Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in pediatric inpatients and associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and length of stay. Early identification can reduce severity. Methods To create and validate an electronic health record (EHR)-based AKI screening tool, we generated temporally distinct development and validation cohorts using retrospective data from our tertiary care children’s hospital, including children 28 days through 21 years old with sufficient serum creatinine measurements to determine AKI status. AKI was defined as 1.5-fold or 0.3 mg/dL increase in serum creatinine. Age, medication exposures, platelet count, red blood cell distribution width, serum phosphorus, serum transaminases, hypotension (ICU only), and pH (ICU only) were included in AKI risk prediction models. Results For ICU patients, 791/1332 (59%) of the development cohort and 470/866 (54%) of the validation cohort had AKI. In external validation, the ICU prediction model had C-statistic=0.74 (95% confidence interval 0.71–0.77). For non-ICU patients, 722/2337 (31%) and 469/1474 (32%) had AKI, and the prediction model had C-statistic=0.69 (0.66–0.72). Conclusions AKI screening can be performed using EHR data. The AKI screening tool can be incorporated into EHR systems to identify high risk patients without serum creatinine data, enabling targeted laboratory testing, early AKI identification, and modification of care.

Background-Pediatric acute kidney injury (AKI) is common and associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and length of stay. We performed a pragmatic randomized trial testing the hypothesis that AKI risk alerts increase AKI screening. Methods-All intensive care and ward admissions of children aged 28 days through 21 years without chronic kidney disease from 12/6/2016 to 11/1/2017 were included. The intervention alert displayed if calculated AKI risk >50% and no serum creatinine (SCr) was ordered within 24 hours. The primary outcome was SCr testing within 48 hours of AKI risk >50%. Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:

Background Despite guideline recommendations, vitamin D testing has increased substantially. Clinical decision support (CDS) presents an opportunity to reduce inappropriate laboratory testing. Objectives and Methods To reduce inappropriate testing of vitamin D at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a CDS assigned providers to receive or not receive an electronic alert each time a 25-hydroxyvitamin D assay was ordered for an adult patient unless the order was associated with a diagnosis in the patient's chart for which vitamin D testing is recommended. The CDS ran for 80 days, collecting data on number of tests, provider information, and basic patient demographics. Results During the 80 days, providers placed 12,368 orders for 25-hydroxyvitamin D. The intervention group ordered a vitamin D assay and received the alert for potentially inappropriate testing 2,181 times and completed the 25-hydroxyvitamin D order in 89.9% of encounters, while the control group ordered a vitamin D assay (without receiving an alert) 2,032 times and completed the order in 98.1% of encounters, for an absolute reduction of testing of 8% (p < 0.001). Conclusion This CDS reduced vitamin D ordering by utilizing a soft-stop approach. At a charge of $179.00 per test and a cost to the laboratory of $4.20 per test, each display of the alert led to an average reduction of $14.70 in charges and of $0.34 in spending by the laboratory (the savings/alert ratio). By describing the effectiveness of an electronic alert in terms of the savings/alert ratio, the impact of this intervention can be better appreciated and compared with other interventions.

Objectives To assess the uptake of second-line antihyperglycemic agents among patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) receiving metformin. Design Serial cross-sectional study (2011-2021). Setting Ten US and seven non-US electronic health record and administrative claims databases in the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics network. Participants 4.8 million patients with T2DM receiving metformin. Main Outcomes Measures Calendar-year trends in the proportional initiation of second-line antihyperglycemic agents, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, and sulfonylureas, for each database. We also evaluated the relative drug class-level uptake across cardiovascular risk groups. Results We identified 4.6 million patients with T2DM in US databases, 61,382 from Spain, 32,442 from Germany, 25,173 from the UK, 13,270 from France, 5,580 from Scotland, 4,614 from Hong Kong, and 2,322 from Australia. During 2011-2021, the combined proportional initiation of cardioprotective antihyperglycemic agents, GLP-1 RAs and SGLT2is, increased across all data sources, with the combined initiation of these drugs as second-line agents in 2021 ranging from 35.2% to 68.2% in the US databases, 15.4% in France, 34.7% in Spain, 50.1% in Germany, and 54.8% in Scotland. From 2016 to 2021, in some US and non-US databases, uptake of GLP-1 RAs and SGLT2is increased more significantly among populations without cardiovascular disease compared to those with established cardiovascular disease, without any data source providing evidence of a greater increase in their uptake in the populations with cardiovascular disease. Conclusions Despite the increase in overall uptake of cardioprotective antihyperglycemic agents as second-line treatment for T2DM, their uptake was lower in patients with cardiovascular disease over the last decade. A strategy to ensure medication use concordant with guideline recommendations is essential to improve outcomes of patients with T2DM.