A Chronic Care Management Framework Bridging Clinic, Home, and Community Care in a Mexican American Population.

Despite evidence that chronic care management improves outcomes, a framework designed for low income, uninsured populations is still needed to improve health disparities and guide further replication. We describe the Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions framework implemented by a coalition of clinics and agencies to address chronic care management for Mexican Americans with Type 2 diabetes mellitus who have low income and primarily uninsured. The core elements of the framework are described by clinic, home and community settings with community health workers playing an essential role in the delivery of community-based services that address the social determinants of health. Promising results are described. This framework expands the understanding of chronic care management approaches and contributes to further replication of the framework in diverse settings.

Volunteering and its association with participation and life satisfaction following traumatic brain injury.

Background: Volunteering has been found to improve life satisfaction and participation in the general population, but its impact has not been thoroughly studied among those with traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is important to investigate whether volunteering is helpful in addressing participation and life satisfaction to inform future treatment.Objective: To characterize those who volunteer after moderate-severe TBI and to investigate the association of volunteering with participation and life satisfaction after TBI.Methods: Using data from a single site contributing to the TBI Model Systems National Database, a retrospective analysis of 725 individuals with TBI was conducted. General Linear Models were used to compare outcomes of those who volunteer and those who do not after controlling for important covariates.Results: Volunteers were more likely to be employed/students, have better current functioning, be further post-injury, non-Hispanic white, and have more education. Significant relationships, after controlling for covariates, were found between volunteering and higher life satisfaction, more frequent community engagement, and greater social relations. No significant relationship between volunteering and productivity emerged.Conclusions: Given the positive relationship between volunteer status with life satisfaction and aspects of participation, future research should investigate the barriers/facilitators of volunteering to improve well-being and participation after TBI.

Improving well-being after traumatic brain injury through volunteering: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of a novel intervention facilitating volunteer activity to improve well-being in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). DESIGN: Randomized two-arm controlled trial, with a wait-list control condition (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT#01728350). SETTING: Community-based setting. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-four community-dwelling individuals at least 1-year post TBI, who had completed inpatient or outpatient TBI rehabilitation. INTERVENTIONS: A novel intervention, HOPE - Helping Others through Purpose and Engagement, involving orientation/training and a 3-month volunteer placement for the participant, along with training for community agencies regarding TBI. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S: ): Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS); Flourishing Scale (FS); Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18); Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE); Purpose in Life subscale (one of six in the Ryff Scale of Psychological Well-Being - 54 item version). RESULTS: There were significantly greater improvements in life satisfaction (SWLS) and self-perceived success (FS) in the intervention group compared to the control group. There were no significant treatment effects on the additional secondary measures of well-being, although they trended in a positive direction. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports our primary hypothesis that individuals who take part in a volunteer intervention will demonstrate greater psychological well-being in comparison to a control group.

Should we pay attention to eye movements? The impact of bilateral eye movements on behavioral and neural responses during the Attention Network Test.

Bilateral eye movements (EMs) have been associated with enhancements in episodic memory and creativity. We explored the influence of EMs on behavior and event related potential (ERP) responses during the Attention Network Test (ANT). Participants completed ANT trials after bilateral EMs or a center-fixation control manipulation. We examined condition (EM, control) and handedness (consistent, inconsistent) differences for overall task performance, as well as alerting, orienting, and executive attention networks. Behaviorally, there was a trend for inconsistent-handed participants to display faster RTs across cue types, and greater accuracy for no cue, double, and center cue trials when compared to consistent handers, yet consistent handers garnered greater improvements in behavior following altering and orienting cues than inconsistent handers. Although there were no behavioral differences between EM and control conditions, target-locked N100 and P200 ERPs were weaker in the EM than control condition for all cue types, except spatial cues for which there were no differences between groups. Because stronger N100 and P200 responses have been linked to increased selective attention, we speculate that ERP differences between EM and control conditions, in the absence of behavioral differences, may indicate that participants exposed to EMs required less selective attention to successfully complete the task.

Psychological well-being in individuals living in the community with traumatic brain injury.

