Twenty Years After the EMS Research Agenda: Trends in Emergency Medical Services Publications and Research Funding.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Since its publication in 2001, the National EMS Research Agenda has brought attention to a relative paucity of emergency medical services (EMS)-specific research and has called for an increase in funding and infrastructure to support EMS research. We investigated the trends in EMS-specific publications and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research grants in the 20 years since this landmark publication. METHODS: We performed a structured PubMed search of English-language citations from 2001 to 2020 to identify publications with populations, settings, or topics related to EMS care, education, or operations. Publications in trade journals and studies not involving humans were excluded. We also queried NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) using a similar structured search. Titles, keywords, and abstracts were reviewed. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and nonlinear trends were described using segmented regression models. RESULTS: A total of 183,307 references met the search criteria in PubMed, and 4,281 grants were identified in NIH RePORTER. After removing duplicates, 152,408 titles were screened, with 17,314 (11.5%) included. EMS-related publications increased from 419 in 2001 to 1,788 in 2020, a 327% increase, compared with a 197% increase in total PubMed publications. There was a statistically significant nonlinear (J-shaped) increase in EMS publications after 2007. There were 1,166 funded EMS-related NIH grants, with a 469% increase from 2001 to 2020 compared with an 18% increase in overall NIH awards. CONCLUSION: Although total publications have doubled in the United States over the past 20 years, EMS-specific research has more than tripled and the number of funded EMS research grants has increased nearly 5-fold. Future evaluation should examine the quality of this research and its application to clinical practice.

Feasibility of the Genetic Information Assistant Chatbot to Provide Genetic Education and Study Genetic Test Adoption Among Pancreatic Cancer Patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Genetic testing is a valuable tool to guide care of pancreatic cancer patients, yet personal and family uncertainty about the benefits of genetic testing (i.e., decisional conflict) may lead to low adoption. Enabling patients to learn more about genetic testing before their scheduled appointments may help to address this decisional conflict problem. We completed a feasibility assessment of a chatbot to provide genetic education (GEd) with 60 pancreatic cancer patients and using the chatbot to deliver surveys to assess: (a) opinions about the GEd, and (b) decisional conflict about genetic testing. Findings demonstrate intervention and study feasibility with about 80% of participants engaging with the GEd chatbot, 71% of which completed at least one survey. Overall, participants appear to have favorable opinions of the chatbot-delivered education and thought it was helpful to decide about genetic testing. Furthermore, patients who chose to get genetic testing spent more time interacting with the chatbot. Findings will be used to improve chatbot design and to facilitate a well-powered future trial.