Background: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) primarily occurs in elderly adults and contributes to excess patient mortality, readmissions, and hospital and postdischarge costs. Two‐thirds of CDI hospitalizations are for patients with CDI as a secondary diagnosis (secondary CDI). These patients, who either acquired CDI in the hospital or were admitted for a more serious condition, may […]

Background: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is becoming an important part of internal medicine (IM) residency training. Achieving competency requires performing a large volume of clinical exams which can be difficult within the constraints of residency. Often cited barriers include insufficient resident time and the interruption of daily workflow. Methods: Prospective cohort study within a 700-bed, quaternary […]

Background: Hospital‐acquired venous thromboembolism (HA‐VTE) is a morbid, often fatal, and — in cases of pulmonary embolism (PE) or lower‐extremity deep venous thrombosis (LE DVT) — pharmacologically potentially preventable condition. Because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services now mandates use of a “present‐on‐admission” flag for all codes, discharge data from a range of hospitals […]

Background: The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) mandates shelf examinations for all upper-level medical students completing the Internal Medicine (IM) clerkship. Undergraduate medical curricula have adopted many disparate strategies for succinctly delivering “high-yield” topics to students prior to their examinations, such as PowerPoint presentations, mock examinations, and review of challenging questions from question banks […]