Treatment modalities in brachioradial pruritis: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Brachioradial pruritis is a rare dysesthesia syndrome that is known to negatively impact quality of life. No consensus exists regarding optimal treatment strategies. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Collaboration Clinical Trials Registry from 1966 to 2021 for studies using the title word "brachioradial pruritis" with no language restriction. One author (A.Z.) screened and performed full article reviews of all randomized clinical trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, case reports, and case series describing treatment outcomes among patients with brachioradial pruritis. RESULTS: We identified 239 potential articles with a final set of 45 articles meeting inclusion criteria. Only a single randomized clinical trial was identified, finding no significant benefit of topical capsaicin cream. Treatment modalities with the greatest number of reported successful therapeutic trials include gabapentin and tricyclic antidepressants. In patients with confirmed cervical spine disease, spine-directed therapies such as epidural injections were found to be beneficial. Case reports and small case series describing less-common treatments were also identified. DISCUSSION: The literature is overall limited with the greatest support for gabapentin, pregabalin, tricyclic antidepressants, and spine-directed therapies in appropriate patients with brachioradial pruritis. Future randomized clinical trials are needed to compare the relative effectiveness of available treatments.

Assessment of dementia knowledge and its associated factors among final year medical undergraduates in selected universities across Malaysia.

BACKGROUND: The elderly population in Malaysia are projected to reach almost one third of the total population by 2040. The absence of a National Dementia Strategy (NDS) in preparing the healthcare services for the ageing population is compounded by the lack of assessment of preparedness of future healthcare workers to manage complications related to ageing i.e., dementia. Studies in countries with NDS demonstrated lack of dementia knowledge among medical undergraduates. Hence, this study aimed to assess the knowledge on dementia among final year medical undergraduates in Malaysia and its associated factors, using the Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale (DKAS). METHODS: This cross-sectional study, employed multistage sampling method to recruit final year medical undergraduates from eleven selected public and private medical institutions across Malaysia. Online self-administered measures were delivered to final year medical undergraduates through representatives of medical students' society after approval from Deanery and institutional ethics board of participating universities. The measure collected demographic information, previous dementia exposure (i.e., formal or informal) and the 25-item Likert scale DKAS. Bivariate analysis and linear regression were conducted to confirm factors influencing dementia knowledge components. RESULTS: A total of 464 respondents from 7 universities participated in this study. Overall dementia knowledge among respondents with and without exposure, was low, with average score of 29.60 ± 6.97 and 28.22 ± 6.98, respectively. DKAS subscales analysis revealed respondents scored highest in care consideration subscale (9.49 ± 2.37) and lowest in communication and behaviour subscale (4.38 ± 2.39). However, only causes and characteristic subscale recorded significantly higher knowledge score among respondents with previous exposure (7.88 ± 2.58) (p =0.015). Higher knowledge of dementia was associated with previous formal dementia education (p=0.037) and informal occupational/working experience in caring for dementia patients (p = 0.001). Informal occupational/working experience (B = 4.141, 95% CI 1.748-6.535, p = 0.001) had greater effect than formal education (i.e. lectures/workshops) (B = 1.393, 95% CI 0.086-2.700, p = 0.037) to influence respondents' knowledge on dementia. CONCLUSION: Dementia knowledge among final year medical undergraduates is low. To improve dementia knowledge, Malaysian medical curriculum should be reviewed to incorporate formal education and informal occupational/working experience, as early as in undergraduate training to help prepare future healthcare providers to recognise dementia among ageing Malaysians.

Incidence and Characteristics of Delayed Injection Site Reaction to the mRNA-1273 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Vaccine (Moderna) in a Cohort of Hospital Employees.

BACKGROUND: mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are administered to 2 million individuals per day in the United States under US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization. METHODS: Observational cohort study of hospital employees who received their first SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination between 14 December 2020 and 8 January 2021, including employees who reported onset of an injection site reaction ≥48 hours after administration of their first or second dose to an employee hotline. RESULTS: Thirteen female employees who received the mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna) during the first 3 weeks of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine rollout at San Francisco General Hospital reported a pruritic rash at the injection site appearing 3 -9 days after receipt of their initial dose. Five had milder or similar reactions with earlier onset after the second dose. One additional female employee reported this delayed reaction only after the second dose. None reported serious adverse events or had symptoms severe enough to seek medical attention. These cases represented 1.1% of the 1275 female employees who received their first mRNA-1273 dose and 2.0% of the 557 who were aged 31 -45 years during this initial vaccine rollout. None of 675 males who initiated mRNA-1273 or 3612 employees of any sex who initiated BNT162b (Pfizer) vaccination during this period reported delayed-onset reactions. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that delayed-onset, injection site pruritic rashes after mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine administration, lasting up to 1 week, occur commonly in females, do not lead to serious sequela, and should not deter receipt of the second vaccine dose.

