The Department of Medicine’s Value-Care Action Group has awarded four value-care improvement projects that will start in July, 2022. Awardees are listed below with overviews of their projects. Cody Deen, MD: A Chest Pain Transitions Clinic at UNC Hillsborough. The management of patients who present to the emergency department (ED) with acute chest pain is … Continued

The “Rapid Response Recognition Report” is a quarterly recognition of providers who are “remarkable examples of excellence” during rapid response events at UNCMC. Effective utilization of the Adult Rapid Response System at UNC Medical Center is essential in the early detection of clinically worsening patients to ensure necessary resources are mobilized and adverse outcomes prevented. … Continued

NC TraCS recently announced the recipients of new pilot grant awards, and five recipients are from the Department of Medicine. Following is a list of the recipients and their project titles. Andrea Azcarate-Peril, PhD (Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology) Project Title: Safety, Tolerability, and Biosignature of Humanized Prebiotics in Healthy Adults Joshua Niznik, … Continued

Evan Raff, MD, associate professor of medicine in the division of hospital of medicine, and Lauren Raff, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, were awarded a NC TraCS Health Equity Award to improve rapid response outcomes in patients whose primary language is Spanish. The project “Reducing Health Inequities in the Rapid Response System … Continued

Researchers in recent studies have suggested that hospitalized febrile infants aged ≤60 days may be safely discharged if bacterial cultures are negative after 24–36 hours of incubation. John R. Stephens, MD, professor of medicine and pediatrics in the division of hospital medicine, is first author of a paper published online in Hospital Pediatrics, ahead of print, … Continued

Carlton Moore, MD, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, is first author of a retrospective observational study design of patients hospitalized in 2015 from four hospitals participating in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. Using free-text clinical notes and reports from hospitalized patients, the study team wanted to determine the performance … Continued

Carlton Moore, MD, is lead author of a study published in the British Medical Journal entitled “Ascertaining Framingham heart failure phenotype from inpatient electronic health record data using natural language processing: a multicentre Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) validation study.” The study used free-text clinical notes and reports from hospitalized patients to determine the performance … Continued

The UNC Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement has announced new projects that will be supported through the IHQI’s Improvement Scholars Program from Sep 1, 2021 – Aug 31, 2022.  Congratulations to the following selected project leads from the Department of Medicine. Jaydeep Lamba, MD and Hillary Spangler, MD, division of hospital medicine: “Mitigating Inpatient Clinical … Continued

John R. Stephens, MD, professor of medicine and pediatrics, in the division of hospital medicine, published “Outcomes Associated With High-Versus Low-Frequency Laboratory Testing Among Hospitalized Children” in Hospital Pediatrics. Previous pediatric studies have revealed substantial variation in laboratory testing for specific conditions, but clinical outcomes associated with high- versus low-frequency testing have remained unclear. The … Continued

Naseem Alavian, MD, MPH, is lead author for a case study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The article recognizes that spontaneous pneumomediastinum can occur in COVID-19 pneumonia in the absence of traditional risk factors, such as smoking, parenchymal lung disease, intubation, or positive pressure ventilation. Other authors include John Stephens, MD, and … Continued

Faculty from the division of hospital medicine were well represented at the recent Society of Hospital Medicine’s Annual Meeting. Ria Dancel, MD, associate professor of medicine and pediatrics, was invited to participate in a debate about the growth of virtual medicine technology, and whether the trend is positive or negative in the context of different … Continued

Med-peds resident, Hillary Spangler, MD, and hospitalists, John Stephens, MD, Emily Sturkie, MD, and Ria Dancel, MD, published “Implementation of an academic hospital medicine procedure service: 5-year experience” in Hospital Practice. Procedural complications are a common source of adverse events in hospitals, especially where bedside procedures are often performed by trainees. Medicine procedure services (MPS) … Continued