application. Postural control measures, with area and displacement of the center of pressure (CoP) in anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions, and mean total velocity displacement of CoP (MVELO CoP) served as dependent variables. In addition, the International Knee Documentation Committee score was measured pretreatment and 48 hours posttreatment.
RESULTS
Significant group-by-time interactions were observed for displacement of COP in medial-lateral direction (P = .002) and MVELO CoP (P = .034). MVELO CoP significantly decreased (mean difference = 0.60, P = .009) immediately after KT application compared with preapplication measures. In the placebo group, a statistically significant decrease in MVELO CoP (mean difference = 0.869, P = .001) was observed at 48 hours post-KT compared with preapplication values. International Knee Documentation Committee scores significantly improved at 48 hours post-KT application in both groups (P < .05).
CONCLUSIONS
Though observed at different time points, both KT (immediately after the intervention) and placebo KT (48 h after the intervention) were found to improve postural control measures. It appears that the changes in postural control may be more related to proprioceptive enhancement due to KT rather than the specific KT pattern.
Topics: Humans; Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction; Female; Athletic Tape; Postural Balance; Male; Young Adult; Adult; Adolescent; Patient Reported Outcome Measures; Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries
PubMed: 38531351
DOI: 10.1123/jsr.2023-0185 -
Headache Apr 2024To develop a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm that can accurately extract headache frequency from free-text clinical notes.
A large language model-based generative natural language processing framework fine-tuned on clinical notes accurately extracts headache frequency from electronic health records.
OBJECTIVE
To develop a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm that can accurately extract headache frequency from free-text clinical notes.
BACKGROUND
Headache frequency, defined as the number of days with any headache in a month (or 4 weeks), remains a key parameter in the evaluation of treatment response to migraine preventive medications. However, due to the variations and inconsistencies in documentation by clinicians, significant challenges exist to accurately extract headache frequency from the electronic health record (EHR) by traditional NLP algorithms.
METHODS
This was a retrospective cross-sectional study with patients identified from two tertiary headache referral centers, Mayo Clinic Arizona and Mayo Clinic Rochester. All neurology consultation notes written by 15 specialized clinicians (11 headache specialists and 4 nurse practitioners) between 2012 and 2022 were extracted and 1915 notes were used for model fine-tuning (90%) and testing (10%). We employed four different NLP frameworks: (1) ClinicalBERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) regression model, (2) Generative Pre-Trained Transformer-2 (GPT-2) Question Answering (QA) model zero-shot, (3) GPT-2 QA model few-shot training fine-tuned on clinical notes, and (4) GPT-2 generative model few-shot training fine-tuned on clinical notes to generate the answer by considering the context of included text.
RESULTS
The mean (standard deviation) headache frequency of our training and testing datasets were 13.4 (10.9) and 14.4 (11.2), respectively. The GPT-2 generative model was the best-performing model with an accuracy of 0.92 (0.91, 0.93, 95% confidence interval [CI]) and R score of 0.89 (0.87, 0.90, 95% CI), and all GPT-2-based models outperformed the ClinicalBERT model in terms of exact matching accuracy. Although the ClinicalBERT regression model had the lowest accuracy of 0.27 (0.26, 0.28), it demonstrated a high R score of 0.88 (0.85, 0.89), suggesting the ClinicalBERT model can reasonably predict the headache frequency within a range of ≤ ± 3 days, and the R score was higher than the GPT-2 QA zero-shot model or GPT-2 QA model few-shot training fine-tuned model.
CONCLUSION
We developed a robust information extraction model based on a state-of-the-art large language model, a GPT-2 generative model that can extract headache frequency from EHR free-text clinical notes with high accuracy and R score. It overcame several challenges related to different ways clinicians document headache frequency that were not easily achieved by traditional NLP models. We also showed that GPT-2-based frameworks outperformed ClinicalBERT in terms of accuracy in extracting headache frequency from clinical notes. To facilitate research in the field, we released the GPT-2 generative model and inference code with open-source license of community use in GitHub. Additional fine-tuning of the algorithm might be required when applied to different health-care systems for various clinical use cases.
Topics: Natural Language Processing; Humans; Electronic Health Records; Retrospective Studies; Cross-Sectional Studies; Male; Female; Headache; Adult; Middle Aged; Algorithms
PubMed: 38525734
DOI: 10.1111/head.14702 -
Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and... Apr 2024To compare postoperative knee stability, functional outcomes, and complications after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using bone-patellar tendon-bone... (Review)
Review
Both Quadriceps and Bone-Patellar Tendon-Bone Autografts Improve Postoperative Stability and Functional Outcomes After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Systematic Review.
PURPOSE
To compare postoperative knee stability, functional outcomes, and complications after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB) versus quadriceps tendon autograft.
