Other Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

A Reactivation Of Ocular Toxoplasmosis During Pregnancy, Brett Garee Od, Ms, Sarah Dieter Od, Pete Liette Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite estimated to affect over 500 million people worldwide. The feline is the definitive host for the parasite and infection may be acquired or congenital via maternal transmission. Humans may acquire the infection by ingestion of raw or undercooked meats and vegetables, contaminated water, or exposure to infected cat feces. The infection is often benign, self-limiting, and asymptomatic for humans, but potentially life threatening to infants or the immunocompromised patient.

Case Report: A 22 year-old Caucasian female, pregnant at 12 weeks gestation, presented to the optometry service with acute symptoms of hazy vision …

Minimum Rim Width And Lamina Cribrosa Depth In Non-Glaucomatous And Glaucomatous U.S. Veterans, Jacob Hillard Od, Rachel Druckenbrod Od, Baharak Asefzadeh Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Purpose: Assess the utility of the MRW and lamina cribrosa depth measurements for detecting differences between non-glaucomatous and glaucomatous U.S. Veterans. Compare inter-eye differences of individuals with glaucoma.

Method: 38 subjects were recruited per group: Group 1 included one eye of non-glaucomatous participants, and Group 2 included each qualifying eye of participants with glaucoma. Analysis compared Group 1 with the more affected eye only of Group 2 participants, and separately between the more and less affected eyes of group 2 participants. MRW measurements were obtained with Heidelberg Eye Explorer© (HEYEX). Average lamina cribrosa depths were measured manually utilizing HEYEX.

Results: …

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back In The Water, Paul B. Freeman Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Letter from the Editor

Factors Influencing Fellowship Training Among Ophthalmology Residents: A Pilot Study, Craig Czyz, Rahul Kashyap, Laura L. Wayman

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Objective

There has been an increase in ophthalmology fellowship training programs and applicants. The current ophthalmology literature lacks any recent study examining factors influencing residents' decisions to pursue subspecialty fellowship training.

Methods

An anonymous, 16-item survey was distributed to residents from a convenience sample of ophthalmology residency programs by their program directors or administrators.

Results

A total of 72 residents and 9 interns from 9 distinct programs completed the survey. Eighty-two percent of respondents reported they have either applied or will apply for a fellowship position. Gender and race showed no significant association with fellowship application. Respondents perceived that obtaining …

Care Of The Heart, Loma Linda University Health

Scope

Table of Contents

Features
14 | Campus of cardiac care
18 | The hearts of women
22 | Cardiopulmonary rehab
24 | Robotic surgery at LLUH
26 | Interventional procedures
28 | St. Paisley Day
30 | Heart health through nutrition

Departments
4 | From the President: Health care
8 | News: Clinical and campus news
38 | Alumni: Serving our world
44 | Annual Report: The year's people and stats

Alumni Journal - Volume 93, Number 3, Loma Linda University School Of Medicine

Alumni Journal, School of Medicine

Editorials
2 | From the Editor
4 | From the President
6 | From the Dean

News
8 | Alumni News + This and That
10 | APC 2023 Preview
12 | School of Medicine News
14 | Students
16 | Department Reports: Family Medicine

Bioethics
18 | What Does the Lord Require of Us?

Features
26 | Alumni Mission Stories
28 | Malawi
30 | Kenya
34 | Nigeria
36 | Ukraine
41 | Alumni Trips 2022
46 | Life After Medicine
48 | Historical Snapshot

In Memoriam
51 | Alumni Remembered

The Social Determinants Of Ideal Cardiovascular Health: A Global Systematic Review, Farah Qureshi, Kelb Bousquet-Santos, Sakurako S. Okuzono, Elaine Tsao, Scott Delaney, Anne-Josie Guimond, Julia K. Boehm, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

