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Understanding and Addressing Disparities in Diagnosis: Case 1

Understanding and Addressing Disparities in Diagnosis: Case 1 explores a case in the inpatient setting. The case focuses primarily on diagnostic challenges that may arise when physicians work with patients who have limited English proficiency. This module offers both CME and MOC credit free to members and for a small fee to non-members.

Understanding and Addressing Disparities in Diagnosis

Understanding and Addressing Disparities in Diagnosis provides an overview of clinical reasoning processes. It also introduces learners to the concept of unconscious bias and how unconscious biases affect medical diagnostic decision-making process in diagnosis, leading to poorer outcomes for patients. This module offers both CME and MOC credit free to members and for a small fee to non-members.

(Under) Representation Series: Occupational Therapy

Physicians are often attune to the racial/ethnic and gender underrepresentation within medicine, but less so within nursing, and even less in the rehabilitative medicine fields (occupational therapy and physical therapy). According to 2019 data in OT, about 84% of OTs self-identify as non-Hispanic White, and 4% as Black, which is a decrease from 8% over 10 years before in 2004. Only about 10% of OT practitioners, as well as students in the OT assistant, masters, and doctoral programs, self-identify as male.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a prevalent disease that increases risk for vascular, renal, and neurologic complications. Prevention and treatment of T2D and its complications are paramount. Many advancements in T2D care have emerged over the past 5 years, including increased understanding of the importance of early intensive glycemic control, mental health, social determinants of health, healthy eating patterns, continuous glucose monitoring, and the benefits of some drugs for preventing cardiorenal disease.

Type 1 Diabetes: Age at Diagnosis

In this episode of Annals On Call, Dr. Centor discusses the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes mellitus in adults with Dr. Michael Fang. First, listen to the podcast. After listening, ACP members can take the CME/MOC quiz for free.

Travel Medicine

International travel can cause new illness or exacerbate existing conditions. Because primary care providers are frequent sources of health advice to travelers, they should be familiar with destination-specific disease risks, be knowledgeable about travel and routine vaccines, be prepared to prescribe chemoprophylaxis and self-treatment regimens, and be aware of travel medicine resources. Primary care providers should recognize travelers who would benefit from referral to a specialized travel clinic for evaluation.

Trauma-Informed Care Part 2

Resilience is an essential part of human adaptation to challenges. Uncovering and supporting resilience factors must be central in healthcare professionals’ efforts to provide trauma-informed care. The DEI Shift examines why some have even suggested reframing the approach as “resilience-informed care." First, listen to the podcast. After listening, ACP members can take the CME/MOC quiz for free.

Trauma-Informed Care Part 1

Trauma has an undeniable impact on our patients' health and illness, and resilience is vital to their ability to buffer that trauma. The DEI Shift welcomes Dr. Moira Szilagyi, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Dr.

Transfusion Thresholds in Myocardial Infarction

In this episode of Annals On Call, Dr. Centor discusses transfusion thresholds in persons with myocardial infarction with Drs. Jeffrey Carson and Maria Brooks. First, listen to the podcast. After listening, ACP members can take the CME/MOC quiz for free.

Trach Care: 5 Pearls Segment

In this episode of Core IM, the team dives into identifying the key components of a tracheostomy tube, including the outer cannula and its correlation to the listed tracheostomy tube size. Join them and their guests as they explore common complications related to tracheostomy tubes, and consider how the management of those complications depends on the timing of tracheostomy tube placement.

These Annals of Internal Medicine results only contain recent articles.

