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Background: Clinical decision support systems have been widely deployed to guide healthcare decisions on patient diagnosis, treatment choices, and patient management through evidence-based recommendations. These recommendations are typically derived from clinical practice guidelines created by clinical specialties or healthcare organizations. Although there have been many different technical approaches to encoding guideline recommendations into decision support systems, much of the previous work has not focused on enabling system generated recommendations through the formalization of changes in a guideline, the provenance of a recommendation, and applicability of the evidence. Prior work indicates that healthcare providers may not find that guideline-derived recommendations always meet their needs for reasons such as lack of relevance, transparency, time pressure, and applicability to their clinical practice., Results: We introduce several semantic techniques that model diseases based on clinical practice guidelines, provenance of the guidelines, and the study cohorts they are based on to enhance the capabilities of clinical decision support systems. We have explored ways to enable clinical decision support systems with semantic technologies that can represent and link to details in related items from the scientific literature and quickly adapt to changing information from the guidelines, identifying gaps, and supporting personalized explanations. Previous semantics-driven clinical decision systems have limited support in all these aspects, and we present the ontologies and semantic web based software tools in three distinct areas that are unified using a standard set of ontologies and a custom-built knowledge graph framework: (i) guideline modeling to characterize diseases, (ii) guideline provenance to attach evidence to treatment decisions from authoritative sources, and (iii) study cohort modeling to identify relevant research publications for complicated patients., Conclusions: We have enhanced existing, evidence-based knowledge by developing ontologies and software that enables clinicians to conveniently access updates to and provenance of guidelines, as well as gather additional information from research studies applicable to their patients' unique circumstances. Our software solutions leverage many well-used existing biomedical ontologies and build upon decades of knowledge representation and reasoning work, leading to explainable results., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Optimal postoperative opioid stewardship combines adequate pain medication to control expected discomfort while avoiding abuse and community diversion of unused prescribed opioids. We hypothesized that an opioid buyback program would motivate patients to return unused opioids, and surgeons will use that data to calibrate prescribing., Methods: Prospective cohort study of postambulatory surgery pain management at a level II Veterans Affairs rural hospital (2017-2019). Eligible patients were offered $5/unused opioid pill ($50 limit) returned to our Veterans Affairs hospital for proper disposal. After 6 months, buyback data was shared with each surgical specialty., Results: Overall, 934 of 1,880 (49.7%) eligible ambulatory surgery patients were prescribed opioids and invited to participate in the opioid buyback. We had 281 patients (30%) return 3,165 unused opioid pills; this return rate remained constant over the study period. In 2017, 62.4% of patients were prescribed an opioid; after data was shared with providers, prescriptions for opioids were reduced to 50.7% and 38.3% of eligible patients in 2018 and 2019, respectively (P < .0001). The median morphine milligram equivalents prescribed also decreased from 108.8 morphine milligram equivalents in 2017 to 75.0 morphine milligram equivalents in 2018 and sustained at 75.0 morphine milligram equivalents in 2019 (P < .001). Surgical providers, surgeries performed, patient characteristics, and 30-day refill rates were similar throughout the study period., Conclusion: A small financial incentive resulted in patients returning unused opioids after ambulatory surgery. Feedback to surgeons regarding opioids returned reduced the proportion of patients prescribed an opioid and the amount of opioid after ambulatory surgery without an increase in refills., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Objective. To implement an opioid buyback program after ambulatory surgery. Methods. We performed a prospective cohort study of 578 opioid-naïve patients prescribed opioids after ambulatory surgery at a rural US Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital from 2017 to 2018. We reimbursed $5 per unused opioid pill ($50 limit) returned to our VA for proper disposal. We tracked the number of participants, number of unused opioid pills returned, surgeon prescribing, and refill requests. Results. Out of 578 eligible patients, 171 (29.6%) returned 2136.5 unused opioid pills. Information shared with surgeons after 6 months led to a 27% decrease in opioid prescribing without an increase in refills. Conclusions. With this opioid buyback program, rural patients had a safe and convenient place to dispose of unused opioids. Surgeons used information about returns to adjust opioid prescribing after common ambulatory surgeries without an increase in refill requests. Public Health Implications. Although providers prescribe within state opioid guidelines, there will be variations in patient use after ambulatory surgery. An opioid buyback program helped our patients and surgeons decrease unused prescription opioids available for diversion in our rural communities.

