Primary Care and Community-Based Partnerships to Enhance HPV Vaccine Delivery.

INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES: With growing vaccination misinformation and mistrust, strategies to improve vaccination communication across community-based settings are needed. METHODS: The Rural Adolescent Vaccine Enterprise (RAVE), a 5-year (2018-2022) stepped-wedge cluster randomized study, tested a clinic-based practice facilitation intervention designed to improve HPV vaccination. An exploratory aim sought to explore the use of partnerships between primary care clinics and a community partner of their choosing, to implement a social marketing campaign related to HPV immunization. We assessed perceptions about the value and success of the partnership, and barriers and facilitators to its implementation using a 29-item community partner survey, key informant interviews, and field notes from practice facilitators. RESULTS: Of the initial 45 clinics participating in RAVE, 9 were unable to either start or complete the study, and 36 participants (80.0%) were actively engaged. Of these, 16/36 clinics (44.4%) reported establishing successful partnerships, 10 reported attempting to develop partnerships (27.8%), and another 10 reported not developing a partnership (27.8%), which were often caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common partnership was with public health departments at 27.3%. Other partnerships involved libraries, school districts, and local businesses. More than half (63.7%) reported that creating messages regarding getting HPV vaccination was moderately to very challenging. Just under half reported (45.5%) that messaging was hard because of a lack of understanding about the seriousness of diseases caused by HPV, parents being against vaccines because of safety concerns, and religious values that result in a lack of openness to HPV vaccines. Community partners' health priorities changed as a result of RAVE, with 80% prioritizing childhood immunizations as a result of the RAVE partnership. CONCLUSIONS: Community groups want to partner with primary care organizations to serve their patients and populations. More research is needed on how best to bring these groups together.

Trends in Early Graft Failure Leading to Regrafting After Endothelial Keratoplasty in the United States.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to report trends in the prevalence of early graft failure after endothelial keratoplasty in the United States. METHODS: Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) and Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) graft volumes were collected from records maintained by 6 major eye banks in the United States from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2018. The prevalence and presumed cause of early graft failures (defined as a graft with persistent edema or regrafted within 8 weeks after keratoplasty) each year were sourced from surgeon-reported adverse events. Failed graft cases from the 3 eye banks were compared with nonfailures at the donor and recipient levels to perform subset analysis of factors associated with early graft failure. RESULTS: A total of 51,887 endothelial keratoplasty tissues were distributed during the study period; 72% were DSAEK grafts. The total number of early graft failures reported was 168 of 14,284 (1.18%) for DMEK and 322 of 37,603 (0.86%) for DSAEK. Early DMEK failures decreased from 2013 (7.69%) to 2018 (0.68%). In generalized linear mixed model analyses adjusting for donor tissue characteristics, recipient age, and diagnosis, an association of borderline significance was found between higher donor age and early failure [odds ratio (95% confidence interval): 1.03 (1.00-1.05); unit change of 1 yr] and DSAEK [odds ratio 1.02 (1.00-1.04); unit of change 1 yr] cases. CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of early graft failures in DMEK decreased over time and was comparable with failure rates in DSAEK at the end of the study period. The surgical learning curve might have played a role.