Pharmacist-led telehealth deprescribing for people living with dementia and polypharmacy in primary care: A pilot study.

BACKGROUND: People living with dementia (PLWD) have complex medication regimens, exposing them to increased risk of harm. Pragmatic deprescribing strategies that align with patient-care partner goals are needed. METHODS: A pilot study of a pharmacist-led intervention to optimize medications with patient-care partner priorities, ran May 2021-2022 at two health systems. PLWD with ≥7 medications in primary care and a care partner were enrolled. After an introductory mailing, dyads were randomized to a pharmacist telehealth intervention immediately (intervention) or delayed by 3 months (control). Feasibility outcomes were enrollment, intervention completion, pharmacist time, and primary care provider (PCP) acceptance of recommendations. To refine pragmatic data collection protocols, we assessed the Medication Regimen Complexity Index (MRCI; primary efficacy outcome) and the Family Caregiver Medication Administration Hassles Scale (FCMAHS). RESULTS: 69 dyads enrolled; 27 of 34 (79%) randomized to intervention and 28 of 35 (80%) randomized to control completed the intervention. Most visits (93%) took more than 20 min and required multiple follow-up interactions (62%). PCPs responded to 82% of the pharmacists' first messages and agreed with 98% of recommendations. At 3 months, 22 (81%) patients in the intervention and 14 (50%) in the control had ≥1 medication discontinued; 21 (78%) and 12 (43%), respectively, had ≥1 new medication added. The mean number of medications decreased by 0.6 (3.4) in the intervention and 0.2 (1.7) in the control, reflecting a non-clinically meaningful 1.0 (±12.4) point reduction in the MRCI among intervention patients and a 1.2 (±12.9) point increase among control. FCMAHS scores decreased by 3.3 (±18.8) points in the intervention and 2.5 (±14.4) points in the control. CONCLUSION: Though complex, pharmacist-led telehealth deprescribing is feasible and may reduce medication burden in PLWD. To align with patient-care partner goals, pharmacists recommended deprescribing and prescribing. If scalable, such interventions may optimize goal-concordant care for PLWD.

Initial Antihypertensive Regimens in Newly Treated Patients: Real World Evidence From the OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Network.

Background Knowledge of real-world antihypertensive use is limited to prevalent hypertension, limiting our understanding of how treatment evolves and its contribution to persistently poor blood pressure control. We sought to characterize antihypertensive initiation among new users. Methods and Results Using Medicaid and Medicare data from the OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Consortium, we identified new users of ≥1 first-line antihypertensives (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, calcium channel blocker, angiotensin receptor blocker, thiazide diuretic, or ß-blocker) between 2013 and 2021 among adults with diagnosed hypertension, and no antihypertensive fill during the prior 12 months. We evaluated initial antihypertensive regimens by class and drug overall and across study years and examined variation in antihypertensive initiation across demographics (sex, race, and ethnicity) and comorbidity (chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease). We identified 143 054 patients initiating 188 995 antihypertensives (75% monotherapy; 25% combination therapy), with mean age 59 years and 57% of whom were women. The most commonly initiated antihypertensive class overall was angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (39%) followed by ß-blockers (31%), calcium channel blockers (24%), thiazides (19%), and angiotensin receptor blockers (11%). With the exception of ß-blockers, a single drug accounted for ≥75% of use of each class. ß-blocker use decreased (35%-26%), and calcium channel blocker use increased (24%-28%) over the study period, while initiation of most other classes remained relatively stable. We also observed significant differences in antihypertensive selection across demographic and comorbidity strata. Conclusions These findings indicate that substantial variation exists in initial antihypertensive prescribing, and there remain significant gaps between current guideline recommendations and real-world implementation in early hypertension care.

Mentoring Underrepresented Minority Physician-Scientists to Success.

