Health Professionals Organizing for Climate Action: A Novel Community Organizing Fellowship.

PROBLEM: Climate change is a public health and health equity crisis. Health professionals are well positioned to advance solutions but may lack the training and self-efficacy needed to achieve them. APPROACH: The Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital, developed a novel, longitudinal fellowship that taught health professionals about health and health equity effects of climate change, as well as community organizing practices that may help them mitigate these effects. The fellowship cohort included 40 fellows organized into 12 teams and was conducted from January to June 2022. Each team developed a project to address climate change and received coaching from an experienced community organizer coach. Effects of the fellowship on participants' knowledge, skills, and attitudes were evaluated using pre- and postfellowship surveys. OUTCOMES: Surveys were analyzed for 38 of 40 (95%) participants who consented to the evaluation and completed both surveys. Surveys used a 7-point Likert scale for item responses. McNemar's test for paired data was used to assess changes in the proportion of respondents who agreed ("somewhat agree"/"agree"/"strongly agree") with statements in pre- vs postfellowship surveys. Statistically significant improvements were found for 11 of the 17 items assessing knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Participants' views of the fellowship and its effects were assessed through additional items in the postfellowship survey. Most respondents agreed that the fellowship increased their knowledge of the connections between climate change and health equity (32/38, 84.2%) and prepared them to effectively participate in a community organizing campaign (37/38, 94.7%). Each of the 12 groups developed climate health projects by the fellowship's end. NEXT STEPS: This novel fellowship was well received and effective in teaching community organizing to health professionals concerned about climate change. Future studies are needed to assess longer-term effects of the fellowship.

Climate-Informed Patient Care as a Social Determinant of Health.

This JAMA Forum discusses the implications for patient care by recognizing climate change as a social determinant of health.

Point-of-care access to clinical guidelines may improve management of incidental findings in the primary care setting.

RATIONALE: Incidental radiographic findings are common, and primary care providers (PCPs) are often charged with the conducting or initiating an appropriate evaluation. Clinical guidelines are available for management of common 'incidentalomas' including lung and adrenal nodules, but guidelines-adherent evaluations are not always performed; for example, in the setting of incidental adrenal masses (IAMs), recent literature suggests that an evidence-based evaluation occurs in <25% of patients for whom it is warranted-a quality and safety concern. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to examine whether point-of-care access to concise clinical guidelines would promote appropriate evaluations of two common incidentalomas: IAMs and lung nodules. METHOD: This study was a survey-based, single-blinded, randomized experiment of decision-making within clinical vignettes. Respondents were PCPs in a variety of clinical practice settings, and half were randomly assigned to surveys that included concise clinical guidelines while the other half served as controls without access to guidelines. Scenarios involved patients with IAMs and lung nodules, and the scenarios included both higher-risk and lower-risk lesions. Our primary analysis examined safe versus inappropriate clinical decisions, while a secondary analysis compared guidelines-concordant versus guidelines-discordant responses. RESULTS: For both the higher-risk IAM and higher-risk lung nodule scenarios, safe answer choices were selected at a similar rate by respondents regardless of whether they had access to guidelines or not. However, for the lower risk scenarios, inappropriate answer choices were chosen substantially more frequently by respondents without access to guidelines compared to those with the guidelines (lung: 29.3% vs. 4.5%, p = 0.003, adrenal: 31.6% vs. 7.0%, p = 0.01). There was less variation in the secondary analysis. CONCLUSION: Survey respondents were significantly more likely to make safe management decisions in lower-risk clinical scenarios when clinical guidelines were available. Point-of-care access to clinical guidelines for incidentalomas is an intervention that may reduce management errors and improve patient safety.

Assessing and Addressing the Risk of Venous Thromboembolism Across the Spectrum of Gender Affirming Care: A Review.

