Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) individuals continue to face barriers to accessing appropriate and comprehensive healthcare. Compounding this problem, healthcare trainees report few training opportunities and low levels of preparedness to care for LGBTQI patients. In 2009, an interprofessional group of students and a faculty advisor at the University of California, San Francisco, developed a novel student-organized LGBTQI Health Forum for medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing, and physical therapy students to deliver LGBTQI health content that was otherwise absent from the formal curriculum. This elective course has evolved based upon participant feedback, emerging educational strategies, and the existing curricula infrastructure at our institution. After eight years of growth, this 10-contact hour weekend elective attracts over 250 participants each year. Plenary sessions deliver foundational terminology and skills to all attendees. Learners then select breakout sessions to attend, allowing for an individualized curriculum based upon specific interests and knowledge gaps. Breakout session topics prioritize traditionally underrepresented aspects of LGBTQI health in professional school curricula. This Forum serves as a model in which to supplement LGBTQI content into existing school curricula and offers an opportunity for interprofessional education. Next steps include conducting a formal evaluation of the curriculum, expanding our performance-based assessments, and potentially implementing a continuing education program for licensed practitioners. With a core group of interprofessional student organizers and a faculty champion, other institutions may view this course architecture as a potential way to offer learners not only LGBTQI content, but other underrepresented subjects into their own educational programs.

Financial toxicity describes the financial burden and distress that can arise for patients, and their family members, as a result of cancer treatment. It includes direct out-of-pocket costs for treatment and indirect costs such as travel, time, and changes to employment that can increase the burden of cancer. While high costs of cancer care have threatened the sustainability of access to care for decades, it is only in the past 10 years that the term “financial toxicity” has been popularized to recognize that the financial burdens of care can be just as important as the physical toxicities traditionally associated with cancer therapy. The past decade has seen a rapid growth in research identifying the prevalence and impact of financial toxicity. Research is now beginning to focus on innovations in screening and care delivery that can mitigate this risk. There is a need to determine the optimal strategy for clinicians and cancer centers to address costs of care in order to minimize financial toxicity, promote access to high value care, and reduce health disparities. We review the evolution of concerns over costs of cancer care, the impact of financial burdens on patients, methods to screen for financial toxicity, proposed solutions, and priorities for future research to identify and address costs that threaten the health and quality of life for many patients with cancer.

Objective Arterial stiffness and peripheral artery disease (PAD) are both associated with an elevated risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE); however, the association between arterial stiffness and PAD is less well characterized. The goal of the present study was to examine the association between parameters of radial artery tonometry, a non-invasive measure of arterial stiffness, and PAD. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of 134 vascular surgery outpatients (controls=33, PAD=101) using arterial applanation tonometry. Central augmentation index normalized to 75bpm (central AIX) and peripheral augmentation index (peripheral AIX) were measured using radial artery pulse wave analysis (PWA). Pulse wave velocity (PWV) was recorded at the carotid and femoral arteries. PAD was defined as symptomatic claudication with an ankle-brachial index (ABI) of <0.9 or a history of peripheral revascularization. Controls had no history of atherosclerotic vascular disease and an ABI≥0.9. Results Among the 126 participants with high quality tonometry data, compared to controls (n=33), patients with PAD (n=93) were older, with higher rates of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and smoking (P<.05). Patients with PAD also had greater arterial stiffness as measured by central AIX, peripheral AIX, and PWV (P<.05). In a multivariable model, each 10-unit increase in central and peripheral AIX was associated with significantly increased odds of PAD (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.1–3.9, P=.03 and OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2–3.2, P=.01, respectively). Additionally, central and peripheral AIX were highly correlated (r(120)=.76, P<.001). Conclusions In a cross-sectional analysis, arterial stiffness as measured by the augmentation index is independently associated with PAD, even when adjusting for several atherosclerotic risk factors. Further prospective data is needed to establish whether radial artery tonometry could be a tool for risk stratification in the PAD population.

PAD patients with comorbid depression have a significantly higher risk of amputation and mortality than PAD patients without depression. Furthermore, untreated depression was associated with an increased amputation risk in the PAD population, more so than depression or other mental illness being treated by antidepressants. The underlying mechanisms for causality, if any, remain to be determined. The association of antidepressant treatment use with amputation risk should prompt further investigations into possible mechanistic links between untreated depression and vascular dysfunction.