As the nation seeks to recruit and retain physician-scientists, gaps remain in understanding and addressing mitigatable challenges to the success of faculty from underrepresented minority (URM) backgrounds. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists program, implemented in 2015 at 10 academic medical centers in the United States, seeks to retain physician-scientists at risk of leaving science because of periods of extraordinary family caregiving needs, hardships that URM faculty-especially those who identify as female-are more likely to experience. At the annual Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists program directors conference in 2018, program directors-21% of whom identify as URM individuals and 13% as male-addressed issues that affect URM physician-scientists in particular. Key issues that threaten the retention of URM physician-scientists were identified through focused literature reviews; institutional environmental scans; and structured small- and large-group discussions with program directors, staff, and participants. These issues include bias and discrimination, personal wealth differential, the minority tax (i.e., service burdens placed on URM faculty who represent URM perspectives on committees and at conferences), lack of mentorship training, intersectionality and isolation, concerns about confirming stereotypes, and institutional-level factors. The authors present recommendations for how to create an environment in which URM physician-scientists can expect equitable opportunities to thrive, as institutions demonstrate proactive allyship and remove structural barriers to success. Recommendations include providing universal training to reduce interpersonal bias and discrimination, addressing the consequences of the personal wealth gap through financial counseling and benefits, measuring the service faculty members provide to the institution as advocates for URM faculty issues and compensating them appropriately, supporting URM faculty who wish to engage in national leadership programs, and sustaining institutional policies that address structural and interpersonal barriers to inclusive excellence.

Insights from an Intervention to Support Early Career Faculty with Extraprofessional Caregiving Responsibilities.

Background: Insufficient support for balancing career and family responsibilities hinders retention of physician-scientists. Programs to improve retention of this important group of faculty are crucial. Understanding the experiences of program implementers is key to refining and improving program offerings. Methods: We conducted an interpretive, descriptive, and qualitative study as part of an ongoing evaluation of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists (FRCS) awards. We conducted telephone interviews with 12 program directors representing all 10 US medical schools who received the Doris Duke funding in 2016. Results: Of the 12 participants, 10 were women (83.3%). Participating program directors perceived the FRCS award as capable of producing paradigmatic changes regarding how responsibilities at home and work in academic medicine are viewed and integrated by early-career faculty members. The main qualitative themes that captured directors' experiences implementing the program were as follows: (1) championing a new paradigm of support, (2) lessons learned while implementing the new paradigm, (3) results of the new paradigm, and (4) sustaining the paradigm. Conclusions: These findings may help to inform development of similar programs to retain and support the career progress of physician-scientists with extraprofessional caregiving responsibilities. The interviews illuminate ways in which the Doris Duke FRCS award has driven institutional culture change by normalizing discussion and prompted reassessment of extraprofessional challenges and how best to aid early-career faculty members in overcoming these challenges.

Higher medication complexity in persons with HIV is associated with lower tenofovir diphosphate in dried blood spots.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between tenofovir diphosphate (TFV-DP) in dried blood spots (DBS), a measure of cumulative tenofovir-based antiretroviral (ART) adherence, with medication regimen complexity in persons with human immunodeficiency virus (PWH). DESIGN: Prospective clinical cohort (up to three visits over 48 weeks). SETTING: Academic-based HIV clinic. PATIENTS: PWH receiving tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF)-based ART. MEASUREMENTS: DBS for TFV-DP were collected at every study visit. Baseline patient-level medication regimen complexity index (pMRCI) scores were calculated and categorized into three sub-scores (disease-specific [ART], non-ART, and over-the-counter [OTC]). The pMRCI scores were evaluated to assess the association with TFV-DP in DBS <350 fmol/punch after adjusting for clinical covariates. pMRCI scores were also categorized to estimate the adjusted relative risk (aRR) of having a TFV-DP <350 fmol/punch between pMRCI quartiles. MAIN RESULTS: Data from 525 participants (1,146 person-visits) were analyzed. Baseline median (interquartile range [IQR]) pMRCI scores for participants with TFV-DP in DBS <350 vs. ≥350 fmol/punch were 4 (3, 8) vs. 4 (2, 6) for ART, 27 (12, 31) vs. 12 (5, 22) for non-ART, and 0 (0, 1) vs. 0 (0, 2) for OTC, respectively. For the non-ART scores, the aRR for having a TFV-DP in DBS <350 fmol/punch was 6.4 (95% CI: 2.0, 20.6; P=0.002) when comparing participants in the highest pMRCI quartile with those in the lowest quartile. CONCLUSIONS: Higher pMRCI for non-ART medications is associated with lower adherence as measured by TFV-DP in DBS. Future research should investigate whether reducing non-ART medication complexity improves ART adherence and exposure in PWH.

Educating the Scientific Workforce on Sex and Gender Considerations in Research: A National Scan of the Literature and Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health Programs.

