Virtual Interactive Case-Based Education (VICE): A Conference for Deliberate Practice of Diagnostic Reasoning.

Introduction: Current approaches to teaching diagnostic reasoning minimally address the need for deliberate practice. We developed an educational conference for internal medicine residents to practice diagnostic reasoning and examine how biases affect their differential diagnoses through cognitive autopsies. Methods: We formatted the Virtual Interactive Case-Based Education (VICE) conference as a clinical problem-solving exercise, in which a facilitator presents a case to a single discussant selected from the audience. We delivered VICE on an internet-based conferencing platform with screen-sharing capability over approximately 30 minutes. To maximize learners' psychological safety, we employed an active facilitation model that normalized uncertainty and prioritized the diagnostic process over arriving at the correct diagnosis. Results: Resident attitudes toward VICE were assessed by utilizing a postconference survey and gathering descriptive data for 11 sessions. Ninety-seven percent of respondents (n = 35) felt that VICE was a novel and valuable addition to their curriculum. Qualitative data suggested that positive features of the conference included the opportunity to practice diagnostic reasoning, the single-discussant format, and the supportive learning environment. Discussants reported that holding the conference in person would have negatively impacted their experience. Discussion: Internal medicine residents universally valued the opportunity to engage in deliberate practice of case-based reasoning in a psychologically safe environment during the VICE conference. The virtual nature of the conference contributed significantly to discussants' positive experience. This resource includes all materials necessary to implement VICE, as well as an instructional video on facilitation.

Leveraging an electronic health record note template to standardize screening and testing for COVID-19.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic challenged health care organizations to develop ways to provide patient care with rapidly changing guidelines and scarce resources. Clinical leaders and informatics specialists partnered to rapidly develop an electronic health record (EHR) template for primary care staff to screen Veterans at Veterans Affairs (VA) Puget Sound. The template prompts categorization of patients by stability and suspicion for COVID-19, and provides just-in-time triaging advice for clinic staff. Each category is a discrete data element and this information was used by leadership to track screening and testing volumes. We found that a brief, practical EHR note template can be quickly adopted to inform guideline-based screening, direct patient care, and conserve resources.

Rictor/mTORC2 facilitates central regulation of energy and glucose homeostasis.

Insulin signaling in the central nervous system (CNS) regulates energy balance and peripheral glucose homeostasis. Rictor is a key regulatory/structural subunit of the mTORC2 complex and is required for hydrophobic motif site phosphorylation of Akt at serine 473. To examine the contribution of neuronal Rictor/mTORC2 signaling to CNS regulation of energy and glucose homeostasis, we utilized Cre-LoxP technology to generate mice lacking Rictor in all neurons, or in either POMC or AgRP expressing neurons. Rictor deletion in all neurons led to increased fat mass and adiposity, glucose intolerance and behavioral leptin resistance. Disrupting Rictor in POMC neurons also caused obesity and hyperphagia, fasting hyperglycemia and pronounced glucose intolerance. AgRP neuron specific deletion did not impact energy balance but led to mild glucose intolerance. Collectively, we show that Rictor/mTORC2 signaling, especially in POMC-expressing neurons, is important for central regulation of energy and glucose homeostasis.

Methodology and bias in assessing compliance with a surgical safety checklist.

BACKGROUND: Surgical safety checklists, such as the perioperative time-out, have been shown to improve performance on a variety of patient safety measures. A variety of methods have been used to assess compliance with the perioperative time-out, but no standardized methodology with a reliable observer group currently exists. An observation-based methodology was used to assess time-out compliance at an academic medical center. METHODS: A single observer group made up of medical students and nurses recorded compliance with each of the 11 standardized items of the time-out. A total of 193 time-out procedures were observed, 48 by medical students and 145 by nurses. RESULTS: One item (procedure to be performed) achieved > 95% compliance. Three items (surgical site; availability of necessary blood products, implants, devices; and start of antibiotics) achieved 80%-95% compliance. Seven items achieved < 80% compliance (presence of required members of procedure team, presence of person who marked patient, patient identity, side marking, relevant images, allergies, and discussion of relevant special considerations). Compliance with the four core time-out items was 78.2%. Of the 11 items on the time-out being evaluated, there was a statistically significant difference between medical student and nursing observations for 10 items (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: In our cohort of observed time-outs, the compliance rate was low, calling into question time-out quality, and, more importantly, patient safety. Measures must be taken by large hospitals to regularly audit time-out compliance and create effective programming to improve performance. Although observational assessment is an effective method to assess compliance with surgical safety checklists, observer group bias has the potential to skew results.