This systematic review synthesizes research published from January 2010-July 2022 on the social determinants of ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) carried out around the world and compares trends in high-income countries (HICs) to those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 41 studies met inclusion criteria (n = 28 HICs, n = 13 LMICs). Most were from the United States (n = 22) and cross-sectional (n = 33), and nearly all evaluated associations among adults. Among studies conducted in LMICs, nearly all were from middle-income countries and only one was carried out in low-income country. Education (n = …

Health Profession Student’S Readiness Towards Online Learning As A Component Of Blended Learning, Narasimman Swaminathan, Latha Ravichandran, Ramachandran Sivakumar, Steve Milanese

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to identify the entry-level health profession students’ perception and readiness to adopt online learning as a component of blended learning (BL). Methods: A cross sectional survey using a structured questionnaire was administered using Google forms. Entry level Health professionals’ education (HPE) graduate students of a higher education institute in India completed the survey (N= 628). The questionnaire was developed from the literature and content validated by experts. Ethics clearance was obtained from the Institutional ethics committee. Results: Out of 628 responses, 603 fully completed questionnaires were included for analysis. Of the participants, 98 …

Changing Stem To Steam: An Analyzation On The Effects Of Art Integration Up To The University Level, Elizabeth Richmond

Honors Projects

This Honors Project is a combination of an artistic, creative project and a research driven analysis. The focus of this project is to research and understand the effects the arts have on both general students and STEM students in particular, what benefits come from art education and art integration, and if STEM students benefit from art integration. This goal was accomplished through a literature review and annotated bibliography featuring 18 sources. Another goal of the project was to understand where I fit into the research. In my creative portion of the project, I explored and analyzed how the arts affected …

Urban Monitoring Of Antimicrobial Resistance During A Covid-19 Surge Through Wastewater Surveillance, Anthony Harrington, Van Vo, Katerina Papp, Richard L. Tillett, Ching-Lan Chang, Hayley Baker, Shirley Shen, Amei Amei, Cassius Lockett, Daniel Gerrity, Edwin C. Oh

Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine Faculty Research

During the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, infected patients presented with symptoms similar to bacterial pneumonias and were treated with antibiotics before confirmation of a bacterial or fungal co-infection. We reasoned that wastewater surveillance could reveal potential relationships between reduced antimicrobial stewardship, specifically misprescribing antibiotics to treat viral infections, and the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in an urban community. Here, we analyzed microbial communities and AMR profiles in sewage samples from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and a community shelter in Las Vegas, Nevada during a COVID-19 surge in December 2020. Using a respiratory pathogen and AMR enrichment …

Effects Of Telesimulation On The Health Literacy Knowledge, Confidence And Application Of Nursing Students, Susan Patton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Assessing and addressing health literacy (HL) in patients is an essential role of the nurse and a critical component of nursing student education. Yet, large gaps exist within nursing school curricula with regard to the development of HL knowledge and skills, and the confidence to implement practices that target HL. Furthermore, effective training modalities that examine the transformation of nursing students’ knowledge into practice through the development of confidence during experiential learning have not been well explored.

Purpose: Evaluate the effectiveness of a HL information and a HL telesimulation intervention on the HL Knowledge, Application and Confidence of first-semester …

Pgc-1Α Overexpression Is Not Sufficient To Mitigate Cancer Cachexia In Either Male Or Female Mice, Francielly Morena Da Silva, Megan Rosa-Caldwell, Eleanor R. Schrems, Lauren Martinez, Madeline G. Amos, Seongkyun Lim, Ana Regina Cabrera, Jacob L. Brown, Tyrone A. Washington, Nicholas P. Greene

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cancer cachexia (CC) accounts for 20%–40% of cancer-related deaths. Mitochondrial aberrations have been shown to precede muscle atrophy in different atrophy models, including cancer. Therefore, this study investigated potential protection from the cachectic phenotype through overexpression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1 α (PGC-1α). First, to establish potential of mitochondria-based approaches we showed that the mitochondrial antioxidant MitoTEMPO (MitoT) attenuates myotube atrophy induced by Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cell conditioned media. Next, cachexia was induced in muscle-specific PGC-1α overexpressing (MCK-PCG1α) or wildtype (WT) littermate mice by LLC implantation. MCK-PCG1α did not protect LLC-induced muscle mass loss. In plantaris, Atrogin mRNA …