BACKGROUND: Well-being and quality of life issues remain a long-term problem for many individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Meaningful activity is key to developing life satisfaction and a sense of contribution to society, yet individuals with TBI are often unable to return to competitive employment. OBJECTIVE: To describe the self-reported psychological well-being of a cohort of unemployed individuals living in the community at least 1 year post TBI with low life satisfaction. METHODS: Seventy-four unemployed individuals with low life satisfaction at least 1 year post TBI were administered measures of psychological well-being and cognitive functioning. RESULTS: This cohort of 74 participants demonstrated cognitive impairment and elevated levels of emotional distress. Significant bivariate relationships were noted among nearly all measures of well-being, and associations were in the directions as expected. Individuals reported low life satisfaction and well-being. Two newer measures of well-being correlated with established measures used with this population. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with TBI living in the community who are not employed but who seek to be productive reported low life satisfaction and well-being. This study highlights the need for interventions aimed at increasing productivity and meaning in life for individuals with TBI, and a broader understanding of psychological health after TBI.

Attention-modulated alpha-band oscillations protect against intrusion of irrelevant information.

Combining high-density scalp EEG recordings with a sensitive analog measure of STM's fidelity, we characterized the temporal dynamics of intentional ignoring and related those dynamics to the intrusion of task-irrelevant information. On each trial of the task, two study Gabors were briefly presented in succession. A green or red disc preceding each Gabor signified whether that Gabor should be remembered or ignored, respectively. With cue-stimulus intervals of 300, 600, or 900 msec presented in separate sessions, we found that the onset of posterior, prestimulus alpha oscillations varied with the length of the interval. Although stimulus onset time was entirely predictable, the longer the cue-stimulus interval, the earlier the increase in prestimulus alpha power. However, the alpha-band modulation was not simply locked to the cue offset. The temporal envelopes of posterior alpha-band modulation were strikingly similar for both cued attending and cued ignoring and differed only in magnitude. This similarity suggests that cued attending includes suppression of task-irrelevant, spatial processing. Supporting the view that alpha-band oscillations represent inhibition, our graded measure of recall revealed that, when the stimulus to be ignored appears second in the sequence, peristimulus alpha power predicted the degree to which that irrelevant stimulus distorted subsequent recall of the stimulus that was to be remembered. These results demonstrate that timely deployment of attention-related alpha-band oscillations can aid STM by filtering out task-irrelevant information.

Paying attention to attention in recognition memory: insights from models and electrophysiology.

Reliance on remembered facts or events requires memory for their sources, that is, the contexts in which those facts or events were embedded. Understanding of source retrieval has been stymied by the fact that uncontrolled fluctuations of attention during encoding can cloud results of key importance to theoretical development. To address this issue, we combined electrophysiology (high-density electroencephalogram, EEG, recordings) with computational modeling of behavioral results. We manipulated subjects' attention to an auditory attribute, whether the source of individual study words was a male or female speaker. Posterior alpha-band (8-14 Hz) power in subjects' EEG increased after a cue to ignore the voice of the person who was about to speak. Receiver-operating-characteristic analysis validated our interpretation of oscillatory dynamics as a marker of attention to source information. With attention under experimental control, computational modeling showed unequivocally that memory for source (male or female speaker) reflected a continuous signal detection process rather than a threshold recollection process.

The impact of a structured rehabilitation program for uninsured individuals.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: Health disparities in rehabilitation have been identified in brain injury (BI), spinal cord injury (SCI), stroke, and amputee populations. A free clinic was established to serve such uninsured individuals. The purpose of this exploratory study was to characterize the sample of patients attending a free rehabilitation clinic by investigating their demographics, access to care, trends in quality of life, and satisfaction with the rehabilitation program. METHOD/DESIGN: This is a retrospective chart review of data from 15 individuals admitted to the free clinic program who were administered an admission questionnaire, the abbreviated World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment (WHOQOL-BREF), and a postcare assessment survey. RESULTS: A majority of patients reported not having a primary care provider nor a checkup within the past 5 years. This sample also reported extensive physical needs at admission. Seventy-three percent of the sample improved on the WHOQOL-BREF physical domain by discharge with a large effect size. The psychological, social, and environmental domain scores did not show a reliable pattern of change in this sample. Conclusions/Implication: These results support previously noted gaps in care among individuals with BI, SCI, stroke, and amputation and suggest that a monthly clinic can improve physical quality of life. This exploratory study aims to lay the foundation for future research that is needed to understand the factors that exclude these individuals from the health care system and to help key stakeholders to advocate for these patients and improve their early access to rehabilitation care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Participant engagement in a community health worker-delivered intervention and type 2 diabetes clinical outcomes: a quasiexperimental study in MexicanAmericans.

