Background

Early medical subspecialty training is an emerging trend in medical education. These electives are still rare for Early Clinical Medical Students (ECMS). We describe the introduction of an Infectious Disease (ID) inpatient consult rotation elective for ECMS.

Methods

In addition to seeing patients and rounding with the inpatient ID consult team, we created a supplemental curriculum to provide added support for ECMS that included a checklist of clinical skills learning objectives, self-directed, publicly available mini-lectures on ID topics, and an ID Coach who provided directed and personalized tutoring for students. We surveyed ECMS, ID fellows and attendings on service, and ID Coaches to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of this rotation and curriculum.

Results

The majority of ECMS reported that the rotation was a useful educational experience and that the ID Coach was one of the most valuable aspects of the rotation. The majority of ID fellows and attendings reported that working with ECMS improved their job satisfaction and well-being.

Conclusions

This multifaceted approach to early medical subspecialty training was valuable for ECMS, ID fellows, and faculty. Ongoing improvements in this curriculum will provide a useful tool for medical education.

Background: Reconstruction of surgical defects on the dorsal finger can be challenging because of a lack of adjacent tissue reservoirs, poor laxity, and often thin, atrophic skin surrounding the defect.Objective: To present reconstructive options for cutaneous dorsal finger defects.Methods: We describe our five preferred approaches to reconstructing cutaneous dorsal finger defects based on the amount of available underlying tissue and location of the defect on the finger.Results: In the authors’ opinion, for smaller defects between and including the metacarpophalangeal joint extending to the proximal interphalangeal joint, a transposition flap or unilateral advancement flap is preferable. For proximal finger defects that are wider, a unilateral rotation flap is appropriate. A Burow full-thickness skin graft can be used for any proximal defect with underlying soft tissue present. For defects with underlying bone or tendon present, a reverse cross-finger interpolation flap can be utilized.Conclusions: The unilateral advancement flap, unilateral rotation flap, transposition flap, full-thickness skin grafts, or the reverse cross-finger interpolation flap can be used to reconstruct the majority of cutaneous dorsal finger defects.

Abstract Background Education on infections in hospitalized patients, antimicrobial selection, and principles of antimicrobial stewardship are foundational to all clinicians. Incorporating early learners into Infectious Diseases (ID) consult services has the potential to build a strong fund of knowledge in these content domains, but also poses potential challenges. We evaluated the impact of a novel clinical rotation and supporting curriculum on third-year medical students rotating on the ID consult service for 2 weeks during their 12-week Internal Medicine clerkship at the University of California, San Diego. Methods Third-year medical students who selected to rotate on the ID consult service were given an hour-long orientation about the service and common infectious syndromes. They were provided with a checklist of clinical skills to complete during the rotation. In addition to daily rounds and clinical care, ID Coaches (ID faculty and senior ID fellows) met with students weekly for 1-2 hours to review ID topics, practice oral presentations, and/or conduct physical exam finding rounds. We surveyed medical students to assess the effectiveness of the rotation. Results Forty third-year medical students participated in the 2-week ID consult rotation between June 2020-May 2021; 31 (77%) completed the rotation evaluation. Seventy percent or more of students reported that the ID rotation facilitated their learning across 8 of 10 ID-content domains (Figure 1). More students reported that the ID Coach facilitated learning (71%) compared to the clinical skills checklist (42%). Students highlighted learning about antimicrobial selection, stewardship, and clinical reasoning on the rotation but reported that teaching was limited when the service census was high (Figure 2). Figure 1: Percent of Students Rating the ID Consult Rotation as Extremely or Very Effective in Facilitating Learning Across 10 Domains Figure 2: Students' Reflections on the Effectiveness of the ID Consult Rotation Conclusion Third-year medical students found that a 2-week rotation on the ID consult service was highly effective in teaching foundational ID content and general medicine skills. Incorporating early learners into a busy and complex subspecialty consult service can be facilitated through the use of supplemental curricular tools such as ID Coaches. Disclosures Darcy Wooten, MD, MS, Nothing to disclose

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to review the recent literature on central apnea. Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is characterized by apneas (cessation in breathing), and hypopneas (reductions in breathing), that occur during sleep. Central sleep apnea (CSA) is sleep disordered breathing in which there is an absence or diminution of respiratory effort during breathing disturbances while asleep. In obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), on the other hand, there is an absence of flow despite ongoing ventilatory effort.

Recent findings

Central sleep apnea is a heterogeneous disease with multiple clinical manifestations. OSA is by far the more common condition; however, CSA is highly prevalent among certain patient groups. Complex sleep apnea (CompSA) is defined as the occurrence/emergence of CSA upon treatment of OSA. Similarly, there is considerable overlap between CSA and OSA in pathogenesis as well as impacts. Thus, understanding sleep disordered breathing is important for many practicing clinicians.

Purpose

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)-related pulmonary hypertension (PH) can often be reversed with treatment of OSA via continuous positive airway pressure. We hypothesized that treatment of OSA would be associated with a greater improvement in exercise capacity (EC) with cardiac rehabilitation (CR), especially in patients with PH as compared with those who are untreated.

Methods

We reviewed medical records of 315 consecutive patients who participated in CR. Pulmonary hypertension status was assessed on the basis of peak tricuspid regurgitant velocity (>2.8 m/sec) on pre-CR echocardiograms. The OSA status (no, untreated, or treated OSA) was determined on the basis of results from sleep studies, continuous positive airway pressure device data, and physician notes. Exercise capacity was assessed by measuring metabolic equivalents (METs) using a treadmill stress test before and after CR.

Results

We included 290 patients who participated in CR with available echocardiographic data: 44 (15%) had PH, and 102 (35%) had known OSA (30 treated and 72 untreated). Patients with OSA versus those with no OSA were more likely to have PH ( P = .06). Patients with PH versus no-PH were associated with significantly lower baseline METs in crude and adjusted analyses ( P ≤. 004). The PH and OSA status in isolation were not associated with changes in METs ( P > .2) with CR. There was a significant interaction between OSA treatment and PH in crude and adjusted analyses ( P ≤.01): treatment vs no treatment of OSA was associated with a clinically and statistically greater improvement in METs in patients who participated in CR with but not without PH.

Conclusion

Baseline PH was associated with decreased baseline EC but did not attenuate CR-related improvements in METs. However, in the subset of OSA patients with PH, OSA therapy was associated with improved EC after CR.