Journal of general internal medicine
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Multicenter Study
Characteristics of Opioid Prescribing in Non-surgical Medicine Patients with Acute Pain at Hospital Discharge.
The opioid epidemic and new Joint Commission standards around opioid stewardship have made the appropriate prescribing of opioids a priority. A knowledge gap exists pertaining to the short-term prescription of opioids at hospital discharge for acute pain in non-surgical patients. ⋯ Given the observed variation in opioid prescribing and utilization data, standardized indication-based opioid prescribing guidance in the non-surgical medical population would help curb the amount of opioids that remain unused post-discharge.
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Providing diagnostic and treatment information to patients is a core clinical skill, but evidence for the effectiveness of different information-giving strategies is inconsistent. This systematic review aimed to investigate the reported effects of empirically tested communication strategies for providing information on patient-related outcomes: information recall and (health-related) behaviors. ⋯ Using specific framing strategies for achieving specific communication goals when providing information to patients appears to have positive effects on information recall and patient health-related behaviors. The heterogeneity observed in this group of studies testifies the need for a more consistent methodological and conceptual agenda when testing medical information-giving strategies.
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Coaching has been shown to improve resident well-being; however, not all benefit equally. ⋯ Coaching programs should consider tailored approaches to support residents whose well-being is impacted by gender and/or race, and who have higher intolerance of uncertainty and lower resilience at baseline. Coaching skills of goal setting and reflection may positively affect interns and teach coping skills.
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Few studies have investigated the relationship between industry funding/conflicts of interest and authors' positions in opinion pieces on drug safety. Harmful effects of varenicline, a treatment for smoking cessation, have been highly contested. ⋯ We found that authors with financial ties to drug companies were more likely to publish opinion pieces that minimised harms of varenicline. These results raise questions about journals' editorial policies to accept reviews of treatments from authors with financial relationships with manufacturers.
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It is not uncommon for medical specialists to predominantly care for patients with certain chronic conditions rather than primary care physicians (PCPs), yet the resource implications from such patterns of care are not well understood. ⋯ Older adults with diabetes who receive more of their ambulatory care from a PCP instead of a medical specialist show evidence of lower resource use.