Well-being Content Inclusion in Pharmacy Education Across the United States and Canada.

Objective. To describe the landscape of well-being content inclusion across schools and colleges of pharmacy in the United States and Canada through identification of content implementation, incorporation, and assessment.Methods. A cross-sectional survey was distributed to all accredited schools and colleges of pharmacy in the United States (n=143) and Canada (n=10). Survey questions included curricular and cocurricular timing, frequency, assessment strategies, and support for well-being initiatives, using a framework of eight dimensions (pillars) of wellness to categorize content.Results. Descriptive data analyses were applied to 99 completed surveys (65%), 89 (62%) in the United States and 10 (100%) in Canada. Well-being content was most prevalent within the cocurricular realm and incorporated into didactic and elective more than experiential curricula. The most content came from intellectual, emotional, and physical pillars, and the least content came from financial, spiritual, and environmental pillars. Less than 50% of schools and colleges of pharmacy include well-being within their strategic plans or core values. Funding is primarily at the level of the university (59%) or the school or college of pharmacy (59%). Almost half of respondents reported inclusion of some assessment, with a need for more training, expertise, and standardization.Conclusion. Survey results revealed a wide range of implementation and assessment of well-being programs across the United States and Canada. These results provide a reference point for the state of well-being programs that can serve as a call to action and research across the Academy.

Development of alginate and gelatin-based pleural and tracheal sealants.

Pleural and tracheal injuries remain significant problems, and an easy to use, effective pleural or tracheal sealant would be a significant advance. The major challenges are requirements for adherence, high strength and elasticity, dynamic durability, appropriate biodegradability, and lack of cell or systemic toxicity. We designed and evaluated two sealant materials comprised respectively of alginate methacrylate and of gelatin methacryloyl, each functionalized by conjugation with dopamine HCl. Both compounds are cross-linked into easily applied as pre-formed hydrogel patches or as in situ hydrogels formed at the wound site utilizing FDA-approved photo-initiators and oxidants. Material testing demonstrates appropriate adhesiveness, tensile strength, burst pressure, and elasticity with no significant cell toxicity in vitro assessments. Air-leak was absent after sealant application to experimentally-induced injuries in ex-vivo rat lung and tracheal models and in ex vivo pig lungs. Sustained repair of experimentally-induced pleural injury was observed for up to one month in vivo rat models and for up to 2 weeks in vivo rat tracheal injury models without obvious air leak or obvious toxicities. The alginate-based sealant worked best in a pre-formed hydrogel patch whereas the gelatin-based sealant worked best in an in situ formed hydrogel at the wound site thus providing two potential approaches. These studies provide a platform for further pre-clinical and potential clinical investigations. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Pneumothorax and pleural effusions resulting from trauma and a range of lung diseases and critical illnesses can result in lung collapse that can be immediately life-threatening or result in chronic leaking (bronchopleural fistula) that is currently difficult to manage. This leads to significantly increased morbidity, mortality, hospital stays, health care costs, and other complications. We have developed sealants originating from alginate and gelatin biomaterials, each functionalized by methacryloylation and by dopamine conjugation to have desired mechanical characteristics for use in pleural and tracheal injuries. The sealants are easily applied, non-cytotoxic, and perform well in vitro and in vivo model systems of lung and tracheal injuries. These initial proof of concept investigations provide a platform for further studies.

Comparative immunogenicity of decellularized wild type and alpha 1,3 galactosyltransferase knockout pig lungs.

Decellularized pig lungs recellularized with human lung cells offer a novel approach for organ transplantation. However, the potential immunogenicity of decellularized pig lungs following exposure to human tissues has not been assessed. We found that exposure of native lungs from wildtype and transgenic pigs lacking alpha (1,3)-galactosyltransferase (α-gal KO) to sera from normal healthy human volunteers demonstrated similar robust IgM and IgG immunoreactivity, comparably decreased in decellularized lungs. Similar results were observed with sera from patients who had previously undergone transcutaneous porcine aortic valve replacement (TAVR) or from patients with increased circulating anti-α-gal IgE antibodies (α-gal syndrome). Depleting anti-α-gal antibodies from the sera demonstrated both specificity of α-gal immunoreactivity and also residual immunoreactivity similar between wildtype and α-gal KO pig lungs. Exposure of human monocytes and macrophages to native wildtype lungs demonstrated greater induction of M2 phenotype than native α-gal KO pig lungs, which was less marked with decellularized lungs of either type. Overall, these results demonstrate that native wildtype and α-gal KO pig lungs provoke similar immune responses that are comparably decreased following decellularization. This provides a further platform for potential use of decellularized pig lungs in tissue engineering approaches and subsequent transplantation schemes but no obvious overall immunologic advantage of utilizing lungs obtained from α-gal KO pigs.