Creating And Implementing A Principal Investigator Tool Kit For Enhancing Accrual To Late Phase Clinical Trials: Development And Usability Study., Kristin A Higgins, Alexandra Thomas, Nancy Soto, Rebecca Paulus, Thomas J George, Thomas B Julian, Sharon Hartson Stine, Merry Jennifer Markham, Maria Werner-Wasik

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Accrual to oncology clinical trials remains a challenge, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. For late phase clinical trials funded by the National Cancer Institute, the development of these research protocols is a resource-intensive process; however, mechanisms to optimize patient accrual after trial activation are underdeveloped across the National Clinical Trial Network (NCTN). Low patient accrual can lead to the premature closure of clinical trials and can ultimately delay the availability of new, potentially life-saving therapies in oncology.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to formally create an easily implemented tool kit of resources for investigators of oncology clinical …

When Comparing Hyperarc And Gammaknife Treatment Techniques For Brain Metastasis, Which Technique Offers Optimal Treatment To Achieve The Highest Biological Effective Dose (Bed)?, Carrie Merfert

Masters Projects

Introduction

HyperArc-VMAT and GammaKnife treatment techniques are both considered to be the best types of SRS treatment methods regarding conformity, homogeneity, gradient, and mean brain dose. The BED calculation is used to calculate the treatment regimens that are effective biologically and used for extrapolation to normal tissue limits.

Methods

This is a retrospective study that analyzes 15 lesions from 10 randomly selected patients with brain metastasis within the cerebrum. Each of the lesions had a single fraction treatment plan created using the same PTV for the HyperArc-VMAT and GammaKnife techniques. Each treatment technique was dose escalated until the healthy brain …

Sexual Behaviours And Sexual Health Among Middle-Aged And Older Adults In Britain, Junead Khan, Emily Greaves, Clare Tanton, Hannah Kuper, Thomas Shakespeare, Eneyi Kpokiri, Yun Wang, Jason J. Ong, Suzanne Day, Stephen W. Pan, Weiming Tan, Bingyi Wang, Xin Peng, Bowen Liang, Huachun Zou, Joseph D. Tucker, Dan Wu

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Objectives Population-representative studies of the sexual health of middle-aged and older adults are lacking in ageing societies. This study aimed to identify latent patterns of sexual behaviours and health of people aged 45–74 years.

Methods We conducted a latent class analysis of the National Attitudes and Sexual Lifestyles Survey (Natsal-3), a nationally representative survey conducted in Britain in 2011.

Results Of the 5260 respondents aged 45–74 years, 48.86% of men and 44.91% of women belonged to the Content Caseys class who reported good sexual health. The Infrequent Indigos (30.94% of men, 44.38% of women) were characterised by a lack of …

A Comparison Of Statistical Methods For Modeling Count Data With An Application To Hospital Length Of Stay, Gustavo Fernandez, Kristina Vatcheva

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Hospital length of stay (LOS) is a key indicator of hospital care management efficiency, cost of care, and hospital planning. Hospital LOS is often used as a measure of a post-medical procedure outcome, as a guide to the benefit of a treatment of interest, or as an important risk factor for adverse events. Therefore, understanding hospital LOS variability is always an important healthcare focus. Hospital LOS data can be treated as count data, with discrete and non-negative values, typically right skewed, and often exhibiting excessive zeros. In this study, we compared the performance of the Poisson, negative binomial (NB), …

Lipid Composition And Configuration Drive Biophysical Properties Of The Mammalian Plasma Membrane, Jessica L. Symons

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In the 1970s, it was established that phospholipid (PL) classes are asymmetrically distributed across the (PM) leaflets. Recapitulating strategies coupled with newly developed, high-resolution shotgun lipidomics, our lab confirmed PL class asymmetry and surprisingly measured the endoplasmic leaflet to contain double the number of PLs vs. the exoplasmic leaflet. My re-analysis of classical studies show that PM PL abundance imbalance has been a consistent finding across decades of literature. This is surprising, because bilayers do not tolerate interleaflet area imbalances to the degree that this imbalance would suggest, which prompted us to consider the existence of an elusive membrane resident …