OBJECTIVE: Accumulating evidence demonstrates that gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) improves mental health outcomes in transgender persons. Data specific to the risks associated with GAHT for transgender persons continue to emerge, allowing for improvements in understanding, predicting, and mitigating adverse outcomes while informing discussion about desired effects. Of particular concern is the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the context of both longitudinal GAHT and the perioperative setting. Combining what is known about the risk of VTE in cisgender individuals on hormone therapy (HT) with the evidence for transgender persons receiving HT allows for an informed approach to assess underlying risk and improve care in the transgender community. OBSERVATIONS: Hormone formulation, dosing, route, and duration of therapy can impact thromboembolic risk, with transdermal estrogen formulations having the lowest risk. There are no existing risk scores for VTE that consider HT as a possible risk factor. Risk assessment for recurrent VTE and bleeding tendencies using current scores may be helpful when assessing individual risk. Gender affirming surgeries present unique perioperative concerns, and certain procedures include a high likelihood that patients will be on exogenous estrogens at the time of surgery, potentially increasing thromboembolic risk. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Withholding GAHT due to potential adverse events may cause negative impacts for individual patients. Providers should be knowledgeable about the management of HT in transgender individuals of all ages, as well as in the perioperative setting, to avoid periods in which transgender individuals are off GAHT. Treatment decisions for both anticoagulation and HT should be individualized and tailored to patients' overall goals and desired outcomes, given that the physical and mental health benefits of gender affirming care may outweigh the risk of VTE.

Changes in Physician Work Hours and Implications for Workforce Capacity and Work-Life Balance, 2001-2021.

Importance: Physician work hours are an underexplored facet of the physician workforce that can inform policy for the rapidly changing health care labor market. Objective: To examine trends in individual physician work hours and their contribution to clinical workforce changes over a 20-year period. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study focused on active US physicians between January 2001 and December 2021 who were included in the Current Population Survey. Outcomes for physicians, advanced practice professionals (APPs), and nonphysician holders of doctoral degrees were compared, and generalized linear models were used to estimate differences in time trends for weekly work hours across subgroups. Main Outcomes and Measures: Physician and APP workforce size, defined as the number of active clinicians, 3-year moving averages of weekly work hours by individual physicians, and weekly hours contributed by the physician and APP workforce per 100 000 US residents. Results: A total of 87 297 monthly surveys of physicians from 17 599 unique households were included in the analysis. The number of active physicians grew 32.9% from 2001 to 2021, peaking in 2019 at 989 684, then falling 6.7% to 923 419 by 2021, with disproportionate loss of physicians in rural areas. Average weekly work hours for individual physicians declined by 7.6% (95% CI, -9.1% to -6.1%), from 52.6 to 48.6 hours per week from 2001 to 2021. The downward trend was driven by decreasing hours among male physicians, particularly fathers (11.9% decline in work hours), rural physicians (-9.7%), and physicians aged 45 to 54 years (-9.8%). Physician mothers were the only examined subgroup to experience a statistically significant increase in work hours (3.0%). Total weekly hours contributed by the physician workforce per 10 000 US residents increased by 7.0%, from 13 006 hours in 2001 to 2003 to 13 920 hours in 2019 to 2021, compared with 16.6% growth in the US population over that time period. Weekly hours contributed by the APP workforce per 100 000 US residents grew 71.2% from 2010 through 2012 to 2019 through 2021. Conclusions and Relevance: This cross-sectional study showed that physician work hours consistently declined in the past 20 years, such that physician workforce hours per capita lagged behind US population growth. This trend was offset by rapid growth in hours contributed by the APP workforce. The gap in physician work hours between men and women narrowed considerably, with diverging potential implications for gender equity. Increasing physician retirement combined with a drop in active physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic may further slow growth in physician workforce hours per capita in the US.

Continuous Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 public health emergency reduced churning, but did not eliminate it.

Preserving insurance coverage in the wake of pandemic-related job loss was a priority in early 2020. To this end, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act implemented a continuous coverage policy in Medicaid to shore up access to health insurance. Prior to the pandemic, Medicaid enrollees experienced frequent coverage disruptions, known as "churning." The effect of the continuous coverage policy on churning during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) is unknown. We performed a difference-in-differences analysis of nonelderly Medicaid enrollees using longitudinal national survey data to compare a 2019-2020 cohort exposed to the policy with a control cohort in 2018-2019. We found that the policy led to reduced transitions to uninsurance among adults, although not among children. The policy prevented over 300 000 transitions to uninsurance each month. However, disenrollment from Medicaid persisted at a low rate, despite the continuous coverage policy. As the PHE unwinds, policymakers should consider long-term continuous coverage policies to minimize churning in Medicaid.

The anabolic applications of androgens in older adults with functional limitations.

