Impact Of The New Jersey COVID-19 Temporary Emergency Reciprocity Licensure Program On Health Care Workforce Supply

Ann M. Nguyen, Magda Schaler-Haynes, Jolene Chou, Matthew Wetzel, Margaret Koller, Michael J. Yedidia, and Joel C. Cantor 08/01/2022

New Jersey’s COVID-19 Temporary Emergency Reciprocity Licensure program provided temporary licenses to more than 31,000 out-of-state health care practitioners. As one of the first COVID-19 hot spots in the US, New Jersey is uniquely positioned to provide insights on enabling an out-of-state health care workforce through temporary licensure to address critical, ongoing concerns about health care workforce supply. In January 2021 we surveyed New Jersey temporary licensees…

Improving the prospective prediction of a near-term suicide attempt in veterans at risk for suicide, using a go/no-go task

Catherine E. Myers Open the ORCID record for Catherine E. Myers[Opens in a new window] , Chintan V. Dave , Michael Callahan , Megan S. Chesin , John G. Keilp , Kevin D. Beck , Lisa A. Brenner , Marianne S. Goodman , Erin A. Hazlett , Alexander B. Niculescu , Lauren St. Hill , Anna Kline , Barbara H. Stanley and Alejandro Interian 07/28/2022

Background: Neurocognitive testing may advance the goal of predicting near-term suicide risk. The current study examined whether performance on a Go/No-go (GNG) task, and computational modeling to extract latent cognitive variables, could enhance prediction of suicide attempts within next 90 days, among individuals at high-risk for suicide…

A modified Delphi process to identify experts’ perceptions of the most beneficial and harmful laws to reduce opioid-related harm

Leah K.Hamilton, Katherine Wheeler-Martin, Corey S.Davis, Silvia S.Martins, Hillary Samples, Magdalena Cerdá 07/28/2022

Background: States have enacted multiple types of laws, with a variety of constituent provisions, in response to the opioid epidemic, often simultaneously. This temporal proximity and variation in state-to-state operationalization has resulted in significant challenges for empirical research on their effects. Thus, expert consensus can be helpful to classify laws and their provisions by their degree of helpfulness and impact…

Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare, Clinical Genomics, and Pharmacogenomics Approaches in Precision Medicine

Habiba Abdelhalim, Asude Berber, Mudassir Lodi, Rihi Jain, Achuth Nair, Anirudh Pappu, Kush Patel, Vignesh Venkat, Cynthia Venkatesan, Raghu Wable, Matthew Dinatale, Allyson Fu, Vikram Iyer, Ishan Kalove, Marc Kleyman, Joseph Koutsoutis, David Menna, Mayank Paliwal, Nishi Patel, Thirth Patel, Zara Rafique, Rothela Samadi, Roshan Varadhan, Shreyas Bolla, Sreya Vadapalli and Zeeshan Ahmed 07/06/2022

Precision medicine has greatly aided in improving health outcomes using earlier diagnosis and better prognosis for chronic diseases. It makes use of clinical data associated with the patient as well as their multi-omics/genomic data to reach a conclusion regarding how a physician should proceed with a specific treatment. Compared to the symptom-driven approach in medicine, precision medicine considers the critical fact that all patients do not react to the same treatment or medication in the same way. When considering the intersection of traditionally distinct arenas of medicine, that is, artificial intelligence, healthcare, clinical genomics, and pharmacogenomics—what ties them together is their impact on the development of precision medicine as a field and how they each contribute to patient-specific, rather than symptom-specific patient outcomes. This study discusses the impact and integration of these different fields in the scope of precision medicine and how they can be used in preventing and predicting acute or chronic diseases. Additionally, this study also discusses the advantages as well as the current challenges associated with artificial intelligence, healthcare, clinical genomics, and pharmacogenomics…

Benzodiazepine and Stimulant Prescriptions Before Overdose in Youth

Greta Bushnell, Hillary Samples, Tobias Gerhard, Diane P. Calello, Mark Olfson 07/01/2022

In 2019, 4777 youth died of a drug overdose in the United States. Seven-hundred and twenty-seven youth died of overdoses involving benzodiazepines (BZDs) and 902 from overdoses involving psychostimulants. Opioid-related overdose deaths frequently involve other substances, and in youth, stimulants and BZDs are the most commonly involved substances. Overdoses can involve prescription drugs accessed through medical prescriptions or through illicit means. Among persons aged 18 to 25 years, 5.8% report past-year prescription stimulant misuse and 3.8% prescription BZD misuse…

