November 8, 2023
A job for AI
Experts assess the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the burden of documentation and coding.
Alcohol use disorders
There are 11 different clinical criteria for alcohol use disorder and three classifications of severity under the DSM-5.
Doxycycline for CAP associated with lower C. diff risk than azithromycin
In a retrospective study of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients, treatment with doxycycline instead of azithromycin was associated with a particularly significant reduction in risk of Clostridioides difficile infection among those who had already had C. diff within the past year.
Overnight boarding in the ED linked with worse outcomes among older patients
The mortality rate with an overnight ED stay before admission was 15.7%, compared to 11.1% in patients admitted before midnight in a French study of patients ages 75 years and older. Risk was even higher among those who needed assistance performing daily tasks.
Machine learning system dramatically reduced alerts compared to bedside monitors
A machine learning system trained to predict ICU patients' risk of respiratory failure or hemodynamic instability offered 50 times fewer alerts than a telemedicine system that analyzed trends from bedside biomedical monitors.
Elevated NT-proBNP levels may predict adverse renal outcomes in AKI
Hospital patients with stage 2 or 3 acute kidney injury (AKI) were more likely to need dialysis, become dialysis-dependent, or die in the hospital if they had increased N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels at baseline.