Aging is associated with a progressive decrease in skeletal muscle mass, strength and power and impairment of physical function. Serum testosterone concentrations in men decrease with advancing age due to defects at all levels of the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis. Testosterone administration increases skeletal muscle mass, strength and power in older men with low or low normal testosterone levels, but the effects on performance-based measures of physical function have been inconsistent. Adequately powered randomized trials are needed to determine the long-term safety and efficacy of testosterone in improving physical function and quality of life in older adults with functional limitations.

Benefits and Risks of Testosterone Treatment of Older Men with Hypogonadism.

Total and free testosterone levels decline in men with advancing age due to defects at all levels of the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis. Testosterone treatment of older men with low testosterone levels is associated with improvements in sexual activity, sexual desire, and erectile function; lean body mass, muscle strength, and stair climbing power, and self-reported mobility; areal and volumetric bone mineral density, and estimated bone strength; depressive symptoms; and anemia. Long-term risks of cardiovascular events and prostate cancer during testosterone treatment remain unknown. Testosterone treatment may be offered on an individualized basis to older men with unequivocally low testosterone levels and symptoms or conditions associated with testosterone deficiency after consideration of potential benefits and risks, burden of symptoms, and patient's values.

Accurate measurement of total and free testosterone levels for the diagnosis of androgen disorders.

The circulating concentrations of total and free testosterone vary substantially in people over time due to biologic factors as well as due to measurement variation. Accurate measurement of total and free testosterone is essential for making the diagnosis of androgen disorders. Total testosterone should ideally be measured in a fasting state in the morning using a reliable assay, such as liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, in a laboratory that is certified by an accuracy-based benchmark. Free testosterone levels should be measured in men in whom alterations in binding protein concentrations are suspected or in whom total testosterone levels are only slightly above or slightly below the lower limit of the normal male range for testosterone.

Coverage Disruptions and Transitions Across the ACA's Medicaid/Marketplace Income Cutoff.

BACKGROUND: The Affordable Care Act takes a "patchwork" approach to expanding coverage: Medicaid covers individuals with incomes 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL) in expansion states, while subsidized Marketplace insurance is available to those above this income cutoff. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the magnitude of churning between Medicaid and Marketplace coverage and to examine the impact of the 138% FPL income cutoff on stability of coverage. DESIGN: We measured the incidence of transitions between Medicaid and Marketplace coverage. Then, we used a differences-in-differences framework to compare insurance churning in Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states, before and after the ACA, among adults with incomes 100-200% of poverty. PARTICIPANTS: Non-elderly adult respondents of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 2010-2018 MAIN MEASURES: The annual proportion of adults who (1) transitioned between Medicaid and Marketplace coverage; (2) experienced any coverage disruption. KEY RESULTS: One million U.S. adults transitioned between Medicaid and Marketplace coverage annually. The 138% FPL cutoff in expansion states was not associated with an increase in insurance churning among individuals with incomes close to the cutoff. CONCLUSIONS: Transitions between Medicaid and Marketplace insurance are uncommon-far lower than pre-ACA analyses predicted. The 138% income cutoff does not to contribute significantly to insurance disruptions.

Optimized Use of the Electronic Health Record and Other Clinical Resources to Enhance the Management of Hypogonadal Men.

Electronic health records (EHRs) have enabled electronic documentation of a tremendous amount of clinical data. EHRs have the potential to improve communication between patients and their providers, facilitate quality improvement and outcomes research, and reduce medical errors. Conversely, EHRs have also increased clinician burnout, information clutter, and depersonalization of the interactions between patients and their providers. Increasing clinician input into EHR design, providing access to technical help, streamlining of workflow, and the use of custom templates that have fewer requirements for evaluation and management coding can reduce this burnout and increase the utility of this advancing technology.

Strategies to optimize management of incidental radiographic findings in the primary care setting: A mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: Incidental adrenal masses (IAMs) are common. Primary care providers (PCPs) are frequently responsible for incidentaloma evaluations. We evaluated whether PCPs view this paradigm effective, barriers faced, and strategies to optimize care delivery. METHODS: This is a sequential explanatory study, comprised of surveys followed by focus groups of PCPs. Because lung nodules are another type of common incidental finding, we compared PCP views on management of lung nodules to their views on IAMs. RESULTS: For IAMs, 22.3% of PCPs "always refer" to specialists, but for lung nodules this was 11.5% (p = 0.026). For lung nodules, the most significant barrier was insufficient time/support to longitudinally follow results (69%), but for IAMs it was uncertainty about which tests to order (68%). Fear of litigation was equal (lung = 22.5%, IAMs = 21.3%). Consistent themes regarding the "ideal" system included specific recommendations in radiology reports; automation of orders for follow-up tests; longitudinal tracking tools; streamlined consultations; and decision guides embedded within the electronic health record. CONCLUSIONS: Respondents are more comfortable with lung nodules than IAMs. Management of "incidentalomas" is within their scope of practice, but the current system can be optimized.