Culture: The missing link in health research

M. Kagawa Singer, W. Dressler, S. George, Claudia R. Baquet, Ronny A. Bell, Linda Burhansstipanov, Nancy J. Burke, Suzanne Dibble, William Elwood, Linda Garro, Clarence C. Gravlee, Peter Guarnaccia, Michael L. Hecht, Jeffrey Henderson, Dan Hruschka, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, Robert Like, Charles Mouton, Hector F. Myers, J. Bryan Page, Rena Pasick, Bernice Pescosolido, Nancy Schoenberg, Bradley Stoner, Gregory Strayhorn, Laura Szalacha, Joseph Trimble, Thomas S. Weisner, David Williams 07/01/2022

Abstract: Culture is essential for humans to exist. Yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to identifying how culture works or developing standards to guide the application of this concept in health research. This paper describes a multidisciplinary effort to find consensus on essential elements of a definition of culture to guide researchers in studying how cultural processes influence health and health behaviors…

One lesson of COVID-19: Conduct more health policy trials

Luchuo Engelbert Bain, Astrid Berner-Rodoreda, Shannon A. McMahon 06/09/2022

The Global Health Security Index, published in October 2019 by public health experts (1), rated nations by their readiness to respond to infectious disease outbreaks. The United States ranked first, whereas New Zealand trailed in 35th place. Yet when the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic struck months later, these rankings turned out to be unreliable (2): The United States has to date reported the most deaths, whereas New Zealand fares considerably better. These results point to a fundamental challenge more than to the failings of a particular assessment approach. They may demonstrate that, for all our careful testing of pharmaceuticals, researchers lack a solid evidence base regarding the effectiveness of health policies—against pandemics, and more widely…

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Buprenorphine and Extended-Release Naltrexone Filled Prescriptions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thuy Nguyen, Engy Ziedan, Kosali Simon 06/01/2022

Abstract: Importance COVID-19 disrupted delivery of buprenorphine and naltrexone treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), and during the pandemic, members of racial and ethnic minority groups experienced increased COVID-19 and opioid overdose risks compared with White individuals. However, whether filled buprenorphine and naltrexone prescriptions varied across racial and ethnic groups during the COVID-19 pandemic remains unknown…

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccine Prioritization in Low- and Middle-Income Countries May Justifiably Depart From High-Income Countries’ Age Priorities

Nir Eyal, Anca Gheaus, Axel Gosseries, Monica Magalhaes, Thierry Ngosso, Bastian Steuwer, Viroj Tangcharoensathien, Isa Trifan, Andrew Williams 05/24/2022

Abstract: In high-income countries that were first to roll out coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, older adults have thus far usually been prioritized for these vaccines over younger adults. Age-based priority primarily resulted from interpreting evidence available at the time, which indicated that vaccinating the elderly first would minimize COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations…

Research ethics and public trust in vaccines: the case of COVID-19 challenge trials

Nir Eyal 05/22/2022

Abstract: Despite their clearly demonstrated safety and effectiveness, approved vaccines against COVID-19 are commonly mistrusted. Nations should find and implement effective ways to boost vaccine confidence. But the implications for ethical vaccine development are less straightforward than some have assumed. Opponents of COVID-19 vaccine challenge trials, in particular, made speculative or empirically implausible warnings on this matter, some of which, if applied consistently, would have ruled out most COVID-19 vaccine trials and many non-pharmaceutical responses…

A new day for human challenge trials?

Abie Rohrig, Nir Eyal 05/21/2022

On 31 March 2022, Killingley et al. published the results from the world’s first COVID-19 human challenge trial, in which 36 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 30 years were intranasally exposed to a low dose of wild type severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1.]. Around half (53%) of the volunteers became infected with COVID-19, with researchers finding that the viral load peaked 5 days after inoculation. SARS-CoV-2 was first detectable in the throat, before rising higher in the respiratory tract, where its presence in the nose continued for 10 days. The team found that symptoms develop rapidly, starting on average just 2 days after infection. They also found that lateral flow tests were a reliable indicator of whether or not volunteers were infectious. Six volunteers were given remdesivir after testing positive. No volunteers reported any major negative health outcomes after 180 days, though some reported partial smell disturbance…

Frailty Risks of Prescription Analgesics and Sedatives across Frailty Models: the Health and Retirement Study

Andrew W. Bergen, Gulcan Cil, Lana J. Sargent & Chintan V. Dave 05/20/2022

Introduction: Limited evidence for incident frailty risks associated with prescription analgesics and sedatives in older (≥ 65 years) community-living adults prompted a more comprehensive investigation…

Feeling anxious yet? Interpreting findings on drug safety from large healthcare databases

