Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic has vast global consequences. Yet, effective mitigation strategies and economic and medical outfall differ extensively across the globe. It is currently unclear how well researchers from all continents are represented in the unsolicited and solicited publications. A literature review was performed in SCOPUS on COVID-19 oriented publications in the four most impactful medical journals. These included the British Medical Journal, Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. We identified 809 eligible publications out of identified 924 records. The vast majority of publications on COVID-19, in the four can be considered European (47.7%) or North-American (37.3%) research. Chinese reports were relatively common (8.8%); however, reports from other Asian countries (3.2%) were minimal. Research from the African (1.0%) and South-American continents (0.6%) was rarely published in these journals. These observations are not surprising, as they reflect global academic publishing. However, involving all continents into COVID-19 research is important as COVID-19 management strategies and societal and economic consequences differ extensively across the globe. We see an important role for medical journals in encouraging global voices through solicited articles, to ensure a weighted research and humanitarian response.
Project description:RationaleAlthough there is a growing belief that physicians should routinely provide a recommendation to surrogates during deliberations about withdrawing life support, there is a paucity of empirical data on surrogates' perspectives on this topic.ObjectivesTo understand the attitudes of surrogate decision-makers toward receiving a physician's recommendation during deliberations about whether to limit life support for an incapacitated patient.MethodsWe conducted a prospective, mixed methods study among 169 surrogate decision-makers for critically ill patients. Surrogates sequentially viewed two videos of simulated physician-surrogate discussions about whether to limit life support, which varied only by whether the physician gave a recommendation.Measurements and main resultsThe main quantitative outcome was whether surrogates preferred to receive a physicians' recommendation. Surrogates also participated in an in-depth, semistructured interview to explore the reasons for their preference. Fifty-six percent (95/169) of surrogates preferred to receive a recommendation, 42% (70/169) preferred not to receive a recommendation, and 2% (4/169) felt that both approaches were equally acceptable. We identified four main themes that explained surrogates' preferences, including surrogates' perceptions of physicians' appropriate role in life or death decisions and their perceptions of the positive or negative consequences of a recommendation on the physician-surrogate relationship, on the decision-making process, and on long-term regret for the family.ConclusionsThere is no consensus among surrogates about whether physicians should routinely provide a recommendation regarding life support decisions for incapacitated patients. These findings suggest that physicians should ask surrogates whether they wish to receive a recommendation regarding life support decisions and should be flexible in their approach to decision-making.
Project description:Hospitalized patients frequently lack decision-making ability, yet little is known about physicians' approaches to surrogate decision making.To describe physicians' experiences with surrogate communication and decision making for hospitalized adults.Cross-sectional written survey.Two hundred eighty-one physicians who recently cared for adult inpatients in one academic and two community hospitals.Key features of physicians' most recent surrogate decision-making experience, including the nature of the decision, the physician's reaction, physician-surrogate communication and physician-surrogate agreement about the best course of action.Nearly three fourths of physicians (73%, n = 206) had made a major decision with a surrogate during the past month. Although nearly all patients (90%) had a surrogate, physicians reported trouble contacting the surrogate in 21% of cases. Conflict was rare (5%), and a majority of physicians agreed with surrogates about the medical facts (77%), prognosis (72%) and best course of action (65%). After adjustment for patient, physician and decision characteristics, agreement about the best course of action was more common among surrogates for older patients [prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.17 for each decade; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02-1.31], ICU patients (PR = 1.40; CI 1.14-1.51) and patients who had previously discussed their wishes (PR = 1.60; CI 1.30-1.76), and less common when surrogates were difficult to contact (PR = 0.59; CI 0.29-0.92) or when the physician self-identified as Asian (PR = 0.60; CI 0.30-0.94).Surrogate decision making is common among hospitalized adults. Physician-surrogate decision making may be enhanced if patients discuss their preferences in advance and if physician contact with surrogate decision makers is facilitated.
