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Biomedical subjects

Paul R Dexter

Publications and source records attributed to Paul R Dexter.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Genotype-Guided Antidepressant Prescribing for Patients With Depression: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

IMPORTANCE: The effectiveness of pharmacogenetics to guide prescribing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for depression remains unclear, despite the well-established association between SSRI pharmacokinetics and genetic variation. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether pharmacogenetic-guided prescribing of SSRIs improves treatment response in patients with depression. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The ADOPT PGx (A Depression and Opioid Pragmatic Trial in Pharmacogenetics) Depression pragmatic randomized clinical trial was conducted from August 10, 2021, through April 27, 2024, at primary care, psychiatry, or family medicine clinics at enrolling sites throughout the US. Patients were aged 8 years or older and had experienced depression for 3 months or longer. INTERVENTION: Patients were randomized to genotype-guided SSRI prescribing (intervention group) or usual care (control group). Actionable drug metabolism phenotypes were defined as those for which pharmacogenetic clinical guidelines recommend alternative medication selection or dose adjustment. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was change in Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) depression T scores at 3 months among patients with the actionable phenotype. Secondary end points included adverse effect severity of SSRIs at 3 months and depression remission (measured with PROMIS depression scores and Patient Health Questionnaire-8 [PHQ-8] scores) at 6 months. RESULTS: This study of 1460 patients included 1239 adults (84.9%) (mean [SD] age, 40.6 [16.7] years) and 221 children (15.1%) (mean [SD] age, 14.6 [1.8] years). Most patients were female (1096 [75.1%]). A total of 692 patients (47.4%) had an actionable phenotype; 351 (50.7%) were assigned to the intervention, and 341 (49.3%) were assigned to usual care. At baseline, 463 of the 692 patients (66.9%) reported having depressive symptoms for more than 2 years, 603 (87.1%) were receiving pharmacologic treatment, and 354 (51.2%) were receiving nonpharmacologic treatment. At 3 months, no significant differences were observed between the intervention and usual care groups in change in PROMIS depression T scores (mean [SD] change, -4.3 [8.4] vs -4.0 [8.1]; P = .68), medication adverse effect burden (mean [SD] change, 8.2 [4.3] vs 7.8 [4.5]; P = .37), or Patient Health Questionnaire-8 score change (mean [SD] change, -3.3 [5.2] vs -2.7 [4.8]; P  = .13). However, at 6 months, the PROMIS depression T-score remission rate (score ≤16) was higher in the intervention group compared with the usual care group (153 of 317 patients [48.3%] vs 122 of 310 patients [39.4%]; P = .02). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this randomized clinical trial, genotype-guided prescribing of SSRIs did not improve control of depression symptoms at 3 months compared with usual care but was associated with higher depression remission rates at 6 months. These findings suggest a possible longer-term clinical benefit and indicate that future studies should focus on the durability and long-term impact of genotype-guided prescribing in the management of depressive symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifiers: NCT04445792 (Master Protocol Research Program platform trial) and NCT05966155 (ADOPT PGx Depression trial).

Humans↗

Efficiency, comprehensiveness and cost-effectiveness when comparing dictation and electronic templates for operative reports.

Surgeons typically document operative events using dictation services. Dictated reports are frequently incomplete or delayed. Electronic note templates could potentially improve this process. Using a study design of alternating four week blocks, we compared the timeliness and comprehensiveness of operative notes created through the use of electronic templates versus dictation services for five surgical procedures. Templates resulted in dramatically faster times to the presence of a verified operative report in the medical record compared to dictation services (mean 28 v. 22,440 minutes). Templates increased overall compliance with national standards for operative note documentation and avoided transcription costs. Documentation with templates took slightly more time than dictation (mean 6.77 v. 5.96 minutes; P=0.036), not including the additional time necessary to subsequently verify dictated reports. We conclude that electronic note templates can improve the timeliness and comprehensiveness of operative documentation, while decreasing transcription costs and requiring minimal additional effort on the part of surgeons.

Cesarean Section↗

Inpatient computer-based standing orders vs physician reminders to increase influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates: a randomized trial.