Hydroxychloroquine Dose and Risk for Incident Retinopathy: A Cohort Study: Annals of Internal Medicine: Vol 176, No 2

Background: Hydroxychloroquine is recommended for all patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and is often used for other inflammatory conditions, but a critical long-term adverse effect is vision-threatening retinopathy. Objective: To characterize the long-term risk for incident hydroxychloroquine retinopathy and examine the degree to which average hydroxychloroquine dose within the first 5 years of treatment predicts this risk. Design: Cohort study. Setting: U.S. integrated health network. Participants: All patients aged 18 years or older who received hydroxychloroquine for 5 or more years between 2004 and 2020 and had guideline-recommended serial retinopathy screening. Measurements: Hydroxychloroquine dose was assessed from pharmacy dispensing records. Incident hydroxychloroquine retinopathy was assessed by central adjudication of spectral domain optical coherence tomography with severity assessment (mild, moderate, or severe). Risk for hydroxychloroquine retinopathy was estimated over 15 years of use according to hydroxychloroquine weight-based dose (>6, 5 to 6, or ≤5 mg/kg per day) using the Kaplan–Meier estimator. Results: Among 3325 patients in the primary study population, 81 developed hydroxychloroquine retinopathy (56 mild, 17 moderate, and 8 severe), with overall cumulative incidences of 2.5% and 8.6% at 10 and 15 years, respectively. The cumulative incidences of retinopathy at 15 years were 21.6% for higher than 6 mg/kg per day, 11.4% for 5 to 6 mg/kg per day, and 2.7% for 5 mg/kg per day or lower. The corresponding risks for moderate to severe retinopathy at 15 years were 5.9%, 2.4%, and 1.1%, respectively. Limitation: Possible misclassifications of dose due to nonadherence to filled prescriptions. Conclusion: In this large, contemporary cohort with active surveillance retinopathy screening, the overall risk for hydroxychloroquine retinopathy was 8.6% after 15 years, and most cases were mild. Higher hydroxychloroquine dose was associated with progressively greater risk for incident retinopathy. Primary Funding Source: National Institutes of Health.

Symptom and Viral Rebound in Untreated SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Background: Although symptom and viral rebound have been reported after nirmatrelvir–ritonavir treatment, the trajectories of symptoms and viral load during the natural course of COVID-19 have not been well described. Objective: To characterize symptom and viral rebound in untreated outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19. Design: Retrospective analysis of participants in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04518410) Setting: Multicenter trial. Patients: 563 participants receiving placebo in the ACTIV-2/A5401 (Adaptive Platform Treatment Trial for Outpatients With COVID-19) platform trial. Measurements: Participants recorded the severity of 13 symptoms daily between days 0 and 28. Nasal swabs were collected for SARS-CoV-2 RNA testing on days 0 to 14, 21, and 28. Symptom rebound was defined as a 4-point increase in total symptom score after improvement any time after study entry. Viral rebound was defined as an increase of at least 0.5 log10 RNA copies/mL from the immediately preceding time point to a viral load of 3.0 log10 copies/mL or higher. High-level viral rebound was defined as an increase of at least 0.5 log10 RNA copies/mL to a viral load of 5.0 log10 copies/mL or higher. Results: Symptom rebound was identified in 26% of participants at a median of 11 days after initial symptom onset. Viral rebound was detected in 31% and high-level viral rebound in 13% of participants. Most symptom and viral rebound events were transient, because 89% of symptom rebound and 95% of viral rebound events occurred at only a single time point before improving. The combination of symptom and high-level viral rebound was observed in 3% of participants. Limitation: A largely unvaccinated population infected with pre-Omicron variants was evaluated. Conclusion: Symptom or viral relapse in the absence of antiviral treatment is common, but the combination of symptom and viral rebound is rare. Primary Funding Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Health Care During Incarceration: A Policy Position Paper From the American College of Physicians

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has a long-standing commitment to improving the health of all Americans and opposes any form of discrimination in the delivery of health care services. ACP is committed to working toward fully understanding and supporting the unique needs of the incarcerated population and eliminating health disparities for these persons. In this position paper, ACP offers recommendations to policymakers and administrators to improve the health and well-being of persons incarcerated in adult correctional facilities.

