Telemedicine in the Wake of COVID-19: A Statewide Demographic Study on Provider Utilization and Perspective In South Dakota.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a rapid evolution of regulations surrounding telemedicine and the public's need for affordable, accessible, high-quality care at a distance. This necessity led to a rise in telemedicine demand that forced health systems to adapt, and for providers to witness the potential benefits and limitations of such services. METHODS: In this analysis, Sanford Health EMR data was evaluated from Q2 of 2019 to Q2 of 2020 to compare specialty utilization of telemedicine and quantify percentage change within the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was conducted to evaluate provider opinion within the Sanford Health system regarding demographics, usage, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers to this rapid adoption. RESULTS: Results suggest that Sanford Health experienced a significant, 1,600 percent increase of telemedicine usage. Additionally, with this increased usage of telemedicine, provider opinion of telemedicine and its potential has improved. During the pandemic, a greater percentage of providers believe telemedicine is highly beneficial to their practice and a majority believe telemedicine will continue to play a vital role in their practice in the future. However, the barriers found within the survey included limited patient access, technical difficulties, reimbursement, and insurance coverage. CONCLUSIONS: With the rapid increase in provider usage and the subsequent approval of providers, telemedicine has the potential to facilitate higher quality healthcare going forward. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated evolution and adoption of virtual media in medicine and has provided a unique glimpse into telemedicine's limitations and exceptional potential.

Diagnostic Challenge With Auto-Immune Pancreatitis and IgG4-Related Disease.

IgG4-related disease (IgG4RD) is a chronic immune mediated condition primarily affecting the hepato-pancreatico-biliary system. We report a case of IgG4RD with extensive pancreatic and hepatic involvement masquerading as metastatic pancreatic malignancy posing a diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma.

Collaborating to Enhance Faculty Development through Structured Funding.

PROBLEM: Faculty development is critical to individual career growth and success in academic medicine and it enhances the overall academic climate of an institution. Despite these well-recognized benefits, time and financial constraints often limit participation of faculty members. To address this issue, the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine (SSOM) developed a novel policy and process to support participation in faculty development programs. APPROACH: In 2014, the SSOM Office of Continuing Professional Development (OCPD) implemented a process for funding faculty members' participation in external career and educational development programs. A subcommittee of the Faculty Development Committee reviewed and selected applications based on the benefit to the applicant's career and the SSOM as whole. Selected applicants were required to disseminate new knowledge from the external programs to other SSOM faculty, staff, and trainees. OUTCOMES: With the implementation of this program, 17 faculty members received funding. The race/ethnicities of the selected applicants reflected the overall demographics of the larger SSOM community. The majority of the selected applicants were female (n=12, 70 percent), assistant professors (n=9, 53 percent), and members of clinical departments (n=12, 70 percent). Upon completion of the program, five participants achieved academic promotion. This novel funding mechanism greatly increased faculty participation in external programs and participants reported enhanced networking opportunities, leadership experience, and career opportunities. NEXT STEPS: Challenges observed with implementation of the program have led to revision of the application process, tracking of participant demographic data, and confirmation of knowledge dissemination.

Robotic mitral valve surgery.

Totally endoscopic robotic mitral valve repair is the least invasive surgical therapy for mitral valve disease. Robotic mitral valve surgery demonstrates faster recovery with shorter hospital stays, less morbidity, and equivalent mortality and mid-term durability compared to sternotomy. In this review, we will explore the advantages and disadvantages of robotic mitral valve surgery and consider important technical details of both operative set-up and mitral valve repair techniques. The number of robotic cardiac surgical procedures being performed globally is expected to continue to rise as experience grows with robotic techniques and increasing numbers of cardiac surgeons become proficient with this innovative technology. This will be facilitated by the introduction of newer robotic systems and increasing patient demand.

Heparin therapy during extracorporeal circulation: deriving an optimal activated clotting time during cardiopulmonary bypass for isolated coronary artery bypass grafting.

Bull's seminal work on heparin therapy during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) was carried out over 30 years ago and has not been updated in the modern era. No correlation with postoperative blood loss was performed. The optimal activated clotting time (ACT) with regard to blood loss has not been established for patients undergoing CPB. A minimum ACT of 400 is based on the lack of visible formation of clots in the CPB circuit. The effect of heparin dose, sensitivity, metabolism, patient size, elective/urgent, protamine reversal regime, returned pump blood volume and heparin content, and average ACT during CPB with regard to postoperative blood loss and resternotomy was examined in a consecutive series of patients undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass surgery. One hundred forty-four patients undergoing isolated CABG were studied. Resternotomy was too infrequent an event to analyze. Univariate analysis revealed that an average ACT less than 500 or greater than 700 was associated with significantly increased postoperative blood loss (p = .001). Multivariate analyses revealed that body mass index (p < .0001) and total loading dose of heparin (p = .0031) were also significant factors affecting postoperative blood loss. We extended his work by analyzing postoperative blood loss. An average ACT between 500 and 700 in our series was associated with significantly lower blood loss than an ACT higher or lower. We hypothesize that an ACT below 500 is probably associated with a low-grade coagulopathy but not macroscopic clot formation in the CPB circuit, and above 700 heparin rebound may become important. Each unit should evaluate blood loss and determine the optimal ACT target for their program.

Theoretical treatise: arterial pressure during aortic surgery.

