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

Physician researchers in the division of hospital medicine and the division of infectious diseases collaborated for the study “Frequency and yield of blood cultures for observation patients with skin and soft tissue infections,” published this month in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. The study was designed to measure frequency and yield of blood cultures … Continued

Faculty physicians in the division of hospital medicine have assumed most non-intensive care unit care for the coronavirus. Based on sparse research, they developed a protocol for ordering labs for this patient population, including routine admission labs, in addition to eight COVID-19 specific labs. The goal of their recent study, published in Hospital Practice, was … Continued

While the pandemic made this year particularly challenging for fellowship recruitment efforts and interviews, a series of videos showing each program’s strengths was a creative solution, introducing viewers to faculty and current fellows, with a brief glimpse into what it might be like to join the program. And although it was impossible to replicate the … Continued

The article “Helping Hip Fracture Patients” published in ACP Hospitalist this month features a UNC retrospective study led by John R. Stephens, MD. The study found that patients admitted to the hospitalist service had shorter lengths of stays and a lower risk of 30-day readmission compared with patients admitted to orthopedics or other services. Read … Continued

Clinically, the division of endocrinology and metabolism provides outpatient care for patients with diabetes, obesity, bone disease, thyroid and parathyroid conditions, gender issues and other endocrine disorders at the UNCH Diabetes and Endocrinology Clinic at Meadowmont.  Led by Dr. Josh Evron, our thyroid and endocrine tumor service line includes a weekly thyroid biopsy clinic at … Continued

Dr. Osipov says the most rewarding part of her work is the time she spends with patients. She also says new understandings about obesity and diabetes are exciting. “We are moving beyond seeing these conditions as individual moral failings and realizing that they are imbedded in every aspect of life, from the molecular to the cellular to the systemic and the social,” she said.