Designing and Implementing a Novel Virtual Rounds Curriculum for Medical Students' Internal Medicine Clerkship During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, third-year medical students were temporarily unable to participate in onsite clinical activities. We identified the curricular components of an internal medicine (IM) clerkship that would be compromised if students learned solely from online didactics, case studies, and simulations (i.e., prerounding, oral presentations, diagnostic reasoning, and medical management discussions). Using these guiding principles, we created a virtual rounds (VR) curriculum to provide IM clerkship students with clinical exposure during a virtual learning period. Methods: Held three times a week for 2 weeks, VR consisted of three curricular components. First, clerkship students prerounded on an assigned hospitalized patient by remotely accessing the electronic health record and calling into hospital rounds. Second, each student prepared an oral presentation on their assigned patient. Third, using videoconferencing, students delivered these oral presentations to telemedicine VR small groups consisting of three to four students and three tele-instructors. Tele-instructors then provided feedback on oral presentations and taught clinical concepts. We assessed the effectiveness of VR by anonymously surveying students and tele-instructors. Results: Twenty-nine students and 34 volunteer tele-instructors participated in VR over four blocks. A majority of students felt VR improved their prerounding abilities (86%), oral presentation abilities (93%), and clinical reasoning skills (62%). All students found small group to be useful. Discussion: VR allowed students to practice rounding skills in a supportive team-based setting. The lessons learned from its implementation could facilitate education during future pandemics and could also supplement in-person clerkship education.

Impact of Teledermatology Program on Dermatology Resident Experience and Education.

Background: Despite many dermatology residency programs establishing teledermatology programs, few studies have analyzed its impact on resident education. Introduction: We evaluated the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine teledermatology program at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG). We sought to evaluate resident perspectives on teledermatology and quantify its effects on the number of cases evaluated. Materials and Methods: Each week, dermatology residents triage new teledermatology referrals under the supervision of a dermatology attending. We anonymously surveyed dermatology residents and recent graduates who participated in teledermatology and evaluated responses through inductive thematic analysis. We also used administrative records to compare the productivity ratio (cases evaluated per hour) in clinic versus in teledermatology from June to December 2017. Results: Fifteen out of 21 (71%) potential respondents completed the survey. Five primary content areas emerged through the analysis, with teledermatology providing high caseload, a low-stress learning environment, and opportunities to consider a broad differential diagnoses while developing visual diagnostic and triaging skills. Residents had a productivity ratio of 4.55 (680.7 patients/149.7 h) in dermatology clinic versus 11.49 (299.7 patients/26.1 h) in teledermatology sessions. Discussion: Our thematic analysis to identify the most valued components of teledermatology is novel and can aid the design of teledermatology programs in other settings. We also found that residents evaluated twice the number of patient cases per unit time, with the implication that teledermatology can catalyze the development of visual morphology abilities. Conclusions: Teledermatology is viewed positively by dermatology residents and enables efficient case review by residents.

Cost Minimization Analysis of a Teledermatology Triage System in a Managed Care Setting.

Importance: Teledermatology (TD) enables remote triage and management of dermatology patients. Previous analyses of TD systems have demonstrated improved access to care but an inconsistent fiscal impact. Objective: To compare the organizationwide cost of managing newly referred dermatology patients within a TD triage system vs a conventional dermatology care model at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (hereafter referred to as the ZSFG) in California. Design, Setting, and Participants: A retrospective cost minimization analysis was conducted of 2098 patients referred to the dermatology department at the ZSFG between June 1 and December 31, 2017. Intervention: Implementation of the TD triage system in January 2015. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was mean cost to the health care organization to manage newly referred dermatology patients with or without TD triage. To estimate costs, decision-tree models were constructed to characterize possible care paths with TD triage and within a conventional dermatology care model. Costs associated with primary care visits, dermatology visits, and TD visits were then applied to the decision-tree models to estimate the mean cost of managing patients following each care path for 6 months. The mean cost for each visit type incorporated personnel costs, with the mean cost per TD consultation also incorporating software implementation and maintenance costs. Finally, ZSFG patient data were applied within the models to evaluate branch probabilities, enabling calculation of mean cost per patient within each model. Results: The analysis captured 2098 patients (1154 men [55.0%]; mean [SD] age, 53.4 [16.8] years), with 1099 (52.4%) having Medi-Cal insurance and 879 (41.9%) identifying as non-White. In the decision-tree model with TD triage, the mean (SD) cost per patient to the health care organization was $559.84 ($319.29). In the decision-tree model for conventional dermatology care, the mean (SD) cost per patient was $699.96 ($390.24). Therefore, the TD model demonstrated a statistically significant mean (SE) cost savings of $140.12 ($11.01) per patient. Given an annual dermatology referral volume of 3150 patients, the analysis estimates an annual savings of $441 378. Conclusions and Relevance: Implementation of a TD triage system within the dermatology department at the ZSFG was associated with cost savings, suggesting that managed health care settings may experience significant cost savings from using TD to triage and manage patients.

