Article Citation: Daniel Cabrera, Bryan S. Vartabedian, Robert J. Spinner, Barbara L. Jordan, Lee A. Aase, and Farris K. Timimi (2017) More Than Likes and Tweets: Creating Social Media Portfolios for Academic Promotion and Tenure. Journal of Graduate Medical Education: August 2017, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 421-425. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-17-00171.1

Introduction: Our goal was to investigate trends in computed tomography (CT) utilization in emergency departments (EDs) and its association with hospitalization. Methods: We conducted an analysis of an administrative claims database of U.S. privately insured and Medicare Advantage enrollees. We identified ED visits from 2005 through 2013 and assessed for CT use, associated factors, and hospitalization after CT, along with patient demographics. We used both descriptive methods and regression models adjusted for year, age, sex, race, geographic region, and Hwang comorbidity score to explore associations among CT use, year, demographic characteristics, and hospitalization. Results: We identified 33,144,233 ED visits; 5,901,603 (17.8%) involved CT. Over time, CT use during ED visits increased 59.9%. CT use increased in all age groups but decreased in children since 2010. In propensity-matching analysis, odds of hospitalization increased with age, comorbidities, male sex, and CT use (odds ratio, 2.38). Odds of hospitalization over time decreased more quickly for patients with CT. Conclusion: CT utilization in the ED has increased significantly from 2005 through 2013. For children, CT use after 2010 decreased, indicating caution about CT use. Male sex, older age, and higher number of comorbidities were predictors of CT in the ED. Over time, odds of hospitalization decreased more quickly for patients with CT.

Health professions educators face multiple challenges, among them the need to adapt educational methods to new technologies. In the last decades, multiple new digital platforms have appeared in the learning arena, including massive open online courses and social-media-based education. The major critique of these novel methods is the lack of the ability to ascertain the origin, validity, and accountability of the knowledge that is created, shared, and acquired. Recently, a novel technology based on secured data storage and transmission, called blockchain, has emerged as a way to generate networks where validity, trust, and accountability can be created. Conceptually, blockchain is an open, public, distributed, and secure digital registry where information transactions are secured and have a clear origin, explicit pathways, and concrete value. Health professions education based on blockchain will potentially allow improved tracking of content and the individuals who create it, quantify educational impact on multiple generations of learners, and build a relative value of educational interventions. Furthermore, institutions adopting blockchain technology would be able to provide certification and credentialing of health care professionals with no intermediaries. There is potential for blockchain to significantly change the future of health professions education and radically transform how patients, professionals, educators, and learners interact around safe, valid, and accountable information.

We conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of apneic oxygenation during emergency intubation. We searched Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Ovid CENTRAL, and Scopus databases for randomized controlled trials and observational studies from 2006 until July 2016, without language restrictions. Gray literature, clinicaltrials.gov, and reference lists of articles were hand searched. We conducted a meta-analysis with random-effects models to evaluate first-pass success rates, incidence of hypoxemia, and lowest peri-intubation SpO2 between apneic oxygenation and standard oxygenation cases. A total of 1,386 studies were screened and 77 selected for full-text review. A total of 14 studies were included for qualitative analysis, and 8 studies (1,837 patients) underwent quantitative analysis. In the meta-analysis of 8 studies (1,837 patients), apneic oxygenation was associated with decreased hypoxemia (odds ratio [OR] 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.52 to 0.84), but was not associated with decreased severe hypoxemia (6 studies; 1,043 patients; OR 0.86; 95% CI 0.47 to 1.57) or life-threatening hypoxemia (5 studies; 1,003 patients; OR 0.90; 95% CI 0.52 to 1.55). Apneic oxygenation was associated with increased first-pass success rate (6 studies; 1,658 patients; OR 1.59; 95% CI 1.04 to 2.44) and increased lowest peri-intubation SpO2 (6 studies; 1,043 patients; weighted mean difference 2.2%; 95% CI 0.8% to 3.6%). In this meta-analysis, apneic oxygenation was associated with increased peri-intubation oxygen saturation, decreased rates of hypoxemia, and increased first-pass intubation success.