METHODS
In accordance with PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines, the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for studies published in 2002 or later. Studies were included if they met the following criteria: randomized controlled trials that included patients who underwent ACL reconstruction with BPTB or quadriceps tendon autograft including all soft tissue and bone-quadriceps tendon and in which measures of postoperative stability and functional outcomes were reported. Studies that were not written in English and those that analyzed animals or cadavers, were not randomized controlled trials, or used other grafts (e.g., hamstring) were excluded.
RESULTS
The initial search identified 348 studies, 6 of which were included in this systematic review. Two of the six studies found no significant difference in performance outcomes or complications between quadriceps and BPTB autografts. One study found that patients receiving quadriceps autograft self-reported improved knee functional status compared with those receiving BPTB autograft. Another study found that quadriceps autograft resulted in a significantly reduced Quadriceps Index postoperatively compared with BPTB autograft (69.5 vs 82.8, = .01) but found no difference in postoperative quadriceps strength. An additional study found that the outcomes of quadriceps tendon and BPTB autografts were equivalent per the International Knee Documentation Committee scale, but anterior knee pain was less severe in patients with quadriceps tendon autograft. Furthermore, one study revealed the overall International Knee Documentation Committee score was reported as normal significantly more often in patients who underwent ACL reconstruction with BPTB autograft (85% vs 50%, < .001) and that donor-site morbidity was greater in patients with quadriceps autograft. No significant difference was found in complications requiring reoperation across studies.
CONCLUSIONS
Patients undergoing ACL reconstruction with either BPTB or quadriceps tendon autograft reported improved postoperative knee stability and functional outcomes. There is no significant difference in complications between quadriceps autograft use and BPTB autograft use.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Level III, systematic review of Level III retrospective studies.
PubMed: 38525287
DOI: 10.1016/j.asmr.2024.100919 -
International Journal of Gynaecology... Jun 2024
Topics: Gynecology; Humans; Obstetrics; Machine Learning; Abstracting and Indexing
PubMed: 38520047
DOI: 10.1002/ijgo.15516 -
The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery Mar 2024With increasing interest in 3D photogrammetry, diverse methods have been developed for craniofacial shape analysis in craniosynostosis patients. This review provides an...
With increasing interest in 3D photogrammetry, diverse methods have been developed for craniofacial shape analysis in craniosynostosis patients. This review provides an overview of these methods and offers recommendations for future studies. A systematic literature search was used to identify publications on 3D photogrammetry analyses in craniosynostosis patients until August 2023. Inclusion criteria were original research reporting on 3D photogrammetry analyses in patients with craniosynostosis and written in English. Sixty-three publications that had reproducible methods for measuring cranial, forehead, or facial shape were included in the systematic review. Cranial shape changes were commonly assessed using heat maps and curvature analyses. Publications assessing the forehead utilized volumetric measurements, angles, ratios, and mirroring techniques. Mirroring techniques were frequently used to determine facial asymmetry. Although 3D photogrammetry shows promise, methods vary widely between standardized and less conventional measurements. A standardized protocol for the selection and documentation of landmarks, planes, and measurements across the cranium, forehead, and face is essential for consistent clinical and research applications.
PubMed: 38498012
DOI: 10.1097/SCS.0000000000010071 -
BMC Medical Education Mar 2024Recently, all medical universities in Sweden jointly developed a framework for Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for work-based training and assessment. This...
Clinical supervisors' experience of a first-time application of entrustable professional activities in clinical supervision of medical students: findings from a Swedish pilot study.
BACKGROUND
Recently, all medical universities in Sweden jointly developed a framework for Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for work-based training and assessment. This framework is now being introduced nationally in the new 6-year undergraduate medical programme that directly lead to a licence to practise. When EPAs are introduced, it is of central importance to gain clinical supervisors' acceptance to apply the framework in their supervision of students. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate how clinical supervisors, not familiar with EPAs, experience clinical supervision using the framework for EPAs.
METHODS
We used a purposive sampling to recruit clinical supervisors. They were given written information on EPAs with a selection of suitable EPAs and the Swedish observation rating scale for assessment of autonomy, and they were offered to attend a 30-minute introductory web course. The participants were informed that EPAs were to be tested, and the students were asked to participate. After the study period the clinical supervisors participated in semi-structured interviews. Inductive qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the transcribed interviews.
