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Training Tips for New Health Sciences Librarians
Get PDFEven Librarians who have experience in academic or other research settings can struggle to learn the jargon and quirks of health science librarianship. Since our Library has hired an almost entirely new public service group since 2021, we've tried a variety of ways to get people started. But everyone needs new avenues to learning. Come discuss what has worked for you as a new librarian or even what hasn't worked for you as a librarian supervisor
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Related Adverse Drug Reactions: Insights from Post-Marketing Surveillance
Get PDFThis presentation was recognized at the SCC/MLA Annual Business Meeting on October 29, 2024, as the recipient of the Third Place Award (tie) for Contributed Papers in the 2024 Elizabeth K. Eaton, Ph.D. Research Awards.OBJECTIVES: To identify drugs used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). To describe the Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) and effectiveness of medications used for (ADHD). METHODS: A literature review was conducted in PubMed from 1978 to July 2024 on ADHD medications and (ADRs). Keywords included attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, adverse drug reactions, ADR, post-marketing surveillance, and drug usage data. Only English articles with abstracts were included. Abstracts were analyzed and full articles were reviewed if abstracts were unclear. Pharmaceutical information was gathered from DailyMed, SIDER, and DrugBank. RESULTS: 233 articles met the criteria. 25 drugs were used and the top 5 were Methylphenidate, Amphetamine sulfate, Ritalin, Quetiapine, and Lisdexamfetamine Dimesylate. The top 4 manufactures of ADHD drugs are Neos Therapeutics, Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Shire, and Novartis. The top 5 ADRs are mental and nervous system disorders, depression, gastrointestinal issues, dry mouth, and palpitations. 90 articles dealt with children. 40 articles focused on the effectiveness of the drugs. CONCLUSIONS: 25 drugs were identified and 48% are manufactured by 4 companies. The main adverse reactions affected the mental health, digestive and cardiovascular systems of the patient. There were more ADRs reported than benefits. Post-marketing surveillance often revealed ADRs not seen in trials
Form and Function: Considering Both When Developing Educational Materials
No full textThis paper examines the elements needed to create educational content for patients and families that achieve a functional health literacy objective while considering the importance of presentation to attract usage. The Children's Health hospital system located in Dallas and Plano, through the initiative of the Family Resource Library, created a Health Literacy Activity Book for system-wide distribution. This project followed practical steps to accomplish successful educational content development that can be applied to diverse settings. This process began by identifying relevant and potential stakeholders who could champion the materials once developed. Next, engagement was initiated to demonstrate the competency of the library to leadership, external departments stakeholders and marketing. After initial connection were made a team was created that determined the focus of the content. From the start, it was considered how content would be disseminated and how this would affect choices for the design formatting. Finally, a practical review of what project functions should be outsourced was determined, such as design to experts, to ensure the goal of both functional and attractive material development. A collaborative system-wide project team lead by the library developed an 80-page health literacy activity book designed for digital and print distribution. Evaluation of impact is ongoing and will be determined by download and distribution statistics
Piloting a Buddy Program for New Hires
No full textIn 2021, we piloted a Buddy Program for new hires as a part of the onboarding process. The buddy served as an additional resource to the new employee's supervisor for onboarding. The purpose of the buddy relationship was to ease the transition for the new hire and provide a peer connection to assist with questions in the first months of hiring and promote a friendly working relationship across departments. The buddy program was not intended to limit contact or replace informal communication with other colleagues. Library staff were encouraged to contact the new hire formally or informally (meeting, coffee, lunch, etc.) in order to get to know them. The pilot was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was hoped that it would fill the gap of serendipitous interactions that would have occurred if the new staff member was on site. All library staff were invited to be considered as buddies, with the final selection made by the new hire's supervisor. Matches were made based on common interests, work experience, or the potential for collaboration between the individuals, as well as peer- to-peer level. During the pilot, three new hires were assigned a buddy. Each pairing committed to meeting regularly during the first two months, and then once a month for the remaining two months. The pair decided if they wanted to continue meeting after the initial four months. This presentation will highlight the process and provide insight and feedback from program participants
Promoting Employee Engagement in the Healthcare Setting Using Neuroaesthetics: A Pilot Initiative
Get PDFPoster session at the 2024 Annual Celebration of Excellence at UT Southwestern Medical Center.The 2024 Annual Celebration of Excellence was held at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, on April 26, 2024.BACKGROUND: Healthcare professionals face numerous stressors in their roles, including heavy workloads and patient care responsibilities, which can impact their mental health. Neuroaesthetics, the scientific study of how contemplating artwork affects the brain, has shown that integrating art into hospital environments can boost morale among patients, staff, and visitors and potentially aid in healing processes and clinical outcomes. Providing activities like engaging with visual arts can promote resilience in the workplace and support overall employee well-being and engagement.
OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to enhance workplace appreciation and employee engagement by offering a neuroaesthetics experience to 30 healthcare professionals.
METHODS: We conducted a study with 30 healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, and administrators, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW). Participants were invited to take part in specialized art tours organized by Women in Art and the UTSW curator. These tours were held in the scientific and clinical buildings of UTSW, allowing participants to directly engage with strategically placed artworks in their professional environment. During the tours, participants received detailed explanations about the artworks, learned about the selection processes, engaged in discussions about color usage, and explored various artistic mediums. After the tours, participants completed an anonymous survey via REDCap to assess their perceptions of the tour's impact on workplace appreciation and well-being. The survey gathered qualitative data through written feedback about their experiences and quantitative data using a rating scale from 0 to 10 to measure overall tour satisfaction.
RESULTS: Of the 30 participants 97 responded that the art tour enhanced their appreciation for the workplace and 70% of employees rated their art experience as a 10 on a scale from of 0-10.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that activities promoting resilience in the workplace can enhance employee engagement and foster a positive work environment. To capitalize on these benefits, future efforts should focus on expanding participation in similar initiatives, such as conducting more art tours and increasing awareness about them on campus
Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Retroelements
Get PDFRetroelements make up nearly 40% of the human genome. Their ability to mobilize and cause insertional mutagenesis makes them potentially harmful. Dysregulated retroelements are implicated in cancer and neurological disease as well as in aging. Therefore, there are strict regulatory mechanisms in place to restrain retroelements. Transcriptional silencing of retroelements is mainly achieved by heterochromatinization and DNA methylation. Our lab has demonstrated that p53 can also transcriptionally repress retroelements, however, the mechanism by which p53 mediates repression was unknown. Due to the repetitive nature and large copy numbers of endogenous retroelements, it is challenging to study how individual retroelements are repressed by p53. Hence, as an alternative approach, we used a p53 biosensor with unique sequence and a visual readout (GFP) to study the mechanism of repression by p53. Using this in vivo p53 biosensor in Drosophila, we show that stimulus-dependent transactivation and constitutive transrepression is mediated by distinct p53 isoforms. Canonical transactivation functions do not adequately explain tumor suppression by p53. Since p53 is mutated in nearly all human cancers and retroelements are derepressed in many p53-driven cancers, it is possible that p53 suppresses tumors by restraining retroelements. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of retroelement repression by p53 can possibly provide further insights into its tumor suppressive mechanism. In addition to actual genomic integration events, retrotransposition intermediates like RNA, dsRNA, RNA:DNA hybrids and reverse transcribed cDNA are also potentially oncogenic due to induction of inflammatory response pathways and there exists multiple post-transcriptional regulatory pathways that target these retrotransposition intermediates for degradation. To test whether retroelement RNAs, specifically those derived from LINE-1, are oncogenic, we developed a CRISPR-based programmable RNase platform to eliminate LINE-1 RNAs. While this platform was effective against reporters, it did not perform well against endogenous LINE-1 RNAs. In the process, however, we made a surprising observation that LINE-1 RNAs were enriched in the nucleus. A comprehensive empirical and bioinformatic analysis revealed that this nuclear localization pattern was highly generalizable and widely conserved across elements and species. Our observations raise the possibility that nuclear retention of retroelement transcripts is an additional post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism that limits retrotransposition
The UT Southwestern Perioperative Optimization of Senior Health Program: Impact on Postoperative Delirium After Spine Surgery
