Publications

Close to 19 million US adults have severe mental illnesses (SMI), and they die, on average, 25 years earlier than the general population, most often from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Many of the antipsychotic medications used to treat SMI contribute to CVD risk by increasing risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. Based on compelling evidence, the American Diabetes Association and the American Psychiatric Association developed guidelines for metabolic screening and monitoring during use of these medications.In this manuscript, we have reviewed the evidence on diabetes and other CVD risk screening, prevalence, and management among populations with SMI. We also review differences in screening among subpopulations with SMI (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, women, and children). We found that despite national guidelines for screening for diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors, up to 70 % of people taking antipsychotics remain unscreened and untreated. Based on estimates that 20 % of the 19 million US adults with SMI have diabetes and 70 % of them are not screened; it is likely that over 2 million Americans with SMI have unidentified diabetes. Given that undiagnosed diabetes costs over $4,000 per person, this failure to identify diabetes among people with SMI represents a missed opportunity to prevent morbidity and translates to over $8 billion in annual preventable costs to our healthcare system.Given the high burden of disease and significant evidence of suboptimal medical care received by people with SMI, we propose several clinical and policy recommendations to improve diabetes and other CVD risk screening and care for this highly vulnerable population. These recommendations include reducing antipsychotic medication dose or switching antipsychotic medications, enhancing smoking cessation efforts, sharing electronic health records between physical and mental health care systems, and promoting integration of care.

BACKGROUND

Clinicians have known for centuries that there is substantial variability between patients in their response to medications-some individuals exhibit a miraculous recovery while others fail to respond at all. Still others experience dangerous side effects. The hunt for the factors responsible for this variation has been aided by the ability to sequence the human genome, but this just provides part of the picture. Here, we discuss the emerging field of study focused on the human microbiome and how it may help to better predict drug response and improve the treatment of human disease.

DISCUSSION

Various clinical disciplines characterize drug response using either continuous or categorical descriptors that are then correlated to environmental and genetic risk factors. However, these approaches typically ignore the microbiome, which can directly metabolize drugs into downstream metabolites with altered activity, clearance, and/or toxicity. Variations in the ability of each individual's microbiome to metabolize drugs may be an underappreciated source of differences in clinical response. Complementary studies in humans and animal models are necessary to elucidate the mechanisms responsible and to test the feasibility of identifying microbiome-based biomarkers of treatment outcomes. We propose that the predictive power of genetic testing could be improved by taking a more comprehensive view of human genetics that encompasses our human and microbial genomes. Furthermore, unlike the human genome, the microbiome is rapidly altered by diet, pharmaceuticals, and other interventions, providing the potential to improve patient care by re-shaping our associated microbial communities.

PROBLEM

The Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, and the Carnegie Foundation report on medical education recommend creating individualized learning pathways during medical training so that learners can experience broader professional roles beyond patient care. Little data exist to support the success of these specialized pathways in graduate medical education.

INTERVENTION

We present the 10-year experience of the Primary Care Medicine Education (PRIME) track, a clinical-outcomes research pathway for internal medicine residents at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). We hypothesized that participation in an individualized learning track, PRIME, would lead to a greater likelihood of publishing research from residency and accessing adequate career mentorship and would be influential on subsequent alumni careers.

CONTEXT

We performed a cross-sectional survey of internal medicine residency alumni from UCSF who graduated in 2001 through 2010. We compared responses of PRIME and non-PRIME categorical alumni. We used Pearson's chi-square and Student's t test to compare PRIME and non-PRIME alumni on categorical and continuous variables.

OUTCOME

Sixty-six percent (211/319) of alumni responded to the survey. A higher percentage of PRIME alumni published residency research projects compared to non-PRIME alumni (64% vs. 40%; p = .002). The number of PRIME alumni identifying research as their primary career role was not significantly different from non-PRIME internal medicine residency graduates (35% of PRIME vs. 29% non-PRIME). Process measures that could explain these findings include adequate access to mentors (M 4.4 for PRIME vs. 3.6 for non-PRIME alumni, p < .001, on a 5-point Likert scale) and agreeing that mentoring relationships affected career choice (M 4.2 for PRIME vs. 3.7 for categorical alumni, p = .001). Finally, 63% of PRIME alumni agreed that their research experience during residency influenced their subsequent career choice versus 46% of non-PRIME alumni (p = .023).

LESSONS LEARNED

Our results support the concept that providing residents with an individualized learning pathway focusing on clinical outcomes research during residency enables them to successfully publish manuscripts and access mentorship, and may influence subsequent career choice. Implementation of individualized residency program tracks that nurture academic interests along with clinical skills can support career development within medicine residency programs.

As the world's aging population grows, the surgical population is increasingly made up of older adults. Due to changes in physiologic function and increasing comorbidity burden, older adults are at increased risk of morbidity, mortality, and functional decline after surgery. In addition, decision to undergo surgery for the older adult may be based on the postoperative functional outcome rather than survival. Although few studies have evaluated an older adult's function as a postoperative outcome, surgeons are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of maintaining or regaining function in an older patient. Interventions to improve postoperative functional outcomes are being developed and show promising results. This review discusses existing literature on postoperative functional outcomes in older adults and recently developed interventions.