OBJECTIVES: This study helps to fill the existing research gap related to participant engagement in behavioural interventions and diabetes management. We examined type 2 diabetes control over time among Mexican Americans by level of engagement in a chronic care management (CCM) program that included community health worker (CHW)-delivered multilevel interventions. The programme complemented clinical care and promoted behaviour changes to improve diabetes self-management. DESIGN: Quasiexperimental study. SETTING: The study was implemented in the Rio Grande Valley region in the USA. Recruitment was conducted in clinics and community events. All other visits were provided in participant homes and community locations. PARTICIPANTS: 5649 adults (aged ≥18 years) with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes who enrolled in a community-delivered CCM programme between September 2013 and 2018. INTERVENTIONS: The intervention comprised two components: CHW home visits conducted every 3 months and diabetes self-management education (DSME) classes provided in community locations. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measured at baseline every 3 months for up to 24 months. We first examined changes in HbA1c levels over time. The number of completed CHW and DSME encounters was used to classify participants into engagement groups-high engagement defined as ≥10 encounters (n=2952); low engagement defined as 1-9 encounters (n=2697). We used univariable and multivariable longitudinal linear regression models with a generalised estimating equation method. We tested interactions between engagement groups and time. RESULTS: Participants' mean HbA1c decreased from 10.20% at baseline to 8.93% (p<0.0001) at 3 months, remaining stable thereafter. Changes in HbA1c were statistically different between the engagement groups. High engagement participants had lower HbA1c levels over the first 15 months of the follow-up period compared with low engagement participants, as compared at 3 months (-0.44%, 95% CI -0.57% to -0.31%; p<0.0001), 6 months (-0.31%, 95% CI -0.43% to -0.14%; p<0.0001), 9 months (-0.27%, 95% CI -0.42% to -0.13%; p=0.0001), 12 months (-0.23%, 95% CI -0.37% to -0.08%; p=0.0025) and 15 months (-0.32%, 95% CI -0.54% to -0.10%; p=0.0040). At months 18, 21 and 24, the HbA1c differences were not statistically significant (18 months: -0.34%, 95% CI -0.77% to 0.08%; p=0.1086; 21 months: -0.22%, 95% CI -1.00% to 0.56%; p=0.5721; 24 months: -0.42%, 95% CI -1.38% to 0.55%; p=0.3966). CONCLUSIONS: Higher engagement in the CCM programme delivered by CHWs and coordinated with clinical care was associated with beneficial improvements in type 2 diabetes control, but both engagement groups showed strong improvements.

High-Throughput Screening and Triage Assays Identify Small Molecules Targeting c-MYC in Cancer Cells.

While c-MYC is well established as a proto-oncogene, its structure and function as a transcription factor have made c-MYC a difficult therapeutic target. To identify small-molecule inhibitors targeting c-MYC for anticancer therapy, we designed a high-throughput screening (HTS) strategy utilizing cellular assays. The novel approach for the HTS was based on the detection of cellular c-MYC protein, with active molecules defined as those that specifically decreased c-MYC protein levels in cancer cells. The assay was based on a dual antibody detection system using Förster/fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and was utilized to detect endogenous c-MYC protein in the MYC amplified cancer cell lines DMS273 and Colo320 HSR. The assays were miniaturized to 1536-well plate format and utilized to screen the GlaxoSmithKline small-molecule collection of approximately 2 million compounds. In addition to the HTS assay, follow-up assays were developed and used to triage and qualify compounds. Two cellular assays used to eliminate false-positive compounds from the initially selected HTS hits were (1) a cellular toxicity assay and (2) an unstable protein reporter assay. Three positive selection assays were subsequently used to qualify compounds: (1) 384-well cell cycle flow cytometry, (2) 384-well cell growth, and (3) c-MYC gene signature reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). The HTS and follow-up assays successfully identified three compounds that specifically decreased c-MYC protein levels in cancer cells and phenocopied c-MYC siRNA in terms of cell growth inhibition and gene signatures. The HTS, triage, and three compounds identified are described.

