Accelerated 3-Year MD Pathway Programs: Graduates' Perspectives on Education Quality, the Learning Environment, Residency Readiness, Debt, Burnout, and Career Plans.

PURPOSE: To compare perception of accelerated and traditional medical students, with respect to satisfaction with education quality, and the learning environment, residency readiness, burnout, debt, and career plans. METHOD: Customized 2017 and 2018 Medical School Graduation Questionnaires (GQs) were analyzed using independent samples t tests for means and chi-square tests for percentages, comparing responses of accelerated MD program graduates (accelerated pathway [AP] students) from 9 schools with those of non-AP graduates from the same 9 schools and non-AP graduates from all surveyed schools. RESULTS: GQ completion rates for the 90 AP students, 2,573 non-AP students from AP schools, and 38,116 non-AP students from all schools in 2017 and 2018 were 74.4%, 82.3%, and 83.3%, respectively. AP students were as satisfied with the quality of their education and felt as prepared for residency as non-AP students. AP students reported a more positive learning climate than non-AP students from AP schools and from all schools as measured by the student-faculty interaction (15.9 vs 14.4 and 14.3, respectively; P < .001 for both pairwise comparisons) and emotional climate (10.7 vs 9.6 and 9.6, respectively; P = .004 and .003, respectively) scales. AP students had less debt than non-AP students (P < .001), and more planned to care for underserved populations and practice family medicine than non-AP students from AP schools (55.7% vs 33.9% and 37.7% vs 9.4%; P = .002 and < .001, respectively). Family expectations were a more common influence on career plans for AP students than for non-AP students from AP schools and from all schools (26.2% vs 11.3% and 11.7%, respectively; P < .001 for both pairwise comparisons). CONCLUSIONS: These findings support accelerated programs as a potentially important intervention to address workforce shortages and rising student debt without negative impacts on student perception of burnout, education quality, or residency preparedness.

Utilization of Patient-Controlled Analgesia Reduces Length of Stay of Sickle Cell Crisis Hospitalizations.

Background: Sickle cell crisis hospitalizations are emotionally and financially burdensome to patients and healthcare systems, and processes to decrease the frequency or length of stay of these crises should be examined. Methods: This is a multicenter retrospective hospital record review of sickle cell crisis hospitalizations as defined by ICD-10 codes (D57.1-4), from January 2016 through December 2019, examining inpatient medication administration records and length of stay among admitted adults aged 18-65 years. Patient controlled analgesia orders using morphine, hydromorphone, fentanyl and/or merperidine at any point of an admission (n=188) were compared to admissions without any patient-controlled analgesia orders (n=2,159). The primary end point was hospital length of stay in days. A secondary analysis examining patients with or without greater than four admissions was also conducted. Results: The 1,675 patients who met criteria comprised 2,347 sickle cell hospitalizations during the four years examined. Of those admissions, 188 had at least one patient-controlled analgesic documented in their chart and had an average length of stay of 4.54 days (SD 3.34). The 2,159 admissions without any patient-controlled analgesia had an average length of stay of 5.74 days (SD 4.64). The difference of 1.2 days between the groups was statistically significant (p≤0.0001) using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Conclusion: Among patients with sickle cell crises who required inpatient hospitalizations, the use of patient-controlled analgesia demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of 1.2 days in their total length of stay. These findings support potentially changing hospital protocols to increase patient-controlled analgesia utilization.

Efficacy and Safety of Galcanezumab for the Preventive Treatment of Migraine: A Narrative Review.

