Case Presentation: A 3-year-old female presented with 1-day of fatigue, pallor, dyspnea and dry cough. Vital signs showed HR 152, RR 28, temp 98.8 F, BP 101/67, and oxygen saturation of 75% on room air. On exam, she was well appearing, with clear lungs and no respiratory distress despite the desaturations. Initial testing showed a [...]

Case Presentation: An 11 year old male with nonverbal autism, complex partial epilepsy, and repaired coarctation of the aorta presented with failure to bear weight, rash, and easy bruising. Family history was positive for rheumatoid arthritis. The patient’s diet was limited due to food selectivity. Physical exam was significant for bilateral hip pain and petechiae [...]

Background: CD-19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor – T (CAR-T) cell therapy is FDA approved for the treatment of primary refractory or recurrent Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) after two or more lines of systemic therapies have failed. The two commercially available products are Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel). In clinical trials, 54% of 111 patients [...]

Background: Preventable ED visits account for 20-50% of ED visits. (1, 2) Though student-run free clinics (SRFCs) could play an important role in decreasing unnecessary utilization, current ED utilization in SRFCs and risk factors have not been described. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of patients receiving care at a student-run free clinic. We captured [...]

Background: Patient out-of-pocket costs are a critical consideration when providing care as they can represent a substantial portion of a patient’s income and when they are exceedingly high can become a barrier to care. We sought to better understand Physician interaction with and reaction to out-of-pocket costs at the trainee level. Methods: A nineteen-question survey [...]

Background: To curb the growing opioid epidemic, hospitalists need to re-examine inpatient opioid use and increase utilization of alternatives to opioids for pain management. Of 1.1 million nonsurgical inpatients across 286 US hospitals from July 2009 to June 2010, 51% received an opioid during hospitalization and more than half with inpatient exposure were prescribed opioids [...]

Background: As the day progresses, clinicians may experience decision fatigue that impairs clinical reasoning. Such impairment may exert its greatest effects on clinicians’ abilities to identify and effectively treat heterogeneous clinical syndromes with high diagnostic uncertainty, including sepsis. We therefore examined the association of time of day with antibiotic initiation among hospitalized ward patients with [...]

Background: Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) is an idiopathic form of organizing pneumonia. The exact incidence, prevalence and pathogenesis are unknown. This retrospective study aims to reveal the prevalence of COP in hospitalized population and to investigate the odds ratio (OR) of COP in connective tissue disease (CTD) of interest including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus [...]

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause for liver cirrhosis and one of the commonest indications for liver transplantation. The introduction of direct acting antiviral (DAA) medications have revolutionized the treatment for HCV. Prior to 2014, the treatment for HCV consisted of interferon and ribavirin which yielded a sustained virologic response (SVR) of [...]

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is among the top three leading causes of hospital readmissions in the United States. Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(AECOPD) is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and cost with AECOPD accounting for more than half of the 15.5 billion USD spent on COPD[1,2]. In this project, we aim [...]