The origins of insight in resting-state brain activity.

People can solve problems in more than one way. Two general strategies involve (A) methodical, conscious, search of problem-state transformations, and (B) sudden insight, with abrupt emergence of the solution into consciousness. This study elucidated the influence of initial resting brain-state on subjects' subsequent strategy choices. High-density electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded from subjects at rest who were subsequently directed to solve a series of anagrams. Subjects were divided into two groups based on the proportion of anagram solutions derived with self-reported insight versus search. Reaction time and accuracy results were consistent with different cognitive problem-solving strategies used for solving anagrams with versus without insight. Spectral analyses yielded group differences in resting-state EEG supporting hypotheses concerning insight-related attentional diffusion and right-lateralized hemispheric asymmetry. These results reveal a relationship between resting-state brain activity and problem-solving strategy, and, more generally, a dependence of event-related neural computations on the preceding resting state.

Development of a high-throughput cell-based assay for 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 using BacMam technology.

Cortisol is an important glucocorticoid in humans that regulates many physiological processes. Human 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11beta-HSD1) converts cortisone to cortisol in vivo and has emerged as an appealing therapeutic target for treating metabolic diseases. Here, we report a sensitive and robust high-throughput (HT) cell-based assay for screening 11beta-HSD1 inhibitors. This assay utilizes a HEK293 cell line transduced by a BacMam virus expressing human 11beta-HSD1. The enzyme activity in the cells was measured by quantifying cortisol levels released into the cell culture supernatant via a competitive homogenous time-resolved fluorescence (HTRF) method. We show that 11beta-HSD1 activity in supernatant of BacMam-transduced HEK293 cells increases with 11beta-HSD1 BacMam virus load in a dose-dependent manner, and is comparable to the enzyme activity detected in differentiated mouse adipocytes. In addition, we show that co-expression of hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (H6PDH) is not required for the enzyme to function effectively as an oxo-reductase. This assay has been developed in low-volume 384-well format and it is sensitive, robust, and amenable to HT screening.

The transliminal brain at rest: baseline EEG, unusual experiences, and access to unconscious mental activity.

Transliminality reflects individual differences in the threshold at which unconscious processes or external stimuli enter into consciousness. Individuals high in transliminality possess characteristics such as magical ideation, belief in the paranormal, and creative personality traits, and also report the occurrence of manic/mystic experiences. The goal of the present research was to determine if resting brain activity differs for individuals high versus low in transliminality. We compared baseline EEG recordings (eyes-closed) between individuals high versus low in transliminality, assessed using The Revised Transliminality Scale of Lange et al. (2000). Identifying reliable differences at rest between high- and low-transliminality individuals would support a predisposition for transliminality-related traits. Individuals high in transliminality exhibited lower alpha, beta, and gamma power than individuals low in transliminality over left posterior association cortex and lower high alpha, low beta, and gamma power over the right superior temporal region. In contrast, when compared to individuals low in transliminality, individuals high in transliminality exhibited greater gamma power over the frontal-midline region. These results are consistent with prior research reporting reductions in left temporal/parietal activity, as well as the desynchronization of right temporal activity in schizotypy and related schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Further, differences between high- and low-transliminality groups extend existing theories linking altered hemispheric asymmetries in brain activity to a predisposition toward schizophrenia, paranormal beliefs, and unusual experiences.

Older adults show impaired modulation of attentional alpha oscillations: Evidence from dichotic listening.

