May/June 2022 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Annals of Family Medicine is a peer-reviewed, indexed research journal that provides a cross-disciplinary forum for new, evidence-based information affecting the primary care disciplines.
Researchers from the group of Eva van Rooij used advanced sequencing technology to better understand the heart disease arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, in which heart muscle tissue is replaced by fat cells. Using explanted human hearts, they found regions in which heart muscle was actively degenerated and identified a new gene, ZBTB11, that drives heart muscle cell degradation. The results were published in Cardiovascular Research on 17 May 2022.
People with chronic kidney disease (CKD) require three- to eight-times higher levels of acute care than the general population for comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It is unclear how regular access to primary care influences subsequent acute care use. This study found that hospital use increased among patients who experienced poorer continuity of care. Poor continuity also resulted in sub-optimal prescribing of a recommended statin.
Research into psychology and organizations has mostly concluded that the presence of positive emotions among team members generally improves performance across a range of occupations. But happiness and excitement may be overrated, at least where performance is concerned, suggests new research from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Using pairs of cancer surgeons as their focus, researchers found that only tension and the lack of it had a significant impact on how well people worked together. And the way to achieve that more chilled-out feeling was for two surgeons to experience at least one previous surgery together where things went very well.
New research from the University of Pittsburgh shows that generating detailed maps of neural activity is indeed possible with a new imaging method that offers high contrast and high spatial resolution. The study conducted in monkeys shows that intrinsic signal optical imaging (ISOI) can reveal cortical architecture in greater detail than previously seen in living brains.
A team of investigators led by Juan P. Herrera-Escobar, MD, MPH, of the Brigham’s Center for Surgery and Public Health, found that living in an area with higher social vulnerability is strongly associated with worse mental and physical health outcomes after a traumatic injury.
The Stepped Wedge Cluster Randomized Trial is a research methodology that has been growing in popularity, particularly for pragmatic implementation and dissemination trials. SW-CRTs can have advantages over parallel cluster randomized trials with regards to statistical power.
During fetal development, before the biological clock starts ticking on its own, genes within the fetus’s developing clock respond to rhythmic behavior in the mother, according to a new study publishing May 24th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Alena Sumová and colleagues of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. The findings contribute to our understanding of the development of the internal clock, and may have implications for the treatment of premature babies.
New experiments conducted in mice add to mounting evidence in opposition to a popular claim that COVID-19 vaccination during early pregnancy may cause birth defects or fetal growth problems. The study also counters claims that COVID-19 vaccines reduce fertility through their effects on the protein syncytin-1. Alice Lu-Culligan of the Yale School of Medicine, US, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.
New research published in the Annals of Family Medicine examined whether an enhanced 12-week post-discharge telehealth program would lead to reduced hospital readmission among patients who were hospitalized for a medical illness and tested positive for moderate to severe depressive symptoms while being cared for inpatient. Further work is needed to identify and address barriers to the implementation of the intervention to realize the full potential of the enhanced discharge program.
Researchers in Ontario, Canada, conducted a study to assess the impact of utilizing an electronic consultation (eConsult) service to provide timely access to COVID-19 specialist advice for primary care practitioners. Researchers assert that their study demonstrates the significant potential of eConsults during a pandemic as the protocol was quickly implemented across Ontario and resulted in rapid and improved access to specialist care.
A new study in the Annals of Family Medicine examines usage data from a provincial electronic consultation (eConsult) service in Ontario, Canada, which facilitates rapid and secure communications between primary care physicians and subspecialists. Findings suggest that eConsult is highly generalizable and can be scaled up without sacrificing effectiveness. It may also reduce unnecessary specialty referrals, saving the patient and health system time and money.