CONTEXT: Computerized reminder systems increase influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates, but computerized standing order systems have not been previously described or evaluated. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of computerized physician standing orders compared with physician reminders on inpatient vaccination rates. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS: Randomized trial of 3777 general medicine patients discharged from 1 of 6 study wards during a 14-month period (November 1, 1998, through December 31, 1999) composed of 2 overlapping influenza seasons at an urban public teaching hospital. INTERVENTIONS: The hospital's computerized physician order entry system identified inpatients eligible for influenza and pneumococcal vaccination. For patients with standing orders, the system automatically produced vaccine orders directed to nurses at the time of patient discharge. For patients with reminders, the computer system provided reminders to physicians that included vaccine orders during routine order entry sessions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Vaccine administration. RESULTS: During the approximately 6 months of the influenza season, 50% of all hospitalized patients were identified as eligible for influenza vaccination. Twenty-two percent of patients hospitalized during the entire 14 months of the study were found eligible for pneumococcal vaccination. Patients with standing orders received an influenza vaccine significantly more often (42%) than those patients with reminders (30%) (P <.001). Patients with standing orders received a pneumococcal vaccine significantly more often (51%) than those with reminders (31%) (P <.001). CONCLUSIONS: Computerized standing orders were more effective than computerized reminders for increasing both influenza and pneumococcal vaccine administration. Our findings suggest that computerized standing orders should be used more widely for this purpose.

Clinical Protocols↗

Risk factors for nonelective hospitalization in frail and older adult, inner-city outpatients.

PURPOSE: In our study, we sought to improve the accuracy of predicting the risk of hospitalization and to identify older, inner-city patients who could be targeted for preventive interventions. DESIGN AND METHODS: Participants (56% were African American) in a randomized trial were from a primary care practice and included 1,041 patients living in the inner city who were either > or = 75 years of age or were > or = 50 years of age with severe disease. As a secondary analysis, we assessed patient characteristics at baseline involving five domains of health, including utilization and satisfaction. We followed participants for 12 months and recorded the occurrence of nonelective hospitalization within the study period. We developed a multivariate model using logistic regression to predict this outcome. RESULTS: The following patient characteristics independently predicted an increased risk for nonelective hospitalization: having the diagnosis of congestive heart failure, diabetes mellitus, or anemia; and having more medications prescribed, having a lower body mass index, and having more emergency department visits during the previous year. Better physical functioning reduced the risk of hospitalization. IMPLICATIONS: Moderate accuracy of a prediction model (0.73) was observed. In addition to focusing on patients with chronic disease, helping them maintain physical functioning may help reduce nonelective hospitalization.

Black or African American↗

Using information technology to improve the health care of older adults.

The high burden of illness and frailty common among our growing population of older adults often results in fragmentation of care across providers and health care systems, increasing the complexity and costs of caring for these patients. Information technology offers one way to meet this challenge. Scientists at the Regenstrief Institute have more than a quarter-century of experience in using medical informatics to support clinicians in the day-to-day care of older adults. Their research has progressed through several evolutionary cycles, beginning with the acquisition of relevant data and moving to studies of the most efficient and effective mechanisms that bring information to bear at the time of clinical decision making. Information technology designed with the input of the end user has the greatest promise of changing provider behavior because it balances technological challenges with the cultural context of the practice environment. One topic of active research is information technology to support transitions of care among sites and providers. These transitions place older adults at increased risk for avoidable illness, death, and health care costs. Information systems that improve communication among providers during these transitions have the potential to improve safety and reduce costs.

Aged↗

Community clinical data exchange for emergency medicine patients.

Little is known about the opportunities for a community clinical data exchange network to influence patient care. Rates of patient "cross-over" among different institutions can provide one estimate of the additional value such systems have over unconnected, independent institutional electronic medical records. The Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC) represents such a system, involving a collaboration of central Indiana hospitals to improve patient care. During a one year study period, 288,696 patients made 471,640 Emergency Department (ED) visits within the INPC collaboration -- accounting for 92% of all Indianapolis ED visits. Overall 25% of the patients with more than one visit also visited one of the other five hospital systems, accounting for 19% of all visits. Our results help clarify the expected frequency within one large metropolitan area that ED patients could obtain direct benefit from a community clinical data exchange network.

Community Networks↗

Clinicians' and patients' experiences and satisfaction with unscheduled, nighttime, Internet-based video conferencing for assessing acute medical problems in a nursing facility.