Background: This study was a national scan of education resources on integrating sex and gender considerations into research. The purpose was to assess capacity for educating researchers and to identify gaps, with implications for implementation of guidelines or mandates to consider sex and gender differences in research. Information sources were U.S. training programs in women's health and sex/gender difference research, Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH), and published peer-reviewed biomedical literature. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study used multiple methods: a national survey and a comprehensive literature review. BIRCWH leaders responded to a survey regarding education on sex/gender difference research for BIRCWH scholars (response rate 100%, 20 of 20). A comprehensive literature review was conducted for 1993-2018. Results: Nearly half (45%) of BIRCWH institutions offered education on integrating sex or gender differences in clinical translational research; of those, roughly half (54%) offered in-person training and one-third (31%) offered content within existing for-credit courses. Respondents preferred online training (84%) to in-person offerings or reference materials (47% and 42% respectively). Published indexed literature on sex or gender differences has quadrupled since 1993, although growth in these publications remained flat in the most recent six years. Conclusions: Published resources to educate researchers on integrating sex and gender differences into medical research have increased, and BIRCWH programs connect scholars to national resources. Educational gaps remain due to limited access to curricula on applied research approaches, design, and methods for sex/gender difference research. BIRCWH programs desire curricula that are easily accessible online and asynchronously; sanctioned and supported by national thought leaders; linked to required training such as rigor and reproducibility; foster collaboration; and offer practical applications. Evidence-based, high-quality educational curricula and a dissemination plan are needed to enhance the adoption and integration of sex and gender into scientific endeavors.

From Stigma to Validation: A Qualitative Assessment of a Novel National Program to Improve Retention of Physician-Scientists with Caregiving Responsibilities.

Background: Research is needed to improve understanding of work-life integration issues in academic medicine and to guide the implementation of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists (FRCS), a national initiative offering financial support to physician-scientists facing caregiving challenges. Materials and Methods: In 2018, as part of a prospective program evaluation, the authors conducted a qualitative study to examine FRCS program participants' initial impressions, solicit descriptions of their career and caregiving experiences, and inquire how such factors might influence their professional advancement. The authors invited all 33 awardees who had been granted FRCS funding in the first year of the program to participate in the study, of whom 28 agreed to complete an interview. Analysts evaluated de-identified transcripts and explicated the data using a thematic analysis approach. Results: While participants described aspects of a culture that harbor stigma against caregivers and impede satisfactory work-life integration, they also perceived an optimistic cultural shift taking place as a result of programs like the FRCS. Their comments indicated that the FRCS has the potential to influence culture if institutional leadership simultaneously fosters a community that validates individuals both as caregivers and as scientists. Conclusions: Insights garnered from this qualitative study suggest that there is a pressing need for institutional leaders to implement programs that can foster awareness and normalization of caregiving challenges. In addition to providing funding and other tangible resources, interventions should strive to reinforce a broader culture that affirms the presence of work-life integration challenges and openly embraces solutions.

Training Mentor-Mentee Pairs to Build a Robust Culture for Mentorship and a Pipeline of Clinical and Translational Researchers: The Colorado Mentoring Training Program.

The Colorado Mentoring Training program (CO-Mentor) was developed at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in 2010, supported by the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. CO-Mentor represents a different paradigm in mentorship training by focusing equally on the development of mentees, who are valued as essential to institutional capacity for effective mentorship. The training model is unique among Clinical and Translational Science Award sites in that it engages mentors and mentees in an established relationship. Dyads participate in 4 day-long sessions scheduled throughout the academic year. Each session features workshops that combine didactic and experiential components. The latter provide structured opportunities to develop mentorship-related skills, including self-knowledge and goal setting, communication skills (including negotiation), "managing up," and the purposeful development of a mentorship support network. Mentors and mentees in 3 recent cohorts reported significant growth in confidence with respect to all mentorship-related skills assessed using a pre-post evaluation survey (P = .001). Mentors reported the most growth in relation to networking to engage social and professional support to realize goals as well as sharing insights regarding paths to success. Mentees reported the most growth with respect to connecting with potential/future mentors, knowing characteristics to look for in current/future mentors, and managing the work environment (e.g., prioritizing work most fruitful to advancing research/career objectives). CO-Mentor represents a novel approach to enhancing mentorship capacity by investing equally in the development of salient skills among mentees and mentors and in the mentorship relationship as an essential resource for professional development, persistence, and scholarly achievement.

