There are differences in lupus phenotypes between ethnic populations. Although ethnicity was not found to be a significant independent predictor of damage accrual, low income was.

Residents who are more likely to fail the ABS qualifying and certifying examinations can be identified by a low USMLE Step 1 score and by poor performance on the ABSITE at any time during residency. These findings support the use of the USMLE Step 1 score in the surgical residency selection process and a formal academic intervention for residents who perform poorly on the ABSITE.

The aim of this study is to identify and evaluate the quality of videos for patients available on YouTube for learning to self-administer subcutaneous methotrexate. Using the search term "Methotrexate injection," two clinical reviewers analyzed the first 60 videos on YouTube. Source and search rank of video, audience interaction, video duration, and time since video was uploaded on YouTube were recorded. Videos were classified as useful, misleading, or a personal patient view. Videos were rated for reliability, comprehensiveness, and global quality scale (GQS). Reasons for misleading videos were documented, and patient videos were documented as being either positive or negative towards methotrexate (MTX) injection. Fifty-one English videos overlapped between the two geographic locations; 10 videos were classified as useful (19.6 %), 14 misleading (27.5 %), and 27 personal patient view (52.9 %). Total views of videos were 161,028: 19.2 % useful, 72.8 % patient, and 8.0 % misleading. Mean GQS: 4.2 (±1.0) useful, 1.6 (±1.1) misleading, and 2.0 (±0.9) for patient videos (p < 0.0001). Mean reliability: 3.3 (±0.6) useful, 0.9 (±1.2) misleading, and 1.0 (±0.7) for patient videos (p < 0.0001). Comprehensiveness: 2.2 (±1.9) useful, 0.1 (±0.3) misleading, and 1.5 (±1.5) for patient view videos (p = 0.0027). This study demonstrates a minority of videos are useful for teaching MTX injection. Further, video quality does not correlate with video views. While web video may be an additional educational tool available, clinicians need to be familiar with specific resources to help guide and educate their patients to ensure best outcomes.

Despite their established clinical utility, the mode of action for antimalarials remains uncertain despite recent advances and still requires further investigation. By better understanding how antimalarials function, their optimal use in the clinical setting can be ensured.

Background The 21-gene recurrence score assay (RS) stratifies early-stage, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer by recurrence risk. Few studies have examined how physicians use RS to recommend adjuvant systemic chemotherapy or patient experiences with testing and decision-making. Methods We surveyed 3,880 women treated for breast cancer in 2013-2014, identified by the Los Angeles County and Georgia SEER registries (response rate: 71%). Women reported chemotherapy recommendations, chemotherapy receipt, testing experiences, and decision satisfaction. Registries linked tumor data, RS, and surveys. Regression models examined factors associated with chemotherapy recommendations and receipt by RS and subgroups. Results Of 1,527 patients with Stage I-II, ER/PR(+), HER2-negative disease: 778 received RS (62.6% for node-negative favorable, 24.3% in node-negative, unfavorable, and 13.0% in node-positive disease, p<.001). Overall, 47.2% of patients received a recommendation against chemotherapy and 40.6% received a recommendation for it. RS results correlated with recommendations: nearly all patients with high scores (31-100) received a chemotherapy recommendation (86.9%-96.5% across clinical subgroups), while the majority of patients with low-risk results (0-18) received a recommendation against it (49.2%-78.2% across subgroups). Most patients with high RS received chemotherapy (87.0%, 91.1%, 100% across subgroups), while few patients with low scores received it (2.9%, 9.5%, 26.6% across subgroups). There were no substantial racial/ethnic differences in testing and treatment. Women were largely satisfied with RS and chemotherapy decisions. Conclusions Oncologists use RS to personalize treatment, even in node-positive disease. High satisfaction and absence of disparities in testing and treatment suggests that precision medicine advances have improved systemic breast cancer treatment.

A collaborative care model can exceed the already high expectations for care of patients with inflammatory arthritis. Our findings support the role of pharmacists using a collaborative care approach to care for patients in rheumatology clinics.

The objective of this study was to determine self-confidence of internal medicine (IM) residents regarding rheumatology clinical skills and factors that may affect their confidence. Permission was sought to e-mail a web-based survey to IM residents at all 13 English language Canadian internal medicine programs. Residents were asked to rank self-confidence in rheumatology, cardiology, respirology, and gastroenterology skills. Further questions included site and year of training, career interests, rheumatology experiences, learning opportunities, and assessment frequency. These factors were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analyses. Two hundred sixteen residents (21.8%) from all 13 sites responded to the survey. Resident self-confidence in rheumatology diagnoses was 5.24/10, lower than all three comparator subspecialties. Increasing teaching exposure had a more significant impact on confidence in rheumatology than on comparator subspecialties. Increasing year of training had no association with higher self-confidence for rheumatology, in contrast to the increase in confidence seen with increased year of training for each comparator subspecialty. Further analysis demonstrated that the completion of a rheumatology rotation, increasing learning opportunities, annual assessment, and career interest were associated with greater resident self-confidence. Resident self-confidence for rheumatology skills is cautious at best and is lower than other common subspecialties. Self confidence improves with targeted rheumatology clinical experience and teaching, but does not improve solely with higher year of IM training. Furthermore, the impact of rheumatology teaching is greater than that of other common IM subspecialties. This information is critical to the planning and implementation of effective rheumatology curricula within internal medicine residency programs.

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