Auditory attention is critical for selectively listening to speech from a single talker in a multitalker environment (e.g., Cherry, 1953). Listening in such situations is notoriously more difficult and more poorly encoded to long-term memory in older than in young adults (Tun, O'Kane, & Wingfield, 2002). Recent work by Payne, Rogers, Wingfield, and Sekuler (2017) in young adults demonstrated a neural correlate of auditory attention in the directed dichotic listening task (DDLT), where listeners attend to one ear while ignoring the other. Measured using electroencephalography, differences in alpha band power (8-14 Hz) between left and right hemisphere parietal regions mark the direction to which auditory attention is focused. Little prior research has been conducted on alpha power modulations in older adults, particularly with regard to auditory attention directed toward speech stimuli. In the current study, an older adult sample was administered the DDLT and delayed recognition procedures used by Payne et al. (2017). Compared to young adults, older adults showed reduced selective attention in the DDLT, evidenced by a higher rate of intrusions from the unattended ear. Moreover, older adults did not exhibit attention-related alpha modulation evidenced by young adults, nor did their event-related potentials (ERPs) to recognition probes differentiate between attended or unattended probes. Older adults' delayed recognition did not reveal a pattern of suppression of unattended items evidenced by young adults. These results serve as evidence for an age-related decline in selective auditory attention, potentially mediated by age-related decline in the ability to modulate alpha oscillations. (PsycINFO Database Record

Characterizing the roles of alpha and theta oscillations in multisensory attention.

Cortical alpha oscillations (8-13Hz) appear to play a role in suppressing distractions when just one sensory modality is being attended, but do they also contribute when attention is distributed over multiple sensory modalities? For an answer, we examined cortical oscillations in human subjects who were dividing attention between auditory and visual sequences. In Experiment 1, subjects performed an oddball task with auditory, visual, or simultaneous audiovisual sequences in separate blocks, while the electroencephalogram was recorded using high-density scalp electrodes. Alpha oscillations were present continuously over posterior regions while subjects were attending to auditory sequences. This supports the idea that the brain suppresses processing of visual input in order to advantage auditory processing. During a divided-attention audiovisual condition, an oddball (a rare, unusual stimulus) occurred in either the auditory or the visual domain, requiring that attention be divided between the two modalities. Fronto-central theta band (4-7Hz) activity was strongest in this audiovisual condition, when subjects monitored auditory and visual sequences simultaneously. Theta oscillations have been associated with both attention and with short-term memory. Experiment 2 sought to distinguish these possible roles of fronto-central theta activity during multisensory divided attention. Using a modified version of the oddball task from Experiment 1, Experiment 2 showed that differences in theta power among conditions were independent of short-term memory load. Ruling out theta's association with short-term memory, we conclude that fronto-central theta activity is likely a marker of multisensory divided attention.

A right-ear bias of auditory selective attention is evident in alpha oscillations.

Auditory selective attention makes it possible to pick out one speech stream that is embedded in a multispeaker environment. We adapted a cued dichotic listening task to examine suppression of a speech stream lateralized to the nonattended ear, and to evaluate the effects of attention on the right ear's well-known advantage in the perception of linguistic stimuli. After being cued to attend to input from either their left or right ear, participants heard two different four-word streams presented simultaneously to the separate ears. Following each dichotic presentation, participants judged whether a spoken probe word had been in the attended ear's stream. We used EEG signals to track participants' spatial lateralization of auditory attention, which is marked by interhemispheric differences in EEG alpha (8-14 Hz) power. A right-ear advantage (REA) was evident in faster response times and greater sensitivity in distinguishing attended from unattended words. Consistent with the REA, we found strongest parietal and right frontotemporal alpha modulation during the attend-right condition. These findings provide evidence for a link between selective attention and the REA during directed dichotic listening.

PREDICTING FOOT PROGRESSION ANGLE DURING GAIT USING TWO CLINICAL MEASURES IN HEALTHY ADULTS, A PRELIMINARY STUDY.

BACKGROUND: The foot progression angle (FPA) is related to the transverse plane rotation of the lower extremities and associated with many lower extremity conditions. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine how two commonly used clinical measures, tibio-fibular torsion (TF) and hip rotation, can be used to predict FPA during gait in healthy adults. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study design. METHODS: Passive hip internal and external rotation ranges of motion and TF torsion were measured with a 12-inch goniometer while the FPA (degree of toe-in/out) was measured with the GAITRite during midstance in sixty participants. The data was analyzed using a multiple regression model. RESULTS: Hip ER was not significant and was therefore excluded from the final model. The final model included passive hip IR and TF torsion (F = 19.64; p < .001; multiple R(2) = .41; adjusted R(2) = .39). Simple binary correlations showed that hip IR had a moderate negative correlation (r = -.40) with FPA (the greater the hip IR, the greater the in-toeing) while TF torsion had a positive correlation (r = .39) with FPA (the greater the external TF torsion. the greater the out-toeing). CONCLUSIONS: Greater amount of passive hip IR predicts in-toeing while greater TF torsion predicts out-toeing of the foot during midstance phase of gait. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 2.

