The Feasibility of Using Point of Care Ultrasound as a Visual Substitute for Physical Examination During Telehealth Visits: A Pilot Project.

Telehealth provides greater opportunity for specialty access but lacks components of the physical exam. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) may assist telehealth as a visual substitute for the provision of palpation. We conducted a prospective observational pilot project to survey oncologists about (1) their expectations of POCUS, (2) their use of POCUS in oncology telehealth visits, and (3) post-project assessment of their experiences. The results of the pre-assessment survey showed an interest among the oncologists in the ability to evaluate structures remotely via POCUS. POCUS was utilized in 6.4% of visits, most commonly for lymph node assessment (60% of use). POCUS was not utilized most often due to not being applicable to the patient's visit. There were 14 instances of technical issues limiting views of the relevant anatomy reported. Oncologists rated the use of POCUS as very satisfied or satisfied in the vast number of recorded responses. This pilot study suggests POCUS can be integrated into oncology telehealth visits for specific applications such as lymph node assessment. The surveys indicated a potential interest and positive responses that provide for the foundation of expansion to subspecialty care access for patients with telehealth supported by POCUS.

Developing a STEM+M Identity in Underrepresented Minority Youth Through Biomechanics and Sports-Based Education.

A Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine (STEM+M) identity, a form of social identity, is the extent to which an individual feels accepted in the STEM+M career fields. The development of a strong STEM+M identity hinges largely on one's perceived self-efficacy in STEM+M and can be bolstered by associating STEM+M with other areas in which an individual already exhibits self-efficacy. In this study, a basketball camp served as a platform for STEM+M education in an effort to link participants' self-efficacy in basketball to STEM+M concepts where they may feel less self-efficacious. Over the first 2 years of the program, known as the Youth Sports Lab (YSL), two cohorts of underrepresented minority (URM) middle school students attended a 4-day long basketball camp hosted at Columbia University in partnership with Harlem- and Albany-based afterschool programs. The camp consisted of basketball training, jump plate fabrication, data collection, invited speakers, and group-based research projects. Our hypotheses were that participation in the program would lead to improved (1) familiarity, (2) perceived importance, and (3) interest in STEM+M. Participant responses, gathered from a 17-question Likert-scale survey administered before and after the camp, demonstrated 10 questions with significantly increased responses due to the program. The results support the conclusion that the sports-based engineering program increased STEM+M identity in the URM cohort. Future improvements to the program will include midyear student engagement and long-term follow-up.

Changes in standing stability with balance-based torso-weighting with cerebellar ataxia: A pilot study.

OBJECTIVES: People with cerebellar ataxia have few options to improve the standing stability they need for function. Strategic placement of light weights on the torso using the balance-based torso-weighting (BBTW) method has improved stability and reduced falls in people with multiple sclerosis, but has not been tested in cerebellar ataxia. We examined whether torso-weighting increased standing stability and/or functional movement in people with cerebellar ataxia. METHODS: Ten people with cerebellar ataxia and 10 matched controls participated in this single-session quasi-experimental pilot study. People with ataxia performed the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA) prior to clinical testing. All participants donned inertial sensors that recorded postural sway; stopwatches recorded duration for standing and mobility tasks. All participants stood for up to 30 s on firm and foam surfaces with eyes open then eyes closed, and performed the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. Light weights (0.57-1.25 kg) were strategically applied to a vest-like garment. Paired t tests compared within-group differences with and without BBTW weights. Independent t tests assessed differences from controls. All t tests were one-tailed with alpha set at .05. RESULTS: Duration of standing for people with ataxia was significantly longer with weighting (p = .004); all controls stood for the maximum time of 120 s with and without weights. More severe ataxia according to SARA was moderately correlated with greater improvement in standing duration with BBTW (Pearson r = .54). Tasks with more sensory challenges (eyes closed, standing on firm surface) showed less body sway with weighting. Duration for the TUG was unchanged by torso-weighting in people with ataxia. CONCLUSION: Strategic weighting improved standing stability but not movement speed in people with ataxia. BBTW has potential for improving stability and response to challenging sensory conditions in this population. Future studies should further examine gait stability measures along with movement speed.

Multispectral photoacoustic microscopy of lipids using a pulsed supercontinuum laser.

We demonstrate optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) of lipid-rich tissue between 1050-1714 nm using a pulsed supercontinuum laser based on a large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber. OR-PAM experiments of lipid-rich samples show the expected optical absorption peaks near 1210 and 1720 nm. These results show that pulsed supercontinuum lasers are promising for OR-PAM applications such as label-free histology of lipid-rich tissue and imaging small animal models of disease.