Project description:BackgroundThere is limited data regarding how clinicians operationalize shared decision-making (SDM) with athletes with cardiovascular diagnoses. This study was designed to explore sports cardiologists' conceptions of SDM and approaches to sports eligibility decisions.Methods20 sports cardiologists were interviewed by telephone or video conference from October 2022 to May 2023. Qualitative descriptive analysis was conducted with the transcripts.ResultsAll participants endorsed SDM for eligibility decisions, however, SDM was defined and operationalized heterogeneously. Only 6 participants specifically referenced eliciting patient preferences during SDM. Participants described variable roles for the physician in SDM and variable views on athletes' understanding, perception, and tolerance of risk. Participants thresholds for prohibitive annual risk of sudden cardiac death ranged from <1 % to >10 %.ConclusionsThese findings reinforce the general acceptance of SDM for sports eligibility decisions and highlight the need to better understand this process and identify the most effective approach for operationalization.
Project description:BackgroundCircadian rhythms are daily changes in our physiology and behavior that are manifested as patterns of brain wave activity, periodic hormone production, recurring cell regeneration, and other oscillatory biological activities. Their importance to human health is becoming apparent; they are deranged by shift work and jet-lag and in disparate conditions such as insomnia, sleep syndromes, coronary heart attacks, and depression, and are endogenous factors that contribute to cancer development and progression.DiscussionAs evidence of the circadian connection to human health has grown, so has the number of Americans experiencing disruption of circadian rhythms due to the demands of an industrialized society. Today, there is a growing work force that experiences night shift work and time-zone shifts shaping the demands on physicians to best meet the needs of patients exposed to chronic circadian disruptions. The diverse range of illness associated with altered rhythms suggests that physicians in various fields will see its impact in their patients. However, medical education, with an already full curriculum, struggles to address this issue.SummaryHere, we emphasize the need for incorporating the topic of circadian rhythms in the medical curriculum and propose strategies to accomplish this goal.
Project description:BackgroundLittle is known about how primary care physicians (PCPs) in routine outpatient practice use paid price information (i.e., the amount that insurers finally pay providers) in daily clinical practice.ObjectiveTo describe the experiences of PCPs who have had paid price information on tests and procedures for at least 1 year.DesignCross-sectional study using semi-structured interviews and the constant comparative method of qualitative analysis.ParticipantsForty-six PCPs within an accountable care organization.InterventionVia the ordering screen of their electronic health record, PCPs were presented with the median paid price for commonly ordered tests and procedures (e.g., blood tests, x-rays, CTs, MRIs).ApproachWe asked PCPs for (a) their "gut reaction" to having paid price information, (b) the situations in which they used price information in clinical decision-making separate from or jointly with patients, (c) their thoughts on who bore the chief responsibility for discussing price information with patients, and (d) suggestions for improving physician-targeted price information interventions.Key resultsAmong "gut reactions" that ranged from positive to negative, all PCPs were more interested in having patient-specific price information than paid prices from the practice perspective. PCPs described that when patients' out-of-pocket spending concerns were revealed, price information helped them engage patients in conversations about how to alter treatment plans to make them more affordable. PCPs stated that having price information only slightly altered their test-ordering patterns and that they avoided mentioning prices when advising patients against unnecessary testing. Most PCPs asserted that physicians bear the chief responsibility for discussing prices with patients because of their clinical knowledge and relationships with patients. They wished for help from patients, practices, health plans, and society in order to support price transparency in healthcare.ConclusionsPhysician-targeted price transparency efforts may provide PCPs with the information they need to respond to patients' concerns regarding out-of-pocket affordability rather than that needed to change test-ordering habits.