P50: A candidate ERP biomarker of prodromal Alzheimer's disease.

INTRODUCTION: Reductions of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid-beta (Aß42) and elevated phosphorylated-tau (p-Tau) reflect in vivo Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology and show utility in predicting conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to dementia. We investigated the P50 event-related potential component as a noninvasive biomarker of AD pathology in non-demented elderly. METHODS: 36 MCI patients were stratified into amyloid positive (MCI-AD, n=17) and negative (MCI-Other, n=19) groups using CSF levels of Aß42. All amyloid positive patients were also p-Tau positive. P50s were elicited with an auditory oddball paradigm. RESULTS: MCI-AD patients yielded larger P50s than MCI-Other. The best amyloid-status predictor model showed 94.7% sensitivity, 94.1% specificity and 94.4% total accuracy. DISCUSSION: P50 predicted amyloid status in MCI patients, thereby showing a relationship with AD pathology versus MCI from another etiology. The P50 may have clinical utility for inexpensive pre-screening and assessment of Alzheimer's pathology.

The importance of ignoring: Alpha oscillations protect selectivity.

Selective attention is often thought to entail an enhancement of some task-relevant stimulus or attribute. We discuss the perspective that ignoring irrelevant, distracting information plays a complementary role in information processing. Cortical oscillations within the alpha (8-14 Hz) frequency band have emerged as a marker of sensory suppression. This suppression is linked to selective attention for visual, auditory, somatic, and verbal stimuli. Inhibiting processing of irrelevant input makes responses more accurate and timely. It also helps protect material held in short-term memory against disruption. Furthermore, this selective process keeps irrelevant information from distorting the fidelity of memories. Memory is only as good as the perceptual representations on which it is based, and on whose maintenance it depends. Modulation of alpha oscillations can be exploited as an active, purposeful mechanism to help people pay attention and remember the things that matter.

Development of a high-throughput electrophysiological assay for the human ether-à-go-go related potassium channel hERG.

INTRODUCTION: Drug-induced prolongation of the QT interval via block of the hERG potassium channel is a major cause of attrition in drug development. The advent of automated electrophysiology systems has enabled the detection of hERG block earlier in drug discovery. In this study, we have evaluated the suitability of a second generation automated patch clamp instrument, the IonWorks Barracuda, for the characterization of hERG biophysics and pharmacology. METHODS: All experiments were conducted with cells stably expressing hERG. Recordings were made in perforated patch mode either on a conventional patch clamp setup or on the IonWorks Barracuda. On the latter, all recordings were population recordings in 384-well patch plates. RESULTS: HERG channels activated with a V(1/2)=-3.2±1.6mV (n=178) on the IonWorks Barracuda versus -11.2±6.1mV (n=9) by manual patch clamp. On the IonWorks Barracuda, seal resistances and currents were stable (<30% change) with up to six cumulative drug additions and 1-min incubations per addition. Over 27 experiments, an average of 338 concentration-response curves were obtained per experiment (96% of the 352 test wells on each plate). HERG pharmacology was examined with a set of 353 compounds that included well-characterized hERG blockers. Astemizole, terfenadine and quinidine inhibited hERG currents with IC(50) values of 159nM, 224nM and 2µM, respectively (n=51, 10 and 18). This set of compounds was also tested on the PatchXpress automated electrophysiology system. We determined through statistical methods that the two automated systems provided equivalent results. DISCUSSION: Evaluating drug effects on hERG channels is best performed by electrophysiological methods. HERG activation and pharmacology on the IonWorks Barracuda automated electrophysiology platform were in good agreement with published electrophysiology results. Therefore, the IonWorks Barracuda provides an efficient way to study hERG biophysics and pharmacology.