RESULTS
Three general themes emerged in the qualitative analysis: Promoting Feedback, Trusting Assessments and Engaging Stakeholders. The participants described benefits from using EPAs, but pointed out a need for preparation and adaptation to facilitate implementation. The structure was perceived to provide structured support for feedback, student involvement, entrustment decisions, enabling supervisors to allow the students to do more things independently, although some expressed caution to rely on others' assessments. Another concern was whether assessments of EPAs would be perceived as a form of examination, steeling focus from formative feedback. To understand the concept of EPA, the short web-based course and written information was regarded as sufficient. However, concern was expressed whether EPA could be applied by all clinical supervisors. Involvement and adaption of the workplace was pointed out as important since more frequent observation and feedback, with documentation requirements, increase the time required for supervision.
CONCLUSIONS
EPAs were accepted as beneficial, promoting structured feedback and assessments of the students' autonomy. Preparation of supervisors and students as well as involvement and adaptation of the workplace was pointed out as important.
Topics: Humans; Competency-Based Education; Pilot Projects; Sweden; Students, Medical; Preceptorship; Clinical Competence; Internship and Residency
PubMed: 38491437
DOI: 10.1186/s12909-024-05211-w -
Urogynecology (Philadelphia, Pa.) Mar 2024The price range, insurance coverage, and side effect burden of overactive bladder medications is broad and varied. An internal quality improvement project was undertaken...
IMPORTANCE
The price range, insurance coverage, and side effect burden of overactive bladder medications is broad and varied. An internal quality improvement project was undertaken to improve patient ability to access and ultimately adhere to preferred medication therapy for treatment of overactive bladder.
OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to increase the percentage of patients per month at an academic Urogynecology practice who receive their preferred overactive bladder medication from baseline 39.5% to 45%.
STUDY DESIGN
Data were extracted via Epic report. Manual chart review and calls to patients and/or pharmacy were completed to obtain status of medication access and reasons why medications were not taken. A targeted intervention was implemented with creation of a written document to help guide patients with options to decrease prescription costs. After this document was embedded into Epic after visit summary documentation, a repeat analysis was performed.
RESULTS
The most common barrier to medication access was cost; specifically, the medication was not covered and a prior authorization was not initiated. Before the intervention, more than 60% of patients did not persist with their initially prescribed overactive bladder medication at a 6-month follow-up interval from office visit. Following implementation of a cost-navigation guide, persistence increased to 45.5% at a 3-month follow-up interval.
CONCLUSIONS
A targeted intervention on cost navigation of prescriptions can have a positive effect on patient access and persistence of using overactive bladder medications. Our practice continues to use our prescription navigation handout.
Topics: Humans; Urinary Bladder, Overactive
PubMed: 38484255
DOI: 10.1097/SPV.0000000000001493 -
Annals of Emergency Medicine Mar 2024The workload of clinical documentation contributes to health care costs and professional burnout. The advent of generative artificial intelligence language models...
STUDY OBJECTIVE
The workload of clinical documentation contributes to health care costs and professional burnout. The advent of generative artificial intelligence language models presents a promising solution. The perspective of clinicians may contribute to effective and responsible implementation of such tools. This study sought to evaluate 3 uses for generative artificial intelligence for clinical documentation in pediatric emergency medicine, measuring time savings, effort reduction, and physician attitudes and identifying potential risks and barriers.
METHODS
This mixed-methods study was performed with 10 pediatric emergency medicine attending physicians from a single pediatric emergency department. Participants were asked to write a supervisory note for 4 clinical scenarios, with varying levels of complexity, twice without any assistance and twice with the assistance of ChatGPT Version 4.0. Participants evaluated 2 additional ChatGPT-generated clinical summaries: a structured handoff and a visit summary for a family written at an 8th grade reading level. Finally, a semistructured interview was performed to assess physicians' perspective on the use of ChatGPT in pediatric emergency medicine. Main outcomes and measures included between subjects' comparisons of the effort and time taken to complete the supervisory note with and without ChatGPT assistance. Effort was measured using a self-reported Likert scale of 0 to 10. Physicians' scoring of and attitude toward the ChatGPT-generated summaries were measured using a 0 to 10 Likert scale and open-ended questions. Summaries were scored for completeness, accuracy, efficiency, readability, and overall satisfaction. A thematic analysis was performed to analyze the content of the open-ended questions and to identify key themes.
RESULTS
ChatGPT yielded a 40% reduction in time and a 33% decrease in effort for supervisory notes in intricate cases, with no discernible effect on simpler notes. ChatGPT-generated summaries for structured handoffs and family letters were highly rated, ranging from 7.0 to 9.0 out of 10, and most participants favored their inclusion in clinical practice. However, there were several critical reservations, out of which a set of general recommendations for applying ChatGPT to clinical summaries was formulated.
CONCLUSION
Pediatric emergency medicine attendings in our study perceived that ChatGPT can deliver high-quality summaries while saving time and effort in many scenarios, but not all.
PubMed: 38483426
DOI: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2024.01.039