Videoconferencing between patients and their physicians can increase patients' access to healthcare. Unscheduled videoconferencing can benefit patients with acute medical problems but has not been studied extensively. We conducted a clinical trial of unscheduled, nighttime videoconferencing in a nursing home, where on-call physicians usually provide care by telephone from remote locations. Although most calls for medical problems did not lead to videoconferencing, physicians and nursing-home residents were satisfied with videoconferencing when it did occur, and physicians reported that making medical decisions was easier with videoconferencing. Videoconferencing was most often conducted to assess residents with changes in mental status, abnormal laboratory values, or falls. Physicians often lacked immediate access to videoconferencing equipment when medical problems with residents occurred. This application could benefit from improved access and portability of equipment.

Adult↗

A randomized, controlled trial of clinical information shared from another institution.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Emergency physicians often must deliver medical care with minimal access to historical clinical information. We demonstrate the feasibility and potential value of increased access to patients' clinical information from another hospital while they are receiving care in the emergency department. METHODS: We conducted a pilot randomized, controlled trial of providing information from a large, longitudinal, computer-based patient record system of clinical data from an urban hospital to emergency physicians at either of 2 urban EDs. We randomized patients seen at either ED to have the information from the computer-based patient record system provided to their physician or to not have the information provided. We delivered information to the emergency physician both as a printed abstract and by means of online access to the computer-based patient record. We assessed charges, hospital admissions, repeat visits to EDs, and the emergency physicians' satisfaction with the information. RESULTS: Under certain assumptions, the intervention was estimated to decrease charges for ED care by approximately $26 per encounter (P =.03) at 1 hospital, but there was no effect on charges at the other hospital. This result was likely because of marked differences in the workflows and information access at these 2 EDs. We demonstrated no differences in admission rates or repeat visits to the ED. Emergency physicians identified that remembering their passwords and the time required to search for the information were significant barriers to accessing clinical information online. CONCLUSION: Our pilot study is the first to demonstrate the feasibility of sharing clinical information between different health care systems. We observed a trend toward cost savings at 1 of 2 hospitals and no differences in the quality measures we studied. Our experience underscores the difficulties inherent in studying the effects of community-wide health care interventions on cost and quality of ED care.

Adult↗

A modern optical character recognition system in a real world clinical setting: some accuracy and feasibility observations.

Advances in optical character recognition (OCR) software and computer hardware have stimulated a reevaluation of the technology and its ability to capture structured clinical data from preexisting paper forms. In our pilot evaluation, we measured the accuracy and feasibility of capturing vitals data from a pediatric encounter form that has been in use for over twenty years. We found that the software had a digit recognition rate of 92.4% (95% confidence interval: 91.6 to 93.2) overall. More importantly, this system was approximately three times as fast as our existing method of data entry. These preliminary results suggest that with further refinements in the approach and additional development, we may be able to incorporate OCR as another method for capturing structured clinical data.

Electronic Data Processing↗

Conducting a study of Internet-based video conferencing for assessing acute medical problems in a nursing facility.

We expect the use of real-time, interactive video conferencing to grow, due to more affordable technology and new health policies. Building and implementing portable systems to enable conferencing between physicians and patients requires durable equipment, committed staff, reliable service, and adequate protection and capture of data. We are studying the use of Internet-based conferencing between on-call physicians and patients residing in a nursing facility. We describe the challenges we experienced in constructing the study. Initiating and orchestrating unscheduled conferences needs to be easy, and requirements for training staff in using equipment should be minimal. Studies of health outcomes should include identification of medical conditions most amenable to benefit from conferencing, and outcomes should include positive as well as negative effects.

Acute Disease↗

The Indiana network for patient care: a working local health information infrastructure. An example of a working infrastructure collaboration that links data from five health systems and hundreds of millions of entries.

The Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC) is a local health information infrastructure (LHII) that includes information from the five major hospital systems (fifteen separate hospitals), the county and state public health departments, and Indiana Medicaid and RxHub and that carries 660 million separate results. It provides cross-institutional access to physicians in emergency rooms and hospitals based on patient-physician proximity or on hospital credentialing. The network includes and delivers laboratory, radiology, dictation, and other documents to a majority of Indianapolis office practices. The INPC began operation seven years ago and is one of the first and best examples of an LHII.

Cooperative Behavior↗