Meeting new health care challenges with a proven innovation: nurse-managed health care clinics.

Beginning in January 2014, millions of Americans will enroll in health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. Some of these individuals were obtaining health care in safety net health clinics, emergency departments, or urgent care centers; many were going without needed care and will be new to the health care system. In addition to these newly insured, the ranks of older Americans and persons in need of chronic disease management will be on the rise. The way in which health care is delivered will have to change in order for the health care workforce to meet the demand for their services without sacrificing quality or access. Nurse practitioners and registered nurses have the education and skills to provide health promotion, disease prevention, and chronic disease management services that will make up a sizable portion of the demand. Amending state practice acts so that the authority to practice matches the ability to practice and opening provider panels to advanced practice nurses will provide opportunities to establish or expand sustainable nurse-led primary care practices in health care shortage areas. Along with these changes, models of health care delivery that incorporate differentiated practice roles and shared interprofessional responsibility for providing care will maximize the capacity of the system to provide the health care that people need.

Manchester Intermittent and Daily diet Type 1 Diabetes App Study (MIDDAS-Type 1): protocol for a randomised feasibility trial of an intermittent and continuous low-energy diet in patients with type 1 diabetes and overweight and obesity.

INTRODUCTION: Rising levels of overweight and obesity among people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) contribute to insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, retinopathy, cardiometabolic complications and psychological morbidity. Continuous low-energy diets (CLED) providing approximately 800 kcal (3347 kJ)/day can produce significant weight loss in type 2 diabetes, and intermittent low-energy diets (ILED) may be an alternative. The Manchester Intermittent and Daily diet Type 1 Diabetes App Study (MIDDAS-Type 1) aims to assess the safety, acceptability and feasibility of remotely delivered ILED and CLED programmes for people with T1D and overweight and obesity. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Twelve participants with T1D and body mass index ≥27.5 kg/m2 (≥25 kg/m2 in high-risk ethnic minorities) recruited from an National Health Service (NHS) trust and research register in England will be randomised to a remotely delivered CLED (n=6) or ILED (n=6) for 12 weeks. The CLED includes a daily Optifast 850 kcal (3556 kJ) 75 g carbohydrate formula diet. The ILED includes 2 days/week of Optifast and 5 days of a portion-controlled Mediterranean diet (170-250 g carbohydrate/day). Both groups will receive matched high-frequency remote support from a dietitian, nurse and psychologist via telephone and/or the Oviva app. The primary outcome will assess safety (occurrence of severe hypoglycaemia, ketonaemia, ketoacidosis and time above and below target blood glucose). Secondary outcomes include study uptake, retention, dietary adherence, acceptability, intervention delivery fidelity and potential efficacy in relation to change in weight, insulin requirements, glycated haemoglobin, lipids, insulin resistance (estimated glucose disposal rate) and quality of life. Participants will be invited for optional repeat measurements at 52 weeks. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The trial protocol (V4.0/08.06.2022) was granted ethical approval by Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee (Ref: 21/EE/0014). The study will inform progression to a full-scale randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy of these programmes for patients with T1D and overweight and obesity. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04674384; Pre-results.

False alarm reduction in critical care.

High false alarm rates in the ICU decrease quality of care by slowing staff response times while increasing patient delirium through noise pollution. The 2015 PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge provides a set of 1250 multi-parameter ICU data segments associated with critical arrhythmia alarms, and challenges the general research community to address the issue of false alarm suppression using all available signals. Each data segment was 5 minutes long (for real time analysis), ending at the time of the alarm. For retrospective analysis, we provided a further 30 seconds of data after the alarm was triggered. A total of 750 data segments were made available for training and 500 were held back for testing. Each alarm was reviewed by expert annotators, at least two of whom agreed that the alarm was either true or false. Challenge participants were invited to submit a complete, working algorithm to distinguish true from false alarms, and received a score based on their program's performance on the hidden test set. This score was based on the percentage of alarms correct, but with a penalty that weights the suppression of true alarms five times more heavily than acceptance of false alarms. We provided three example entries based on well-known, open source signal processing algorithms, to serve as a basis for comparison and as a starting point for participants to develop their own code. A total of 38 teams submitted a total of 215 entries in this year's Challenge. This editorial reviews the background issues for this challenge, the design of the challenge itself, the key achievements, and the follow-up research generated as a result of the Challenge, published in the concurrent special issue of Physiological Measurement. Additionally we make some recommendations for future changes in the field of patient monitoring as a result of the Challenge.

The PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2015: Reducing False Arrhythmia Alarms in the ICU.

High false alarm rates in the ICU decrease quality of care by slowing staff response times while increasing patient delirium through noise pollution. The 2015 Physio-Net/Computing in Cardiology Challenge provides a set of 1,250 multi-parameter ICU data segments associated with critical arrhythmia alarms, and challenges the general research community to address the issue of false alarm suppression using all available signals. Each data segment was 5 minutes long (for real time analysis), ending at the time of the alarm. For retrospective analysis, we provided a further 30 seconds of data after the alarm was triggered. A collection of 750 data segments was made available for training and a set of 500 was held back for testing. Each alarm was reviewed by expert annotators, at least two of whom agreed that the alarm was either true or false. Challenge participants were invited to submit a complete, working algorithm to distinguish true from false alarms, and received a score based on their program's performance on the hidden test set. This score was based on the percentage of alarms correct, but with a penalty that weights the suppression of true alarms five times more heavily than acceptance of false alarms. We provided three example entries based on well-known, open source signal processing algorithms, to serve as a basis for comparison and as a starting point for participants to develop their own code. A total of 38 teams submitted a total of 215 entries in this year's Challenge.

Factors influencing aggregation patterns in the sand crab Emerita analoga (Crustacea: Hippidae).

Aggregation patterns in Emerita analoga (in southern California) are delineated with respect to their spatial, daily, and seasonal components. Both abiotic and biotic factors are found to be associated with patterns of aggregation. Spatially, E. analoga aggregates from March through September to a significantly greater degree in the upper one-third area of the wash zone where exposure to wave shock and fish predation are probably decreased. Sand crabs are more aggregated on a daily basis during low tides than at high tides. This may be due to differential rates of migration caused by a decrease in the beach slope angle. Two seasonal peak periods of aggregation are present, one in the early spring, and one in the late summer. These periods occur during the times of highest reproductive female abundance. High seasonal intensities of aggregation probably function to facilitate mating through the maintenance of close proximity between males and females. Visual methods and/or quantitative sampling based on visual observations do not adequately reflect patterns of aggregation in E. analoga.

The impact of alcohol use in community-dwelling older adults.

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of alcohol in community-dwelling older adults and to consider differences in physical and mental health, function, cognitive status, and social supports between those who drink minimal (1 to 3 glasses weekly), moderate (4 to 7 glasses weekly), or no alcohol. A total of 3305 older adults with a mean age of 81.6 -/+ 6.0 participated in the study. Twenty-two percent (n = 709) of the participants had 1 to 3 drinks weekly, only 1% (n = 18) reported 4 to 7 drinks weekly, and none of the participants admitted to 8 or more drinks. There was no difference in drinking behavior with regard to age (F = 1.1, p >.05) or social supports (F =.39, p >.05). There was a difference in drinking behavior with regard to physical health (F = 4.9, p <.05), functional status (F = 7.7, p <.05), cognitive status (F = 11.8, p <.05), and mental health (F = 6.9, p <.05). Health care providers should use an individualized approach to alcohol use in older adults and help these individuals establish, as appropriate, safe drinking habits that will augment health and quality of life.