Date: March 1, 2021

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 pm

Join Penn Law for a conversation moderated by Amanda Runyon, Associate Dean and Director of Biddle Law Library, with Professor Dorothy Roberts as she explores the role of scientific theory, medicine, law, sociology, politics, and civil rights. Register here.

This year’s inaugural symposium will bring together researchers, health practitioners, students, and the public at large to learn about the intersection of racism and health and discuss how we can collectively propose sustainable solutions towards health equity. Learn more and register here.

Continuing its longstanding collaboration with the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania, the ASA, NISS and SCT is delighted to announce the 13th Annual Conference on Statistical Issues in Clinical Trials: Cluster Randomized Trials (CRTs) - Challenges and Opportunities. Learn more and register here.

*For CPCE/PolicyLab Virtual Seminar Series: If you would like to participate in any of the virtual events and did not receive an Outlook invitation, please contact crosss2@email.chop.edu. 

Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and five additional endorsing societies acknowledge the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Early Management Bundle (SEP-1) for appropriately establishing sepsis as a national priority. They are, however, concerned about its potential to drive antibiotic overuse. In this position paper, Kathleen Chiotos, MD, MSCE and co-authors outline several recommendations aimed at reducing the risk of unintended consequences of SEP-1 while maintaining focus on its evidence-based elements. IDSA's core recommendation is to limit SEP-1 to septic shock, for which the evidence supporting the benefit of immediate antibiotics is greatest.

Several early-life environmental factors have been associated with altered risk for the development and/or severity of individual allergic conditions. These include exposures implicated in the modulation of the microbiome, such as infant delivery mode, diet, and exposure to antibiotics and antacids. A team including Robert Grundmeier, MD used electronic medical records for a birth cohort of 158,510 children to track development of atopic dermatitis (AD), IgE-mediated food allergy (IgE-FA), asthma, and allergic rhinitis (AR) in individual children over time. They found that vaginal delivery and exclusive breastmilk feeding are associated with reduced cumulative allergic burden, while antibiotic exposure and antacid exposure are associated with increased cumulative allergic burden during childhood.

There are limited data concerning trends in resource use and mortality among admitted children with congenital heart disease. This study by Joseph W. Rossano, MD, MS, Andrew C. Glatz, MD, MSCE and their team examined inpatient admissions in order to assess the frequency, medical complexity, and outcomes of CHD hospital admissions. Children admitted with CHD are 10 times more likely to die than those without CHD and have higher charges. Although the rate of mortality in CHD admissions decreased, children with CHD accounted for an increasing proportion of all pediatric inpatient deaths. Effective resource allocation is critical to optimize outcomes in these high-risk patients.

Michael O’Byrne, MD, MSCE and Andrew C. Glatz, MD, MSCE and their colleagues ran a multicenter, retrospective cohort study to assess contemporary use of operator directed sedation (ODS) and anesthesiologist care (AC) in the pediatric/congenital cardiac catheterization laboratory (PCCL), specifically evaluating whether the use of operator-directed sedation was associated with increased risk of major adverse events. Their results suggest that across a range of hospitals, ODS was used safely and with improved efficiency. Clinical judgment better identified cases in which ODS could be used than pre-procedural risk score. This should inform future guidelines for the use of ODS and AC in the catheterization laboratory.

Identifying preoperative pulmonary venous obstruction in total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) is important to guide treatment-planning and risk prognostication. No standardized echocardiographic definition of obstruction exists in the literature. A research team including Andrew C. Glatz, MD, MSCE developed a novel quantitative metric of pulmonary venous flow, which was superior to traditional echocardiographic metrics. Decreased PVVI was highly associated with elevated gradients measured by catheterization and clinical preoperative obstruction.