Migraine is a debilitating neurologic disease. People who experience migraine can have substantial disability, impaired functioning and a decreased quality of life (QoL). Expert recommendations suggest that people with frequent migraine attacks or severe impairment related to attacks may benefit from preventive treatment. Despite these recommendations and the existence of evidence-based guidelines for the use of preventive medication, many people who are candidates for preventive therapies do not receive them. Thus, there is still a substantial unmet need for preventive migraine treatment. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) has a demonstrated role in the pathophysiology of migraine. Galcanezumab-gnlm (galcanezumab) is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds to the CGRP ligand and prevents binding to its receptor. It is administered as a once-monthly subcutaneous injection. The aim of this review is to present a comprehensive overview of the existing short- and long-term efficacy and safety data for galcanezumab in patients with migraine. Data from the phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled EVOLVE-1, EVOLVE-2 and REGAIN studies show that galcanezumab treatment for 3 or 6 months results in overall reduction in mean monthly migraine headache days in patients with episodic (EVOLVE-1 and EVOLVE-2) and chronic (REGAIN) migraine. Greater proportions of patients with episodic migraine receiving galcanezumab versus placebo demonstrated a ≥ 50%, ≥ 75% and 100% response to therapy and reported a lower level of disability and an improvement in functioning and QoL. Similarly, when compared with placebo, greater proportions of patients with chronic migraine treated with galcanezumab demonstrated a ≥ 50% and ≥ 75% response and reported improved functioning. A 12-month open-label study demonstrated the continued efficacy of galcanezumab for up to 12 months. In all studies galcanezumab was well tolerated. In conclusion, data from pivotal studies show that galcanezumab may fulfill an unmet need in the treatment of patients with migraine who require preventive therapy.

Migraine is a significant contributor to the global burden of disease. Migraine symptoms can lead to substantial disability and can significantly impact an individual's ability to perform everyday tasks and their overall quality of life. While individuals with infrequent migraine attacks might have success with acute treatments alone, those with more frequent attacks or who have severe migraine-related impairment may require preventive treatment. Although recommendations on the use of preventive treatment exist, only about one-third of individuals who qualify for preventive therapy actually receive it, resulting in a substantial unmet need. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) has a demonstrated role in migraine. Galcanezumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds to the CGRP ligand and prevents receptor binding. In clinical trials of patients with ≥ 4 migraine headache days per month, treatment with galcanezumab was associated with a reduction in the average number of migraine headache days per month. The majority of galcanezumab groups had greater responder rates compared with the placebo groups, and levels of disability and daily functioning were generally improved. Galcanezumab was well tolerated, with the most common adverse events being injection site reactions. The results from the clinical trials of galcanezumab suggest that this drug may fulfill an unmet need in the treatment of individuals with migraine who require preventive therapy.

Three-Year MD Programs: Perspectives From the Consortium of Accelerated Medical Pathway Programs (CAMPP).

In the last decade, there has been renewed interest in three-year MD pathway programs. In 2015, with support from the Josiah Macy Jr., Foundation, eight North American medical schools with three-year accelerated medical pathway programs formed the Consortium of Accelerated Medical Pathway Programs (CAMPP). The schools are two campuses of the Medical College of Wisconsin; McMaster University Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine; Mercer University School of Medicine; New York University School of Medicine; Penn State College of Medicine; Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine; University of California, Davis School of Medicine; and University of Louisville School of Medicine. These programs vary in size and medical specialty focus but all include the reduction of student debt from savings in tuition costs. Each school's mission to create a three-year pathway program differs; common themes include the ability to train physicians to practice in underserved areas or to allow students for whom the choice of specialty is known to progress more quickly. Compared with McMaster, these programs are small, but most capitalize on training and assessing competency across the undergraduate medical education-graduate medical education continuum and include conditional acceptance into an affiliated residency program. This article includes an overview of each CAMPP school with attention to admissions, curriculum, financial support, and regulatory challenges associated with the design of an accelerated pathway program. These programs are relatively new, with a small number of graduates; this article outlines opportunities and challenges for schools considering the development of accelerated programs.

Predictors of interest in psychological treatment for insomnia among older primary care patients with disturbed sleep.

In this study, we examined whether the common sense model of illness representation (CSMIR) could be successfully used to predict interest in cognitive-behavioral treatment for insomnia (CBT-I) among older primary care patients with disturbed sleep. The Sleep Impairment Index (C. M. Morin, 1993) was used to assess sleep disturbance and the constructs of the CSMIR in primary care patients ages 55 and older. Statistical analyses showed that the CSMIR constructs of consequences (perceived adverse consequences of sleep disturbance to functioning), causes (attributing one's insomnia to bad sleeping habits), and emotion (concern about one's sleep problem) predicted interest in CBT-I. These data provided encouraging support for the ability of the CSMIR to accurately predict patient interest in treatment for insomnia. Implications for assessment and treatment of insomnia in primary care are discussed.