Increases in Suicide Deaths Among Adolescents and Young Adults Following US Food and Drug Administration Antidepressant Boxed Warnings and Declines in Depression Care.

Objective: Studies show decreased depression diagnosis, psychotherapy, and medications and increased suicide attempts following US Food and Drug Administration antidepressant warnings regarding suicidality risk among youth. Effects on care spilled over to older adults. This study investigated whether suicide deaths increased following the warnings and declines in depression care. Methods: We conducted an interrupted time series study of validated death data (1990-2017) to estimate changes in trends of US suicide deaths per 100,000 adolescents (ages 10-19) and young adults (ages 20-24) after the warnings, controlling for baseline trends. Results: Before the warnings (1990-2002), suicide deaths decreased markedly. After the warnings (2005-2017) and abrupt declines in treatment, this downward trend reversed. There was an immediate increase of 0.49 suicides per 100,000 adolescents, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.12, 0.86) and a trend increase of 0.03 suicides per 100,000 adolescents per year (95% CI: 0.026, 0.031). Similarly, there was an immediate increase of 2.07 suicides per 100,000 young adults (95% CI: 1.04, 3.10) and a trend increase of 0.05 suicides per 100,000 young adults per year (95% CI: 0.04, 0.06). Assuming baseline trends continued, there may have been 5958 excess suicides nationally by 2010 among yearly cohorts of 43 million adolescents and 21 million young adults. Conclusions: We observed increases in suicide deaths among youth following the warnings and declines in depression care. Alternative explanations were explored, including substance use, economic recessions, smart phone use, and unintentional injury deaths. Additional factors may have contributed to continued increases in youth suicide during the last decade. Combined with previous research on declining treatment, these results call for re-evaluation of the antidepressant warnings.

The Most Valuable Resource Is Time: Insights From a Novel National Program to Improve Retention of Physician-Scientists With Caregiving Responsibilities.

PURPOSE: To enhance understanding of challenges related to work-life integration in academic medicine and to inform the ongoing implementation of an existing program and the development of other interventions to promote success of physician-scientists. METHOD: This study is part of a prospective analysis of the effects of the Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists (FRCS), a national program launched by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation at 10 U.S. institutions, which provides financial support to physician-scientists facing caregiving challenges. In early 2018, 28 of 33 program awardees participated in semistructured interviews. Questions were about challenges faced by physician-scientists as caregivers and their early perceptions of the FRCS. Multiple analysts reviewed deidentified transcripts, iteratively revised the coding scheme, and interpreted the data using qualitative thematic analysis. RESULTS: Participants' rich descriptions illuminated 5 interconnected themes: (1) Time is a critical and limited resource, (2) timing is key, (3) limited time resources and timing conflicts may have a particularly adverse effect on women's careers, (4) flexible funds enable reclamation and repurposing of time resources, and (5) FRCS leaders should be cognizant of time and timing conflicts when developing program-related offerings. CONCLUSIONS: Programs such as the FRCS are instrumental in supporting individuals to delegate time-consuming tasks and to control how they spend their valuable time. Qualitative analysis suggests that access to and command of valuable time resources are crucial to career advancement, research productivity, and work-life flexibility, especially during critical time points along the physician-scientist trajectory.

Nationwide analysis of hospital-to-hospital transfer in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage requiring aneurysm repair.

OBJECTIVEAneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) has devastating consequences. The association between higher institutional volumes and improved outcomes for aSAH patients has been studied extensively. However, the literature exploring patterns of transfer in this context is sparse. Expansion of the endovascular workforce has raised concerns about the decentralization of care, reduced institutional volumes, and worsened patient outcomes. In this paper, the authors explored various patient and hospital factors associated with the transfer of aSAH patients by using a nationally representative database.METHODSThe 2013 and 2014 years of the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) were used to define an observational cohort of patients with ruptured brain aneurysms. The initial search identified patients with SAH (ICD-9-CM 430). Those with concomitant codes suggesting trauma or other intracranial vascular abnormalities were excluded. Finally, the patients who had not undergone a subsequent procedure to repair an intracranial aneurysm were excluded. These criteria yielded a cohort of 4373 patients, 1379 of whom had undergone microsurgical clip ligation and 2994 of whom had undergone endovascular repair. The outcome of interest was transfer status, and the NIS data element TRAN_IN was used to define this state. Multiple explanatory variables were identified, including age, sex, primary payer, median household income by zip code, race, hospital size, hospital control, hospital teaching status, and hospital location. These variables were evaluated using descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation analysis, and multivariable logistic regression modeling to determine their relationship with transfer status.RESULTSPatients with aSAH who were treated in an urban teaching hospital had higher odds of being a transfer (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.71-2.72) than the patients in urban nonteaching hospitals. White patients were more likely to be transfer patients than were any of the other racial groups (p < 0.0001). Moreover, patients who lived in the highest-income zip codes were less likely to be transferred than the patients in the lowest income quartile (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.64-0.95). Repair type (clip vs coil) and primary payer were not associated with transfer status.CONCLUSIONSA relatively high percentage of patients with aSAH are transferred between acute care hospitals. Race and income were associated with transfer status. White patients are more likely to be transferred than other races. Patients from zip codes with the highest income transferred at lower rates than those from the lowest income quartile. Transfer patients were preferentially sent to urban teaching hospitals. The modality of aneurysm treatment was not associated with transfer status.

Developing senior leadership for clinical and translational science.

The fifth in a 5-part series on the clinical and translational sciences educational pipeline, this paper focuses on strategies for developing leadership capacity among senior faculty and administrators responsible for clinical and translational science (CTS) research. Although progression in academic rank recognizes scientific excellence in research or scholarship, neither disciplinary training nor experience alone prepare senior faculty for the leadership challenges they inevitably face. Yet these faculty are increasingly responsible for multidisciplinary teams working within complex organizations with unclear or conflicting incentives that demand innovation. In academic health centers with Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs), investing in leadership often includes career development support in the CTSA education and training pillar programs. Only a few CTSAs have taken an intentional approach to developing senior leadership capacity, however, and still fewer have focused specifically on building such capacity for current CTS leaders within the context of a growing emphasis on team science. This manuscript explains the need for senior leadership training and describes an established example of such a program, the year-long Leadership for Innovative Team Science program for senior CTS researchers at the University of Colorado. The development of the program over time, topical elements, and participant perspectives are provided.

Introduction to the Specific Aims Page of a Grant Proposal.

Grant writing starts with crafting an effective specific aims page. This page should be a succinct combination of sales pitch and science. The specific aims page demonstrates a problem and a gap in current knowledge and suggests a solution. It proposes aims that work toward a defended solution and reveal the impact of the proposal on the problem, the field, and future research. The language must be efficient and persuasive; the presentation must drive a reviewer to support the proposal. Here we present a recipe for an effective specific aims page.

The Use of Telepsychiatry to Provide Cost-Efficient Care During Pediatric Mental Health Emergencies.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated a videoconference-based psychiatric emergency consultation program (telepsychiatry) at geographically dispersed emergency department (ED) sites that are part of the network of care of an academic children's hospital system. The study compared program outcomes with those of usual care involving ambulance transport to the hospital for in-person psychiatric emergency consultation prior to disposition to inpatient care or discharge home. METHODS: This study compared process outcomes in a cross-sectional, pre-post design at five network-of-care sites before and after systemwide implementation of telepsychiatry consultation in 2015. Clinical records on 494 pediatric psychiatric emergencies included ED length of stay, disposition/discharge, and hospital system charges. Satisfaction surveys regarding telepsychiatry consultations were completed by providers and parents or guardians. RESULTS: Compared with children who received usual care, children who received telepsychiatry consultations had significantly shorter median ED lengths of stay (5.5 hours and 8.3 hours, respectively, p<.001) and lower total patient charges ($3,493 and $8,611, p<.001). Providers and patient caregivers reported high satisfaction with overall acceptability, effectiveness, and efficiency of telepsychiatry. No safety concerns were indicated based on readmissions within 72 hours in either treatment condition. CONCLUSIONS: Measured by charges and time, telepsychiatry consultations for pediatric psychiatric emergencies were cost-efficient from a hospital system perspective compared with usual care consisting of ambulance transport for in-person consultation at a children's hospital main campus. Telepsychiatry also improved clinical and operational efficiency and patient and family experience, and it showed promise for increasing access to other specialized health care needs.