Project description:BackgroundWhile shared decision making (SDM) and adherence to clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are important, some believe they are incompatible. This study explored the mutual influence between physicians' intention to engage in SDM and their intention to follow CPGs.MethodsEmbedded within a clustered randomized trial to assess the impact of training physicians in SDM about using antibiotics to treat acute respiratory tract infections, this study evaluated physicians' intentions to both engage in SDM and follow CPGs. A self-administered questionnaire based on the theory of planned behavior evaluated both behavioral intentions and their respective determinants (attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control) at study entry and exit. We used path analysis to explore the relationships between the intentions. We conducted statistical analyses using the maximum likelihood method and the variance-covariance matrix. Goodness of fit indices encompassed the chi-square statistic, the comparative fit index and the root mean square error of approximation.ResultsWe analyzed 244 responses at entry and 236 at exit. In the control group, at entry we observed that physicians' intention to engage in SDM (r?=?0, t?=?0.03) did not affect their intention to follow CPGs; however, their intention to follow CPGs (r?=?-0.31 t?=?-2.82) did negatively influence their intention to engage in SDM. At exit, neither behavioral intention influenced the other. In the experimental group, at entry neither behavioral intention influenced the other; at exit, the intention to engage in SDM still did not influence the intention to use CPGs, although the intention to follow CPGs (r?=?-0.15 t?=?-2.02) slightly negatively influenced the intention to engage in SDM, but this was not clinically significant.ConclusionPhysicians' intention to engage in SDM does not affect their intention to adopt CPGs even after SDM training. Physicians' intention to adopt CPGs had no clinically significant influence on intention to engage in SDM.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01116076.
Project description:BackgroundMeasurement of physicians' competence in shared decision making (SDM) remains challenging with frequent disagreement between assessment methods.ObjectiveTo conceptualize and measure physicians' SDM competence as an organized network of behavioural skills and to determine whether processing patient-reported data according to this model can be used to predict observer-rated competence.DesignSecondary analysis of an observational study.Setting and participantsPrimary and specialty outpatient care physicians and consecutively recruited adult patients with a chronic condition who faced a treatment decision with multiple acceptable choices.MeasuresNetwork parameters constructed from patients' assessment of physicians' SDM skills as measured by the 9-item Shared Decision Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9) and observer-rated SDM competence of physicians measured by three widely used observer-rated instruments.Results29 physicians (12 female, 17 male; mean age 50.3 years) recruited 310 patients (59.4% female, 40.6% male; mean age 54.0 years) facing a decision mainly regarding type 2 diabetes (36.4%), chronic back pain (32.8%) or depressive disorder (26.8%). Although most investigated skills were interrelated, elicitation of the patient's treatment preferences showed the strongest associations with the other skills. Network parameters of this skill were also decisive in predicting observer-rated competence. Correlation between predicted competence scores and observer-rated measurements ranged from 0.710 to 0.785.ConclusionsConceptualizing physicians' SDM competence as a network of interacting skills enables the measurement of observer-rated competence using patient-reported data. In addition to theoretical implications for defining and training medical competences, the findings open a new way to measure physicians' SDM competence under routine conditions.
Project description:Music perception requires the human brain to process a variety of acoustic and music-related properties. Recent research used encoding models to tease apart and study the various cortical contributors to music perception. To do so, such approaches study temporal response functions that summarise the neural activity over several minutes of data. Here we tested the possibility of assessing the neural processing of individual musical units (bars) with electroencephalography (EEG). We devised a decoding methodology based on a maximum correlation metric across EEG segments (maxCorr) and used it to decode melodies from EEG based on an experiment where professional musicians listened and imagined four Bach melodies multiple times. We demonstrate here that accurate decoding of melodies in single-subjects and at the level of individual musical units is possible, both from EEG signals recorded during listening and imagination. Furthermore, we find that greater decoding accuracies are measured for the maxCorr method than for an envelope reconstruction approach based on backward temporal response functions (bTRF env ). These results indicate that low-frequency neural signals encode information beyond note timing, especially with respect to low-frequency cortical signals below 1 Hz, which are shown to encode pitch-related information. Along with the theoretical implications of these results, we discuss the potential applications of this decoding methodology in the context of novel brain-computer interface solutions.