Background: Despite a public health crisis – over 500,000 individuals have died from opioid overdoses since 2000 – and the availability of effective therapies, most patients with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) are not offered treatment. Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), such as with buprenorphine, is associated with significantly higher rates of abstinence and follow-up, lower rates of [...]

Background: Despite a public health crisis – over 500,000 individuals have died from opioid overdoses since 2000 – and the availability of effective therapies, most patients with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) are not offered treatment. Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), such as with buprenorphine, is associated with significantly higher rates of abstinence and follow-up, lower rates of [...]

Background: Anemia in patients with heart failure (HF) is common. Data reported shows a variable prevalence ranging from 10-40%. Additionally, it has also been demonstrated that it is associated with poor outcomes. Multiple risk factors have been shown to contribute to the presence of anemia in HF patients. The population of the Rio Grande Valley [...]

Background: Anemia is common in patients with HF with a prevalence ranging from 10-40%. Studies have shown that these patients have worse outcomes compared to those who don’t. The most common etiology remains iron deficiency and the updated 2017 HF guidelines state that for those patients who are diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia, intravenous iron [...]

Background: Veterans in care at Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers have a higher prevalence of Hepatitis C (HCV) antibody positivity than the general population1,2. Despite high tolerability and cure rates approaching 95% with new direct-acting antiviral (DAA) drugs, a significant proportion of veterans have not been initiated on treatment due to barriers including active substance [...]

Background: Prior to this project, inpatient Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) at UW Health lacked organizational data including volumes, patient experience, hospital acquired conditions, and operational efficiency metrics. In 2016, inpatient APPs collaborated with UW Health’s Analytics and Information Systems team to develop a method for inpatient APP attribution and identification of team-based, APP sensitive metrics [...]

Case Presentation: 39 year-old African-American male presented with dizziness, worse with movement and short-term memory loss, remaining oriented, without visual changes, and no focal deficits. He complained of chronic sinusitis for the past year. CT head showed a hyperdense mass with surrounding white matter edema in the left basal ganglia. Confirmed by leptomeningeal enhancement by [...]