No full textThe general metadata -- e.g., title, author, abstract, subject headings, etc. -- is publicly available, but access to the submitted files is restricted to UT Southwestern campus access and/or authorized UT Southwestern users.Please note that the following thesis includes data, direct excerpts, and adapted excerpts from the peer-reviewed manuscript entitled "Perioperative Optimization of Senior Health in Spine Surgery: Impact on Postoperative Delirium" published by The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The content of the thesis herein is not peer-reviewed and does not necessarily reflect the content or opinions presented by the authors of Pernik et al. (2021) nor the American Geriatrics Society. The full citation of the article is included below and should be referenced in lieu of the present thesis.BACKGROUND: Delirium is a common complication in geriatric patients who often have multiple underlying risk factors after surgery or hospitalizations. Delirium is most effectively prevented prophylactically, as treatment of delirium may not shorten the duration or severity of delirium. Several investigations of pharmacological prophylaxis have shown minimal effect, whereas many non-pharmacological interventions have been shown to reduce the incidence of delirium. Multicomponent nonpharmacologic interventions can be effective in preventing delirium; however, implementation of preventative measures and programs are variable in perioperative care.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to assess whether the Perioperative Optimization of Senior Health Program (POSH) reduced the incidence of postoperative delirium in geriatric patients undergoing elective spine surgery.
METHODS: The POSH program is an interdisciplinary perioperative program involving geriatrics, surgery, and anesthesia. Preoperatively, patients enrolled in POSH (n=147) were referred for a geriatric assessment and optimization for surgery. Intraoperatively, patients underwent an individualized geriatric anesthesia protocol. Patients were co-managed postoperatively by the primary surgical team and the geriatrics consult service. POSH patients were retrospectively compared to a matched historical control group (n=177) treated with standard care. Outcomes included post-operative delirium, provider recognition of delirium, ICU and hospital LOS, initiation of walking postoperatively, and readmission.
RESULTS: Patients enrolled in the POSH program were significantly older (75.5 vs. 71.5 years; p<0.001), had more comorbidities (8.0 vs. 6.6; p<0.001), and were more likely to undergo pelvic fixation (36.1% vs. 17.5%; p<0.001). The incidence of postoperative delirium was lower in POSH group compared to historical controls, although not statistically significant (11.6% vs. 19.2%; p=0.065). Delirium was significantly lower in patients who underwent complex spine surgery (≥4 levels of vertebral fusion; N=106) in the POSH group (11.7% vs. 28.9%, p=0.03). There was a 3-fold increase in the recognition of postoperative delirium by providers after program implementation, (76.5% vs. 23.5%; p=0.001).
CONCLUSION: Interdisciplinary care for high-risk geriatric patients undergoing elective spine surgery may reduce the incidence of postoperative delirium and increase provider recognition of delirium. The benefit may be greater for those undergoing larger procedures
Cardiovascular disease prevention among PWH in 2024: lessons from the REPRIEVE trial
Get PDFDetailed formal protocol with illustrations and extensive bibliography.A recording of the protocol presentation is available on UT Southwestern's Mediasite. Note: Access to the video is restricted to authorized UT Southwestern users only.UT Southwestern--Internal Medicin
Using Ethnography to Capture Learner Experience in Handover Simulation Modules
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Patient handovers, frequent, diverse, and integral parts of modern medical practice, involve the transfer of patient responsibility from one team of providers to another.1 This transition of care is often fragmented and has been shown to cause various adverse events, including patient injury, medication errors, and lengthened hospital stays.2-4
LOCAL PROBLEM: As simulation-based activities have increased in medical schools across the nation, an accompanying need to understand the learner experience has developed.5,6 UTSW has incorporated simulation-based learning with the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) to teach medical and health professions students team based communication. The aim of this study was to characterize learner attitudes toward simulation education during two simulation-based modules and to determine critical-to-quality elements of these courses through focused ethnography.