Effects Of Imu Sensor Location And Number On The Validity Of Vertical Acceleration Time-Series Data In Countermovement Jumping, Dianne Althouse

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Many devices are available for measuring the height of a CMJ. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) measures linear acceleration, orientation, and angular velocity. As an alternative to using IMU estimates of flight time, CMJ height could be estimated by integrating the IMU time-series signal for vertical acceleration to derive CMJ take-off velocity in order to track whole-body center of mass (WBCoM) movement, yet this approach would require valid IMU acceleration data. Thus, the purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of IMU sensor location and number on the validity of vertical acceleration estimation in CMJ. Thirty young adults …

Development Of A Programmable, Open-Source, And Cost-Effective Fluidic System For Cell Culture Applications, Charles Montoya

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Open-source laboratory equipment has become an increasingly popular alternative to commercially available options due to its simple implementation, capability of user-customized modifications, and cost-effectiveness. Presented here is the development of a programmable and open-source fluidic system comprised of three custom-built syringe pumps for cell culture applications. The fluidic system was directly integrated with a multiwell plate on an environmentally controlled microscope platform for live-cell imaging and time-lapse analyses of cellular responses as culture conditions are adjusted using the programmable fluidic system. Proof-of-concept of this system is obtained by controlling autophagic activity in A549 cells by adjustment of nutrient supply. The …

Pharmacists Role In Preventing Drug Abuse, Renae L. Wilson

College of Pharmacy Student Research

In 2019, there were approximately 332,000 pharmacists active in the US workforce, Data USA, 2019. A survey of 1,700 American adults, discovered, that 34% of Americans still rely on healthcare providers such as pharmacists, for information in relation their health, KRC Research, 2018. Pharmacists are one of the three most trusted health care professions and were found to be the second most trusted source for health information by Americans in 2005. Blendon et al., 2006 found, that information from pharmacist was trusted by 67%, of participants in their survey. One of the oaths pledged by pharmacist is, ‘ …

Evaluation Of Residual Antibacterial Effects On Canine Skin Surface And Hairs Following Treatment With Five Commercial Mousse Products Against Staphylococcus Pseudintermedius In Vitro, Chi-Yen Wu

LSU Master's Theses

Topical products are essential treatments for canine superficial bacterial folliculitis. However, studies for commercial products typically evaluate antibacterial effects on hairs rather than the skin surface. In addition, the interference from the hair length has not been evaluated in these studies. Therefore, the study objective for this study was to evaluate the residual antibacterial effects of five mousse products, (1) 2% chlorhexidine and 2% miconazole, (2) 0.05% phytosphingosine, (3) 2% salicylic acid and 10% ethyl lactate, (4) 3% chlorhexidine and 0.5% climbazole, and (5) 2% chlorhexidine and 1% ketoconazole on both the skin surface and hairs in both short- and …

A Comparative Study On Deep Learning Models For Text Classification Of Unstructured Medical Notes With Various Levels Of Class Imbalance, Hongxia Lu, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, Cyril Rakovski

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Discharge medical notes written by physicians contain important information about the health condition of patients. Many deep learning algorithms have been successfully applied to extract important information from unstructured medical notes data that can entail subsequent actionable results in the medical domain. This study aims to explore the model performance of various deep learning algorithms in text classification tasks on medical notes with respect to different disease class imbalance scenarios.