Objective: Several reports have demonstrated the efficacy of inferior vena cava filter (IVCF) placement with intravascular ultrasound guidance (IVUS). The majority of these procedures,however, have been done in concert with contrast venography and/or fluoroscopic guidance. The purpose of this report was to evaluate the potential for bedside IVCF placement with "real-time" IVUS guidance only., Design of Study: In a phase I trial, 10 patients underwent IVUS interrogation of the IVC for diameter measurements and localization of the renal veins. Contrast venography verified the IVUS findings prior to filter deployment. In a phase II trial, another 35 patients underwent intensive care unit bedside placement of an IVC filter with only "real time" IVUS guidance using a double puncture technique in the same femoral vein. All patients underwent color-flow ultrasonography of the femoral veins after filter placement to rule out post procedure femoral vein thrombosis and plain radiographs of the abdomen to identify filter location., Results: In the phase I trial, all filters were placed within 15 mm of the most inferior renal vein identified by IVUS. There were no complications, and successful filter placement was verified by contrast venography. In phase II, 33 IVCFs were placed without complications at approximately the L2 level by plain radiograph. One patient had an IVCF deployed in the common iliac vein, which necessitated placement of an uneventful second IVCF at the infrarenal location by IVUS. This same patient had a femoral deep venous thrombosis identified by postoperative duplex ultrasonography. A second patient had IVC thrombus identified by IVUS, and placement was performed with contrast venography in the fluoroscopy suite. IVC measurements ranged from 18-28 mm in diameter., Conclusions: IVUS accurately measures the IVC diameter and localizes the renal veins, allowing for exact placement of IVCFs. IVUS further avoids the need for contrast agents and for transport of critically ill patients. Bedside insertion of an IVcF with IVUS guidance is simple, safe, and accurate. Further assessment of this technique is warranted.

Background: The procedure of choice for inguinal hernia repair has remained controversial for decades. The laparoscopic approach has now been utilized for more than 10 years, and a significant volume of patient outcomes is now available for review., Methods: The hospital and office records of 1388 patients who underwent 1903 laparoscopic inguinal hernia repairs at Atlanta Medical Center during the past 10 years were retrospectively reviewed in order to determine demographics, recurrence rate, and complications. In addition, 123 hernia repairs were prospectively studied in 71 patients during this time period in order to accurately evaluate postoperative pain and return to activity., Results: Two hundred fifty-five (13.4%) hernias were recurrent and 1648 (86.6%) were primary. Five hundred and fifteen (37.1%) hernias were bilateral. The total extraperitoneal approach was utilized for 1561 (82.0%) of the 1903 repairs. The average operative time was 75.4 (14-193) minutes. Estimated blood loss was 22.0 (0-250) ml. Seventeen patients (1.2%) were converted to an open form of hernia repair. Minor complications occurred in 83 (6.0%) patients and major complications occurred in 18 (1.3%) patients., Conclusions: The laparoscopic approach is a safe form of inguinal hernia repair that offers the patient a shorter and less painful recovery with an extremely low recurrence rate.

HMWP (high molecular weight protein), a high molecular weight actin binding protein, was previously isolated from HeLa cells; its physical properties, amino acid composition, and intracellular localization indicated its homology with actin-binding protein and filamin [Weihing, 1982, 1983]. We now report the identification of HMWP in striated paracrystals. Purified HMWP is incubated at 25 degrees C and subjected to negative staining with uranyl acetate. Examination by electron microscopy reveals long, striated paracrystals formed from filaments a few nanometers in diameter that lie parallel to the long axis of the paracrystal. At intervals of about 200 nm, the filaments are crossed by granular aggregates, accounting for the striated appearance. Treatment of the paracrystals with an affinity-purified antibody to HMWP decorates the filaments; such decorations are not observed if nonimmune goat IgG or phosphate-buffered saline are substituted for the antibody. Electron microscopic and electrophoretic analysis of paracrystals sedimented onto grids by centrifugation at 864 g reveals that the grids are covered with paracrystals and the major polypeptide present on grids centrifuged in parallel is HMWP. Taken together, these data indicate that the filaments of the paracrystals contain elongated molecules of HMWP. Additional experiments are needed to decide if the paracrystals form by self-association between HMWP molecules or by association with one or more of the minor polypeptides that remain in the purified HMWP.