Greta A. Bushnell, Daniel Horton, Tobias Gerhard 05/16/2022

In this issue of Clinical and Translational Science, Yun-Han Wang and colleagues report on a potential link between treatment with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and incident depression and anxiety disorders in children. The proposed mechanism between PPI use and anxiety and depression is related to the “microbiota-gut-brain axis.”…

Potential sources of moral distress during COVID-19: Perspectives of hospice interdisciplinary teams

Tessa Jones, Shih-Yin Lin, Aditi Durga, Elizabeth A. Luth, Rebecca K.F. Lassell, Abraham A. Brody 05/16/2022

Objective: This study aimed to examine the impact of COVID-19 on hospice Interdisciplinary team (IDT) members’ self-reported stress and identify possible sources of moral distress…

Chronic Stress, Coping, and Mental Health Among Older African Americans

Dawne M. Mouzon, PhD 05/06/2022

African Americans experience relatively low rates of mental disorder despite being disproportionately exposed to psychosocial stressors…

Commentary on Lo-Ciganic et al. The importance of evidence-based clinical and policy approaches to reduce opioid harms

Hillary Samples 05/01/2022

The overdose epidemic remains an urgent public health concern, with recent estimates indicating that deaths in the United States have surged to over 100 000 per year, predominantly attributed to opioids. Responses to growth in opioid-involved mortality over time have emphasized opioid prescribing regulations or restrictions, including a proliferation of state laws aimed at reducing harm by limiting exposure to opioids…

Risks for Anaphylaxis With Intravenous Iron Formulations: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Chintan V. Dave, Gary M. Brittenham, Jeffrey Carson, Soko Setoguchi 05/01/2022

BACKGROUND: The risks for anaphylaxis among intravenous (IV) iron products currently in use have not been assessed. OBJECTIVE: To compare risks for anaphylaxis among 5 IV iron products that are used frequently. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using a target trial emulation framework. SETTING: Medicare fee-for-service data with Part D coverage between July 2013 and December 2018…

Using Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy to Prevent Suicide Among High Suicide–Risk Patients Who Also Misuse Opioids: a Preliminary Probe of Feasibility and Effectiveness

Megan S. Chesin, Chintan V. Dave, Catherine Myers, Barbara Stanley, Anna Kline, Maureen Monahan, Miriam Latorre, Lauren M.St Hill, Rachael B. Miller, Arlene R. King, Dianna R. Boschulte, Megan Sedita, Alejandro Interian 04/19/2022

Abstract: Knowledge of how to effectively prevent suicide attempt (SA) in high suicide–risk patients who also misuse opioids is limited. In a subset of data from 36 participants with baseline opioid misuse in a randomized clinical trial testing adjunctive mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to prevent suicide among high suicide–risk veterans (n = 18 per treatment condition), MBCT-S reduced the likelihood of SA and acute psychiatric hospitalization over 12-month follow-up…

Comparative Risk of Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementia among Medicare Beneficiaries with Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Targeted Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Agents

Rishi J. Desai, Vijay R. Varma, Tobias Gerhard, Jodi Segal, Mufaddal Mahesri, Kristyn Chin, Daniel B. Horton, Seoyoung C. Kim, Sebastian Schneeweiss, Madhav Thambisetty 04/08/2022

Importance: Cytokine signaling, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin (IL)-6, through the Janus-kinase (JAK)-signal transducer and activator of transcription pathway, was hypothesized to attenuate the risk of Alzheimer disease and related dementia (ADRD) in the Drug Repurposing for Effective Alzheimer Medicines (DREAM) initiative based on multiomics phenotyping. Objective: To evaluate the association between treatment with tofacitinib, tocilizumab, or TNF inhibitors compared with abatacept and risk of incident ADRD…

Active commuting to school: A longitudinal analysis examining persistence of behavior over time in four New Jersey cities

Robin S. DeWeese, Francesco Acciai, David Tulloch, Kristen Lloyd, Michael J. Yedidia, Punam Ohri-Vachaspati 04/01/2022

Abstract: Evidence suggests that healthy behaviors initiated during childhood may continue over time. The objective of this study was to determine whether active commuting to/from school (ACS) at baseline predicted continued ACS at follow-up two to five years later.

Two cohorts of households with 3–15 year-olds in four low-income New Jersey cities were randomly sampled and followed for two to five year periods between 2009 and 2017. Children who walked, bicycled, or skateboarded to/from school at least one day/week were classified as active commuters. Children with complete data at both time points were included in this analysis (n = 383). Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association between ACS at T1 and T2. Models adjusted for child age, sex, and race/ethnicity; parent’s education and nativity status (native-born vs foreign-born); household poverty level; car availability; neighborhood level characteristics; and distance from home to school.