Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Making An Employee Wellness Program Work For You, Ryan Schneck

BU Well

This paper attempts to look at the problems with employee wellness programs and why they're not achieving the results many hoped they would. In addition to looking at why employee wellness programs do not succeed, it attempts to give solutions and tips for better health care outcomes. This paper focuses on the economics of employee wellness programs, the benefits they can provide, and the future of employee wellness.

This paper has no additional disclosures or conflicts of interests with outside sources.

Improving Collaboration Between Pharmacists And Physicians, Paras Patel

BU Well

Physicians and pharmacists have differing but complementary roles that can optimize patient care when structured effectively. Unfortunately, these two professionals are not collaborating well enough, as patient outcomes, especially in relation to medication adherence, continue to decline. Coordinated care of patients can improve by expanding bidirectional communication and sharing additional patient information with each other. It will be necessary to continue to promote collaborative care in the educational and training stages of these professionals’ careers to build trust and understanding of professional scope. Ultimately, the healthcare infrastructure will have to continue to progress to make collaboration more available and valuable …

Financial Wellness And Undergraduate Students, Kristin N. O'Donovan

BU Well

Liberal Arts Universities often include a core curriculum with the education provided to students. This core curriculum includes a variety of topics, separate from a student’s major, aimed at delivering a well-rounded education. However, one major topic seems to be missing from the core curriculum of many universities across the country: finance. Not only does this have implications to the financial wellness of undergraduate students, but the overall wellness of students as well. Undergraduate students face an increasingly difficult financial landscape with unique needs, and the financial decisions they make may have repercussions years or decades into their futures. Based …

"What's App?" Utilizing Evidence Based Medicine Apps In The Clinical Setting, Kathryn C. O'Donovan

BU Well

The medical community has utilized evidence-based medicine, or EBM, in practice for decades, and healthcare personnel are used to the idea of utilizing research and statistics to determine the treatment of patients. However, as technology advances, the use of electronics and EBM apps has increased in the clinical setting. While there are advantages to clinicians having resources at their fingertips as they talk with patients, there are also hurdles that could harm or offend patients. So as healthcare inevitably becomes more and more electronic, can providers strike the balance needed to effectively use EBM apps in practice to provide optimum …

The Mysteries Of Your Blood, Alexandra J. Mauer

BU Well

Did you know that your blood type can be useful for determining disease susceptibility and even creating a diet that works best for your personal metabolism? The Mysteries of your Blood is an article that delves into the science behind the ABO blood types and explains why your body can handle certain foods, stress, and illness differently than someone with a different blood type. It proposes a new, perplexing way to determine how to avoid certain health problems while at the same time offering suggestions of what to eat or, rather, what to avoid eating.

An N Of One: My Review Of Management Of Type 1 Diabetes, Myself As Patient, Jarred Daugherty

BU Well

As technology has advanced, so has the management of diabetes. Insulin, the essential medication for type 1 diabetes, is marketed in an array of formulations and devices. Continuous glucose monitors (CGM) can be inserted to measure blood glucose every 5 minutes. The rise of social media has given diabetics online support groups, where they can share their story and learn from others overcoming similar challenges. So, how well do the current diabetes management strategies work? My name Is Jarred and I’m a type 1 diabetic. I have tried many of these products and this article is a review of my …

Revolutionizing The Patient Package Insert With Infographics, Mitchell R. Cunningham

BU Well

Communication is critical for all aspects of public health. In the pharmaceutical industry the patient package insert is relied on to relay important information to patients. However, there are many intrinsic flaws with the patient package insert that present themselves in the vast number of medical injuries patients incur. This article dissects the root problems of the patient package insert in the modern world and analyzes the potential of utilizing infographics to combat these issues.

Binge Drinking: Subtypes And Associations In Young Adults, Christopher J. Skok

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

Binge drinking has been common practice and a rite of passage for many young adults in the college population. The practice of binge drinking has continued even as binging is associated with several cognitive deficits. One unanswered question still remains: namely, at what levels of binge drinking do these cognitive deficits associate? To investigate this question, three different groups of binge drinkers (low, moderate, and heavy) were compared on two measures of cognition: intelligence (IQ) and executive working memory (EWM) capacity. The binge groups were also compared to non-bingers and abstainers to further investigate how they differed in EWM capacity …

Combatting Biases: Illusory Imagery In Us News Coverage On Central American Immigration, Katharine Poor

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper comprises of original research and analysis of contemporary news media discourse surrounding Central American immigration in the United States. Subjects of study included more than 50 news articles, images, and videos from a variety of major politically-unaffiliated news outlets for English-speaking audiences. Rhetoric was analyzed in representations of the Central American immigration “crisis” that sparked a trend of media coverage in 2014, as well as several articles that covered events leading up to the “crisis.” Common rhetorical analogies ascertained through media analyses include the representation of immigrants as aliens, diseases, parasites, floods, criminals, natural disasters, terrorists, and drug …

Comparison Of Tranexamic Acid And Aminocaproic Acid In Coronary Bypass Surgery, Lisa K. Lecleir

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Tranexamic acid (TXA) and ɛ-aminocaproic acid (EACA) are used in coronary bypass surgery for antifibrinolytic therapy. Since the removal of aprotinin, data directly comparing their blood sparing effect and their side effects is still missing.

METHODS: Fifty patients undergoing coronary bypass cardiac surgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Health Services in Indianapolis, IN were evaluated in a retrospective cohort study. Perioperative data was collected by a thorough chart review. Patients received EACA from 01/01/2013 to 04/05/2013 or TXA from 05/07/2013 to 12/31/2013. Primary outcome was the amount of chest tube output throughout the hospital stay. Secondary …

Moderate Ethanol Consumption Results In Cognitive Protection From Alzheimer’S Disease, Dementia, And Related Cognitive Decline: A Critical Review, Sean P. Coffinger

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

Moderate ethanol preconditioning, a result of prolonged moderate alcohol intake, serves as a protective process by staving off cognitive decline while providing neuronal protection through several mechanisms. These individual mechanisms are relatively well known, however a comprehensive and integrated conversation of ethanol’s protective tendencies is lacking from literature and the field of neuroscience. First, a review of the leading theories behind moderate ethanol preconditioning’s biological and cognitive benefits is presented, including overviews of neuroprotective, antioxidant, and neurotropic mechanisms responsible for neurological benefit. Secondly, an integrative model is presented, incorporating all research into a novel collaborative model. An additional discussion regarding …

Table Of Contents

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

Front cover, a list of the article contents in this issue, and editorial information.