Inappropriate Medication Use in Hospitalized Patients Diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the rate at which potentially inappropriate medications were administered for patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD). This is a single-center, retrospective, case cohort study with data collected at an academic medical center between January 2010 and December 2013. Participants included all adult patients with admission diagnosis codes for PD. Included patients were screened for administrations of 27 potentially inappropriate medications and two potentially appropriate medications to be used for comparison. There were 1736 patients who met inclusion criteria with 175 documented administrations of potentially inappropriate medications to 77 patients. Patients who received potentially inappropriate medications had a longer mean duration of stay than the baseline population of PD patients (3.3 days vs. 1.9 days, p-value < 0.001). Despite recommendations to avoid certain medications in PD patients, a substantial number of administrations still occurred. The use of these medications can have clinical implications and our findings demonstrate increases in duration of stay. The findings from this study can assist in developing technological alerts to reduce inappropriate prescribing to PD patients. Larger prospective studies are warranted to further investigate the administration of inappropriate medications to patients diagnosed with PD.

Evaluation of Home Medication Reconciliation by Clinical Pharmacists for Adult and Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Patients.

Medication reconciliation is an important aspect of a patient's care process that is ideally performed by clinical pharmacists. Despite literature supporting this process in other patient populations, cystic fibrosis (CF) lacks research in this area. To address this, we designed a retrospective, multi-centered, non-controlled, cross-sectional study at four CF Foundation-accredited centers in the United States to evaluate the medication reconciliation process for adult and pediatric CF patients by documenting the number of home medications reconciled by clinical pharmacists and the number of patients with home medications that did not align with the current CF guidelines published in 2013. There were 105 adult patients and 72 pediatric patients included in the study analysis with a mean number of medications reconciled by clinical pharmacists of 17.4 (standard deviation (SD) 6.7) for adults and 13 (SD 4.6) for pediatric patients. The mean number of discrepancies from guidelines per patient was 1.61 (SD 1.2) for adult patients and 0.63 (SD 0.9) for pediatric patients. Pharmacists play an essential role in identifying and managing medication interactions and further research is necessary to investigate pharmacist impact on medication reconciliation.

Outcomes When Using Adjunct Dexmedetomidine with Propofol Sedation in Mechanically Ventilated Surgical Intensive Care Patients.

Objective: Compare the duration of mechanical ventilation between patients receiving sedation with continuous infusions of propofol alone or combination with the use of dexmedetomidine and propofol. Design: Retrospective, propensity matched (1:1) cohort study, employing eight variables chosen a priori for matching. Timing of exposure to dexmedetomidine initiation was incorporated into a matching algorithm. Setting: Level 1, university-based, 32-bed, adult, mixed trauma and surgical intensive care unit (SICU). Continuous sedation was delivered according to a protocol methodology with daily sedation vacation and spontaneous breathing trials. Choice of sedation agent was physician directed. Patients: Between 2010 and 2014, 149 SICU patients receiving mechanical ventilation for >24 h received dexmedetomidine with propofol. Propensity matching resulted in 143 pair cohorts. Interventions: Dexmedetomidine with propofol or propofol alone. Measurements and Main Results: There was no statistical difference in SICU length of stay (LOS), with a median absolute difference of 5.3 h for propofol alone group (p = 0.43). The SICU mortality was not statistically different (RR = 1.002, p = 0.88). Examining a 14-day period post-treatment with dexmedetomidine, on any given day (excluding days 1 and 14), dexmedetomidine with propofol-treated patients had a 0.5% to 22.5% greater likelihood of being delirious (CAM-ICU positive). In addition, dexmedetomidine with propofol-treated patients had a 4.5% to 18.8% higher likelihood of being above the target sedation score (more agitated) compared to propofol-alone patients. Conclusions: In this propensity matched cohort study, adjunct use of dexmedetomidine to propofol did not show a statistically significant reduction with respect to mechanical ventilation (MV) duration, SICU LOS, or SICU mortality, despite a trend toward receiving fewer hours of propofol. There was no evidence that dexmedetomidine with propofol improved sedation scores or reduced delirium.