The optimum arterial perfusion pressure during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) remains uncertain. A correlation in some form with the patients' resting pressure almost certainly exists. Temperature and hematocrit affect blood viscosity. The optimum perfusion pressure during aortic surgery will vary after the initiation of CPB resulting cooling, heating, and hematocrit changes. Poiseuille's Law was used in conjunction with the previously published effects of temperature and hematocrit on blood viscosity to determine the perfusion pressure that would result in the same organ blood flow. Two different scenarios were modeled, constant flow and flow as predicted by Q10 to reflect required oxygen delivery. Temperature, hematocrit, and flow all have a large effect on blood viscosity and, thus, through Poiseuille's Law, blood pressure. As patients are cooled, their blood viscosity goes up through the inherent viscoelastic properties of blood. As temperature drops from 37 degrees to 17 degrees, viscosity doubles. This increased viscosity is offset by a reduction in hematocrit, which is invariably associated with CPB. As the hematocrit drops from 30% to 10%, viscosity of blood halves. These two factors clinically can cancel each other out. The figure demonstrates the effect on blood pressure of a constant flow for various temperature and hematocrits. Reduced need for oxygen delivery, secondary to the principles of Q10, can result in a lower than expected theoretical perfusion pressure. As temperature drops from 37 degrees to 17 degrees, based on Q10, oxygen delivery reduces by 75%. This indicates that flow can be reduced by over 60% if the hematocrit falls from 30% to 20%. This theoretical treatise predicts that blood pressure management should be temperature- and hematocrit-dependent. The target optimal blood pressure will vary during the course of surgery as a result of heating, cooling, and hemodilution. Clinical correlation is needed.

Lissajous figures: an engineering tool for root cause analysis of individual cases--a preliminary concept.

Some patients have short intensive care stay periods and little or no organ dysfunction after cardiac surgery and others do not despite seemingly faultless surgery, perfusion, and anesthesia. These "unknown" reasons for death and morbidity usually relate to organ ischemia and inflammation, but are obviously mutlifactorial. A Lissajous figure is a technique in electrical engineering to compare two different electrical signals. We utilize this basic concept in a very simple manner to potentially identify why some of these unknown deaths or morbidities occur. Utilizing an electronic perfusion database, we retrospectively analyzed 43 patients undergoing aortic surgery with regard to central venous saturations during cooling and rewarming. Isolated aortic valve replacement patients were excluded. Central venous saturation, time, and temperature were plotted to create a Lissajous figure for the whole operation, and during cooling and rewarming separately. Temperature and saturations were analyzed every 20 seconds. Perfusion related variables were registered and uploaded to www.perfsort.net. Lissajous figures during cooling add little to patient care due to their similarity. Isolated rewarming revealed startling differences. It is immediately visually obvious who had short and long periods of tissue ischemia and reperfusion during rewarming in a seemingly uneventful operation. The periods of ischemia can be semi quantified into: none, mild, moderate, and severe. Creation of simple Lissajous figures during rewarming for bypass runs may be an additional helpful tool in root cause analysis of patient death/morbidity when surgery, perfusion, and anesthesia seemed faultless. Low central venous saturations at hypothermic temperatures mean significant metabolic activity, indicating tissue ischemia is occurring. Further work is needed to correlate this concept to outcomes.

Robotic mitral valve surgery: a review and tips for safely negotiating the learning curve.

Totally endoscopic robotic mitral valve repair represents the least invasive surgical therapy for mitral valve disease. Comparative results for robotic mitral valve surgery against sternotomy are impressive, repeatedly demonstrating shorter hospital stay, faster return to normal activities, less morbidity and equivalent mortality and mid-term durability. We lack data comparing robotic approaches to totally endoscopic minimally invasive mitral valve surgery using 3D vision platforms. In this review, we explore the advantages and disadvantages of robotic mitral valve surgery and share technical tips that we have learned to help teams embarking on their robotic journey. We consider factors necessary for the successful implementation of a robotic programme including the importance of training a dedicated team, with the common goal to avoid any compromise in either patient safety or repair quality during the learning curve. As experience grows with robotic techniques and more cardiac surgeons become proficient with this innovative technology, the volume of robotic cardiac procedures around the world will increase helped by the introduction of new robotic systems and patient demand. Well informed patients will increasingly seek out the opportunity of robotic valve reconstruction in reference centres in the hands of a few highly experienced robotic surgeons.

Patient directed bypass: cooling for aortic surgery--a preliminary concept.

No consensus exists as to the temperature to cool to on bypass for surgery involving the aortic arch. Excluding normothermic surgery, which is rarely performed for arch work, circulatory arrest, anterograde, and retrograde cerebral perfusion either in isolation or in combination remain the techniques of "cerebral protection." To date, no account of individual patient body or cerebral function variation is involved. Utilizing an electronic perfusion database we retrospectively analyzed 10 patients undergoing aortic arch work with regard to mixed venous saturations during cooling. Perfusion related variables were registered and uploaded to www.perfsort.net. We regarded a saturation of 100% as being indicative of no oxygen extraction, implying no metabolic activity--the theoretical goal prior to a circulatory arrest period. There is enormous variation in the temperature at which metabolic activity of the body stops. We had a range from 17-25 degrees. Patients were cooled for an average of 6 (SD 3.4) degrees below which oxygen extraction had ceased to occur. Potentially we are adding 111 minutes (SD 62) of unnecessary bypass time. This may imply that excessive cooling is occurring in some individuals undergoing arch surgery. Patient directed cooling for aortic arch surgery may help to reduce the morbidity/physical insult associated with severe hypothermia. This work is very preliminary but may help us to depart from the one size fits all paradigm that exists in current clinical practice. Correlation with bispectral index, electroencephalogram monitoring and neurological outcomes is needed.