METHODS: We describe a focused ethnographic study of two simulation-based modules of handover education using direct participant observation. The observers, medical students, and physician assistant student participant of these modules were asked to provide reflective summaries of their experiences during the simulation, including a description of what happened, attitudes about the experience, and reflections on potential improvement. Using qualitative analysis software, these ethnographic summaries were coded, and major themes were identified These themes were subsequently used to develop critical elements of the simulation activity in a Critical to Quality (CTQ) tree.
RESULTS: Our analysis showed that the handover-simulation modules were regarded as generally both acceptable and appropriate. Coding of the ethnographic summaries clarified the major proponents of and deterrents to acceptability (Figure 2). Our analysis determined five components for a quality experience: organization, safety/security, engagement, reinforcement, and standardization. Out of the five critical to quality elements we identified, all five needs were described and confirmed in two concomitant focus group analyses of handover-simulation module participants, further validating an ethnographic approach in this context.
CONCLUSION: Ethnographic research methods are an efficient and effective way to characterize learner attitudes and experiences in simulation education. Focused ethnography has identified several significant targets for improving the Safe Patient Handover simulation
Visual Outcomes after Intraocular Foreign Body Injuries at Parkland and UT Southwestern Hospitals and Clinics
Get PDFThe 62nd Annual Medical Student Research Forum at UT Southwestern Medical Center (Tuesday, January 30, 2024, 3-6 p.m., D1.700 Lecture Hall)BACKGROUND: Intraocular foreign bodies (IOFBs) make up a large portion of open globe injuries and can cause severe vision loss. IOFBs entrapped in the posterior segment are a particularly significant cause of greatly diminished visual acuity and legal blindness (VA<20/200), prompting analysis of the factors that may influence visual outcomes.
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of our study is to determine how surgical approach (single vs. staged surgical repair) may affect visual outcomes for patients with traumatic posterior segment IOFB injuries. We also examine whether patients presenting with specific vision-threatening sequelae are more or less likely to undergo a specific surgical approach. Additionally, we record incidence data on different IOFB material types, mechanisms of injury, and the use of safety glasses.
METHODS: This is a retrospective chart review with a target population of patients 18-85 years old who were surgically treated for traumatic posterior segment IOFB injuries at Parkland and UT Southwestern from 6/1/2011 to 5/23/2023. 53 patient records accessed through Epic Systems met inclusion criteria. 12 patients underwent single surgical repair and 41 underwent staged repair, suggesting a hospital/ systemwide preference in surgical approach.
RESULTS: Our results did not find a significant difference between initial visual acuity (t-stat=-0.953, p=0.288), final visual acuity (t stat=-1.075, p=0.297), or change in visual acuity (t-stat=0.056, p=0.954) between single and staged repair groups. Among 19 different vision-threatening sequelae examined, patients presenting with scleral laceration (p=0.0378) and vitreous hemorrhage (p=0.0245), were significantly more likely to undergo staged surgical repair, while those presenting with endophthalmitis (p=0.0073) were more likely to undergo single surgical repair by Fisher's exact test. The IOFB material types were metallic (89%), glass (7%), and stone (4%). Hammering was the most common mechanism of injury, accounting for 30.2% of cases. Data on safety glasses use was available for 20 patients, amongst whom 25% affirmed and 75% denied use.
CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest a predominance of IOFBs of metallic origin and a skew towards staged surgical repair for patients at Parkland & UTSW hospitals and clinics. The poor use of safety glasses within the data collected underscores the necessity of emphasizing eye protection in metal work and other high-risk occupations. Given the small sample size of our study, more data may help better elucidate visual outcome differences based on repair type and provide further insight into specific sequelae that increase the likelihood of a particular surgical approach.Southwestern Medical Foundatio