Two Novel Urban Health Primary Care Residency Tracks That Focus On Community-Level Structural Vulnerabilities.

BACKGROUND: Although residency programs are well situated for developing a physician workforce with knowledge, skills, and attitudes that incorporate the strengths and reflect the priorities of community organizations, few curricula explicitly do so. AIM: To develop urban health primary care tracks for internal medicine and combined internal medicine-pediatrics residents. SETTING: Academic hospital, community health center, and community-based organizations. PARTICIPANTS: Internal medicine and combined internal medicine-pediatrics residents. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The program integrates community-based experiences with a focus on stakeholder engagement into its curriculum. A significant portion of the training (28 weeks out of 3 years for internal medicine and 34 weeks out of 4 years for medicine-pediatrics) occurs outside the hospital and continuity clinic to support residents' understanding of structural vulnerabilities. PROGRAM EVALUATION: Sixteen internal medicine and 14 medicine-pediatrics residents have graduated from our programs. Fifty-six percent of internal medicine graduates and 79% of medicine-pediatrics graduates are seeking primary care careers, and eight overall (27%) have been placed in community organizations. Seven (23%) hold leadership positions. DISCUSSION: We implemented two novel residency tracks that successfully placed graduates in community-based primary care settings. Integrating primary care training with experiences in community organizations can create primary care leaders and may foster collective efficacy among medical centers and community organizations.

Association of NTproBNP and cTnI with outpatient sudden cardiac death in hemodialysis patients: the Choices for Healthy Outcomes in Caring for ESRD (CHOICE) study.

BACKGROUND: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the most common etiology of death in hemodialysis patients but not much is known about its risk factors. The goal of our study was to determine the association and risk prediction of SCD by serum N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) troponin I (cTnI) in hemodialysis patients. METHODS: We measured NTproBNP and cTnI in 503 hemodialysis patients of a national prospective cohort study. We determined their association with SCD using Cox regression, adjusting for demographics, co-morbidities, and clinical factors and risk prediction using C-statistic and Net Reclassification Improvement (NRI). RESULTS: Patients' mean age was 58 years and 54 % were male. During follow-up (median 3.5 years), there were 75 outpatient SCD events. In unadjusted and fully-adjusted models, NTproBNP had a significant association with the risk of SCD. Analyzed as a continuous variable, the risk of SCD increased 27 % with each 2-fold increase in NTproBNP (HR, 1.27 per doubling; 95 % CI, 1.13-1.43; p < 0.001). In categorical models, the risk of SCD was 3-fold higher in the highest tertile of NTproBNP (>7,350 pg/mL) compared with the lowest tertile (<1,710 pg/mL; HR for the highest tertile, 3.03; 95 % CI, 1.56-5.89; p = 0.001). Higher cTnI showed a trend towards increased risk of SCD in fully adjusted models, but was not statistically significant (HR, 1.17 per doubling; 95 % CI, 0.98-1.40; p = 0.08). Sensitivity analyses using competing risk models showed similar results. Improvement in risk prediction by adding cardiac biomarkers to conventional risk factors was greater with NTproBNP (C-statistic for 3-year risk: 0.810; 95 % CI, 0.757 to 0.864; and continuous NRI: 0.270; 95 % CI, 0.046 to 0.495) than with cTnI. CONCLUSIONS: NTproBNP is associated with the risk of SCD in hemodialysis patients. Further research is needed to determine if biomarkers measurement can guide SCD risk prevention strategies in dialysis patients.