A generalized heat conduction model of higher-order time derivatives and three-phase-lags for non-simple thermoelastic materials.

In the current work, a new generalized model of heat conduction has been constructed taking into account the influence of the microscopic structure into the on non-simple thermoelastic materials. The new model was established on the basis of the system of equations that includes three-phase lags of higher-order and two different temperatures, namely thermodynamic and conductive temperature. The two-temperature thermoelastic model presented by Chen and Gurtin (Z Angew Math Phys 19(4):614-627, 1968) and some other previous models have been introduced as special cases from the proposed model. As an application of the new model, we studied the thermoelastic interactions resulting from sudden heating in an isotropic solid subjected to external body force. The influence of the discrepancy parameter and higher-order of the time-derivative has been discussed. This work will enable future investigators to gain insight into non-simple thermoelasticity with different phase delays of higher-order in detail.

Impact of teledermatology on the accessibility and efficiency of dermatology care in an urban safety-net hospital: A pre-post analysis.

BACKGROUND: Teledermatology enables dermatologists to remotely triage and evaluate dermatology patients, but previous studies have questioned whether teledermatology is clinically efficient. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether implementation of a teledermatology system at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center has improved the accessibility and efficiency of dermatology care delivery. METHODS: Retrospective, pre-post analysis of a pre-teledermatology cohort (June 2014-December 2014) compared with a post-teledermatology cohort (June 2017-December 2017). RESULTS: Our analysis captured 11,586 patients. After implementation of teledermatology, waiting times for new patients decreased significantly (84.6 days vs 6.7 days; P < .001), total cases evaluated per month increased significantly (754 vs 901; P = .008), and number of cases evaluated per dermatologist-hour increased significantly (2.27 vs 2.63; P = .010). In the post-teledermatology period, 61.8% of teledermatology consults were managed without a clinic visit. LIMITATIONS: We were unable to control for changes in demand for dermatology evaluations between the 2 periods and did not have a control group with which to compare our results. CONCLUSION: The dermatology service was more accessible and more efficient after implementation of teledermatology, suggesting that capitated health care settings can benefit from implementation of a teledermatology system.

Outbreak of foodborne gastroenteritis in a senior high school in South-eastern Ghana: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: On 4th February 2015, a group of Senior High School students from Fanteakwa district presented to the emergency unit of the district hospital with complaints of abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea. All the students had eaten from a specific food vendor and had neither eaten any other common meal that day nor the previous day. A foodborne disease outbreak was suspected. We investigated to verify the outbreak, determine its magnitude, identify the source and implement control measures. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. We reviewed medical records and interviewed patrons of the food vendor. We collected data on age, sex, signs and symptoms, date of illness onset, date of admission, date of discharge, treatments given and outcome. A case of foodborne disease was any person in the school with abdominal pain, vomiting and or diarrhoea from 4th to 11th February 2015 and had eaten from the food vendor. We conducted active case search to identify more cases. We conducted environmental assessment and collected clinical and food samples for laboratory testing. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed using Stata 12.0. RESULTS: A total of 68 cases were recorded giving overall attack rate of 35.79 % (68/190) with no death. Of these, 51.47 % (35/68) were males. Mean age of case-patients was 17.8 (standard deviation +/-1.62). The index case, a 17-year-old female student ate from the food vendor on 4th February at 9:00 am and fell ill at 3:40 pm later that day. Compared to those who ate other food items, students who drank water from container at the canteen were more likely to develop foodborne disease at statistically significant levels [RR = 2.6, 95 % CI = (2.11-3.15)]. Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) and Salmonella species (Salmonella spp) were isolated from water and stew respectively. Clinical features of case-patients were compatible with both organisms. CONCLUSION: A foodborne gastroenteritis outbreak occurred in a Senior High School in Fanteakwa District from 4th to 7th February 2015. The most probable aetiologic agent was C. perfringens with contaminated water at canteen as the vehicle of transmission. Concurrent Salmonella spp infection could not be ruled out. Rapid outbreak response helped in controlling the outbreak.