J Am Board Fam Med
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Dermoscopy aids family physicians (FPs) in skin cancer detection. The triage amalgamated dermoscopic algorithm (TADA) was created to simplify the dermoscopic evaluation of a skin growth. The purpose of this image-based study was to evaluate the effect of teaching the clinical and dermoscopic features of benign skin lesions on the diagnostic accuracy of skin cancer identification using TADA. We also sought to determine the best method to teach benign neoplasms. ⋯ Short dermoscopy training sessions with dedicated time for benign growths followed by TADA training for malignant growths are an effective means of teaching FPs dermoscopy and result in a high sensitivity and specificity for the identification of benign and malignant skin neoplasms.
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Discussions about racism, ethnicity, sexism, discrimination, and diversity have increased within medicine, and their impact on the physician workforce, advancement, hiring, wage inequities, mistreatment, and scholarly output, to name a few. Most medical organizations have created policies and initiatives on diversity and inclusion, focusing on supporting underrepresented minorities. Similar discussions are taking place online, including on Twitter, via specific hashtags, such as #BlackMenInMedicine, #ILookLikeASurgeon. News reports suggested some of these hashtags were "trending." We set out to assess selected hashtags and analyze their spread, as well as whether or how health professional organizations publicized or amplified this emerging discourse on Twitter. ⋯ Strengthening, deepening and, ultimately, expanding the conversation on diversity and inclusion in medicine on Twitter requires an intentional and strategic use of hashtags, photographs and links; Engaging "influencers" such as mainstream media and medical organizations is also critical to more widespread dissemination.
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Latino health deserves intense focus in promoting a just health care system. Despite the surprisingly positive health outcomes associated with the "Hispanic Paradox" phenomenon, the trend of Latino immigrants tending to have better health outcomes than other minorities, linguistic issues persist. The following essay is a combination of actual patient encounters through my experiences serving Spanish-speaking patients, as a medical student and Spanish speaker, and a reflection on the clash between impersonal interpretation services and Hispanic cultural values. I then present potential initiatives to improve rapport in patient encounters while maintaining the standard of care across foreign language barriers.
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We aimed to standardize data collection from 3 health systems (HS1, HS2, HS3) participating in the San Francisco Bay Collaborative Research Network, and compare rates and predictors of uncontrolled blood pressure among hypertensive adults to identify opportunities for regional collaboration in quality improvement. ⋯ After controlling for standard individual predictors of hypertension control, significant and substantial differences in hypertension control persisted between health systems, possibly due to local quality improvement programs among other factors. There may be opportunities to share best practices and address common disparities across health systems.