Telemedicine and Inequities in Health Care Access: The Example of Transgender Health.

Due to concerns about the risk of infectious exposures during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the uptake of telemedicine has increased rapidly, aided by increased acceptance by clinicians and patients and a reduction in regulatory and reimbursement hurdles. The increased access to telemedicine may have benefits beyond the reduction in contagious risk, especially for vulnerable populations. By breaking down some of the common barriers to care for vulnerable populations, the broad implementation of telemedicine may help reduce some inequities in health care access, but telemedicine does raise other challenges that need to be considered and addressed. One vulnerable group that can benefit from telemedicine is transgender and gender nonbinary (TGNB) individuals, who have less access to both gender-affirming and general medical care due to the consequences of stigma, discrimination, and marginalization. Telemedicine allows TGNB individuals to access clinical expertise even if it is not available locally, and without the expense of travel and without the concern for exposure to discrimination and mistreatment. However, lack of access to or expertise in navigating the required technology, lack of a safe and confidential space to access care, and an unpredictable regulatory and reimbursement environment remain hurdles for harvesting the full benefits of telemedicine.

Allosterically Coupled Multisite Binding of Testosterone to Human Serum Albumin.

Human serum albumin (HSA) acts as a carrier for testosterone, other sex hormones, fatty acids, and drugs. However, the dynamics of testosterone's binding to HSA and the structure of its binding sites remain incompletely understood. Here, we characterize the dynamics of testosterone's binding to HSA and the stoichiometry and structural location of the binding sites using 2-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D NMR), fluorescence spectroscopy, 4,4'-dianilino-1,1'-binaphthyl-5,5'-disulfonic acid dipotassium salt partitioning, and equilibrium dialysis, complemented by molecular modeling. 2D NMR studies showed that testosterone competitively displaced 18-[13C]-oleic acid from at least 3 known fatty acid binding sites on HSA that also bind many drugs. Binding isotherms of testosterone's binding to HSA generated using fluorescence spectroscopy and equilibrium dialysis were nonlinear and the apparent dissociation constant varied with different concentrations of testosterone and HSA. The binding isotherms neither conformed to a linear binding model with 1:1 stoichiometry nor to 2 independent binding sites; the binding isotherms were most consistent with 2 or more allosterically coupled binding sites. Molecular dynamics studies revealed that testosterone's binding to fatty acid binding site 3 on HSA was associated with conformational changes at site 6, indicating that residues in in these 2 distinct binding sites are allosterically coupled. There are multiple, allosterically coupled binding sites for testosterone on HSA. Testosterone shares these binding sites on HSA with free fatty acids, which could displace testosterone from HSA under various physiological states or disease conditions, affecting its bioavailability.

Race/Ethnicity, Underlying Medical Conditions, Homelessness, and Hospitalization Status of Adult Patients with COVID-19 at an Urban Safety-Net Medical Center - Boston, Massachusetts, 2020.