Relationship Between Clinician Language and the Success of Behavioral Weight Loss Interventions: A Mixed-Methods Cohort Study: Annals of Internal Medicine: Vol 176, No 11

Background: International guidelines recommend that primary care clinicians recognize obesity and offer treatment opportunistically, but there is little evidence on how clinicians can discuss weight and offer treatment in ways that are well received and effective. Objective: To examine relationships between language used in the clinical visit and patient weight loss. Design: Mixed-methods cohort study. Setting: 38 primary care clinics in England participating in the Brief Intervention for Weight Loss trial. Participants: 246 patients with obesity seen by 87 general practitioners randomly sampled from the intervention group of the randomized clinical trial. Measurements: Conversation analysis of recorded discussions between 246 patients with obesity and 87 clinicians regarding referral to a 12-week behavioral weight management program offered as part of the randomized clinical trial. Clinicians’ interactional approaches were identified and their association with patient weight loss at 12 months (primary outcome) was examined. Secondary outcomes included patients’ agreement to attend weight management, attendance, loss of 5% body weight, actions taken to lose weight, and postvisit satisfaction. Results: Three interactional approaches were identified on the basis of clinicians’ linguistic and paralinguistic practices: creating a sense of referrals as “good news” related to the opportunity of the referral (n = 62); “bad news,” focusing on the harms of obesity (n = 82); or neutral (n = 102). Outcome data were missing from 57 participants, so weighted analyses were done to adjust for missingness. Relative to neutral news, good news was associated with increased agreement to attend the program (adjusted risk difference, 0.25 [95% CI, 0.15 to 0.35]), increased attendance (adjusted risk difference, 0.45 [CI, 0.34 to 0.56]), and weight change (adjusted difference, −3.60 [CI, −6.58 to −0.62]). There was no evidence of differences in mean weight change comparing bad and neutral news, and no evidence of differences in patient satisfaction across all 3 approaches. Limitations: Data were audio only, so body language and nonverbal cues could not be assessed. There is potential for selection bias and residual confounding. Conclusion: When raising the topic of excess weight in clinical visits, presenting weight loss treatment as a positive opportunity is associated with greater uptake of treatment and greater weight loss. Primary Funding Source: National Institute for Health and Care Research School for Primary Care Research and the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness.

High- Versus Low-Dose Exercise Therapy for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Controlled Multicenter Trial: Annals of Internal Medicine: Vol 176, No 2

Background: The benefits of exercise in patients with knee osteoarthritis are well documented, but the optimal exercise dose remains unknown. Objective: To compare high-dose versus low-dose exercise therapy with regard to knee function, pain, and quality of life (QoL) in patients with long-term symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. Design: A Swedish and Norwegian multicenter randomized controlled superiority trial with multiple follow-ups up to 12 months after the intervention. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02024126) Setting: Primary health care facilities. Patients: 189 patients with diagnosed knee osteoarthritis and a history of pain and decreased knee function were assigned to high-dose therapy (n = 98; 11 exercises; 70 to 90 minutes) or low-dose therapy (n = 91; 5 exercises; 20 to 30 minutes). Intervention: Patient-tailored exercise programs according to the principles of medical exercise therapy. Global (aerobic), semiglobal (multisegmental), and local (joint-specific) exercises were performed 3 times a week for 12 weeks under supervision of a physiotherapist. Measurements: The Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) was measured biweekly during the 3-month intervention period and at 6 and 12 months after the intervention. The primary end point was the mean difference in KOOS scores between groups at the end of the intervention (3 months). Secondary outcomes included pain intensity and QoL. The proportion of patients with minimal clinically important changes in primary and secondary outcomes was compared between groups. Results: Both groups improved over time, but there were no benefits of high-dose therapy in most comparisons. One exception was the KOOS score for function in sports and recreation, where high-dose therapy was superior at the end of treatment and at 6-month follow-up. A small benefit in QoL at 6 and 12 months was also observed. Limitation: There was no control group that did not exercise. Conclusion: The results do not support the superiority of high-dose exercise over low-dose exercise for most outcomes. However, small benefits with high-dose exercise were found for knee function in sports and recreation and for QoL. Primary Funding Source: Swedish Rheumatic Fund.