Journal of general internal medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Evaluating the SPIKES Model for Improving Peer-to-Peer Feedback Among Internal Medicine Residents: a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Feedback improves trainee clinical performance, but the optimal way to provide it remains unclear. Peer feedback offers unique advantages but comes with significant challenges including a lack of rigorously studied methods. The SPIKES framework is a communication tool adapted from the oncology and palliative care literature for teaching trainees how to lead difficult conversations. ⋯ With modest implementation requirements and notable limitations, a brief educational intervention focused on SPIKES increased PGY1 perception of the extent, specificity, and satisfaction with feedback from PGY2s.
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Improving accuracy of identification of COVID-19-related deaths is essential to public health surveillance and research. The verbal autopsy, an established strategy involving an interview with a decedent's caregiver or witness using a semi-structured questionnaire, may improve accurate counting of COVID-19-related deaths. ⋯ The VAIC and a death adjudication protocol using it may improve accuracy in identifying COVID-19-related deaths.
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The quality of end-of-life (EOL) care in the USA remains suboptimal, with significant variations in care by race and across disease subgroups. Patient-provider communication may contribute to racial and disease-specific variations in EOL care outcomes. ⋯ We observed racial disparities in hospice use and ED visits in the 90 days prior to death among Medicare beneficiaries; however, hospice disparities were largely driven by patients without cancer. Condition-specific differences in palliative care integration at the end-of-life may partly account for variations in EOL care disparities across disease groups.
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Despite past and ongoing efforts to achieve health equity in the USA, racial and ethnic disparities persist and appear to be exacerbated by COVID-19. ⋯ Minority populations have increased odds of severe COVID-19 independent of neighborhood deprivation, a commonly suspected driver of disparate outcomes. Non-English-speaking accounts for differences across and within minority populations. These results support the ongoing need to determine the mechanisms that contribute to disparities during COVID-19 while also highlighting the underappreciated role primary language plays in COVID-19 severity among minority groups.
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Black individuals have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, it remains unclear whether there are any biological factors that predispose Black patients to COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality. ⋯ Black hospitalized COVID-19 patients had increased risks of developing PE and AKI and higher inflammatory marker levels compared with White patients. This observation may be explained by differences in the prevalence and severity of underlying comorbidities and other unmeasured biologic risk factors between Black and White patients. Future research is needed to investigate the mechanism of these observed differences in outcomes of severe COVID-19 infection in Black versus White patients.