As of July 5, 2020, approximately 2.8 million coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and 130,000 COVID-19-associated deaths had been reported in the United States (1). Populations historically affected by health disparities, including certain racial and ethnic minority populations, have been disproportionally affected by and hospitalized with COVID-19 (2-4). Data also suggest a higher prevalence of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, among persons experiencing homelessness (5). Safety-net hospitals,† such as Boston Medical Center (BMC), which provide health care to persons regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay, treat higher proportions of these populations and might experience challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report describes the characteristics and clinical outcomes of adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 treated at BMC during March 1-May 18, 2020. During this time, 2,729 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection were treated at BMC and categorized into one of the following mutually exclusive clinical severity designations: exclusive outpatient management (1,543; 56.5%), non-intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalization (900; 33.0%), ICU hospitalization without invasive mechanical ventilation (69; 2.5%), ICU hospitalization with mechanical ventilation (119; 4.4%), and death (98; 3.6%). The cohort comprised 44.6% non-Hispanic black (black) patients and 30.1% Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic) patients. Persons experiencing homelessness accounted for 16.4% of patients. Most patients who died were aged ≥60 years (81.6%). Clinical severity differed by age, race/ethnicity, underlying medical conditions, and homelessness. A higher proportion of Hispanic patients were hospitalized (46.5%) than were black (39.5%) or non-Hispanic white (white) (34.4%) patients, a finding most pronounced among those aged <60 years. A higher proportion of non-ICU inpatients were experiencing homelessness (24.3%), compared with homeless patients who were admitted to the ICU without mechanical ventilation (15.9%), with mechanical ventilation (15.1%), or who died (15.3%). Patient characteristics associated with illness and clinical severity, such as age, race/ethnicity, homelessness, and underlying medical conditions can inform tailored strategies that might improve outcomes and mitigate strain on the health care system from COVID-19.

Coordinatively unsaturated metal sites (open metal sites) in metal-organic frameworks: design and applications.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can contain open metal sites (OMS) or coordinatively unsaturated sites (CUS) or open coordination sites (OCS) when vacant Lewis acid sites on the metal ions or cluster nodes have been generated. This review combines for the first time all aspects of OMS in MOFs, starting from different preparation strategies over theoretical studies on the effects of OMS with host-guest interactions up to distinct OMS-MOF applications. In the experimental part the focus of this review is on MOFs with proven OMS formation which are not only invoked but are clearly verified by analytical methods.

Among Low-Income Adults Enrolled In Medicaid, Churning Decreased After The Affordable Care Act.

Coverage disruptions and coverage loss occur frequently among Medicaid enrollees and are associated with delayed health care access and reduced medication adherence. Little is known about the effect on churning of the expansion of eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which had the potential to reduce coverage disruptions as a result of increased outreach and more generous income eligibility criteria. We used a difference-in-differences framework to compare rates of coverage disruption in expansion versus nonexpansion states, and in subgroups of states that used alternative expansion strategies. We found that among low-income Medicaid beneficiaries ages 19-64, disruption in coverage decreased 4.3 percentage points in the post-ACA period in expansion states compared to nonexpansion states, and there was a similar decrease in the share of people who experienced a period without any insurance. Men, people of color, and those without chronic illnesses experienced the largest improvements in coverage continuity. Coverage disruptions declined in both traditional expansion states and those that used Section 1115 waivers for expansion. Our quasi-experimental study provides the first nationwide evidence that Medicaid expansion led to decreased rates of coverage disruption. We estimate that half a million fewer adults experienced an episode of churning annually.

Acetylenedicarboxylate and In Situ Generated Chlorofumarate-Based Hafnium(IV)-Metal-Organic Frameworks: Synthesis, Structure, and Sorption Properties.

New acetylenedicarboxylate (ADC) and chlorofumarate (Fum-Cl) based hafnium-metal-organic frameworks have been synthesized by alternatively reacting acetylenedicarboxylic acid in DMF or water with appropriate hafnium salt, in the presence of acetic acid modulator. The two materials of respective ideal formulas [Hf6O4(OH)4(ADC)6] (Hf-HHU-1) and [Hf6O4(OH)4(Fum-Cl)6] (Hf-HHU-2) have been structurally characterized by powder X-ray diffraction to be UiO-66 isostructural, consisting of octahedral [Hf6O4(OH)4]12+ secondary building units each connected to other units by 12 ADC or Fum-Cl linkers into a microporous network with fcu topology. This structure was confirmed by Rietveld refinement. Hf-HHU-2 is formed by in situ hydrochlorination of acetylenedicarboxylic acid to chlorofumarate. Its presence has been determined by combined Raman spectroscopy, solid-state NMR, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. Hf-HHU-1 and Hf-HHU-2 exhibit very high hydrophilicity as revealed by their water sorption profiles, meanwhile Hf-HHU-2 adsorbs CO2 with an isosteric heat of 39 kJ mol-1. Hf-HHU-2 also adsorbs molecular iodine vapor exclusively as polyiodide anions due to grafted chloro-functions on the pores surface. It has been observed that defective nanodomains with reo tolopology can be introduced in the structure of Hf-HHU-2 by variation of the linker to metal-salt molar ratio.