Methods

In this study, we employed seven artificial intelligence models, a CNN (Convolutional Neural Network), a Transformer encoder, a pretrained BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), and four typical …

Alumni Journal - Volume 93, Number 2, Loma Linda University School Of Medicine

Alumni Journal, School of Medicine

Editorials
2 | From the Editor
4| From the President
6 | From the Dean

News
8 | School of Medicine News
10 | Alumni News
11 | This and That
12 | Students
14 | AIMS Report
16 | Department Report: Gynecology and Obstetrics

Graduation 2022
19 | Graduation Feature

Features
34 | By the Graduates
38 | Graduate Medical Education at LLUH
42 | Curriculum Transformation
46 | Historical Snapshot
47 | Alumni Spotlight

In Memoriam
49 | Alumni Remembered: Featured obituaries - George T. Harding IV '53-B; John W. Mace '64

Effect Of Injury Mechanism And Severity On The Molecular Pathophysiology Of Traumatic Brain Injury, Brandon Mcdonald

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) mechanism and severity are heterogenous clinically, resulting in a multitude of physical, cognitive, and behavioral deficits. However, approximately 80% suffer from milder injuries. Thus, examining pathophysiological changes associated with mild TBI is imperative for improving clinical translation and evaluating the efficacy of potential therapeutic strategies. Through this work, we developed models of TBI, ranging in both injury mechanism and severity, using an electromagnetic controlled cortical impact (CCI) device. First, we characterized and optimized a closed head, mild TBI model (DTBI) to determine the clinical translatability and practicality of producing repeated mild injuries. Interestingly, we determined that …

Commencement Program 2022, Loma Linda University

Commencement Programs

CONTENTS

1 | Message from the President

3 | 2022 Events of Commencement

5 | The Academic Procession

6 | Institutional Administration

7 | Board of Trustees

8 | Significance of Academic Regalia

9 | University History Highlights

11 | Criteria for Institutional Awards

13 | Loma Linda University Health and Loma Linda University Honorees

27 | The Programs, The School Honorees, and The Speakers

• School of Medicine, 28
• School of Pharmacy, 52
• School of Dentistry, 67
• School of Public Health, 92
• School of Allied Health Professions - Allied Health Studies, Cardiopulmonary Sciences, Clinical Laboratory Science, Communication Sciences and Disorders, …

Can Hope Be Primed In Chronic Pain? A Clinical Application Of Health Priming, Brenda Stockdale

Educational Studies Dissertations

ABSTRACT

It is recognized that nonintentional, automatic processing shapes physical health and well-being in critical ways. Conditioning––or priming––has been shown to influence attitude, beliefs, agency, behavior, and medical outcomes. Although expectations and beliefs correlate strongly with physical health, research in clinical application is needed, and studies on hope, as related to agency, in chronic pain are rare. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether, in a chronic pain sample (N = 154), hope could be primed via a Pain Neuroscience Educational (PNE) tutorial. A pre- and post-test intervention study consisting of two randomized parallel groups was designed …

Supplier Performance Scorecard Utilization In The Medical Device Manufacturing Healthcare Supply Chain, Justin Cardisco

Theses and Dissertations

The medical device manufacturing industry has a deficiency in determining how to improve supplier performance for the components and systems they purchase. Many complex medical devices require components from superb suppliers. But how does a medical device manufacturer (MDM) impartially assess supplier performance to know which suppliers to continuing with (or even boost purchase volumes) and which suppliers they should exit? This study describes which supplier-specific metrics are most important to medical device manufacturers (MDMs) so they can utilize this supplier performance scorecard backed by real-world inputs. This research will focus on five categories to measure MDM supplier performance (Quality, …

Improving The Coordination Of Care For Periprocedural Antithrombotic Medication Management In Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery, Joyce Larson

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Background: Arranging periprocedural antithrombotic medication (ATM) management is a frequently encountered complex clinical challenge. Often, there is limited time between the pre-admission clinic visit and the surgical date to coordinate ATM management and communicate the plan to the patient. This increases the risk of perioperative adverse events, case delays and cancellations, and is a patient safety concern. A quality improvement project was undertaken to address improving ATM periprocedural care coordination for patients taking ATM undergoing elective surgery. A review of the literature found clinical decision support system (CDSS) alerts to be an effective strategy. The aim of the project was …

Exploring Research Knowledge, Attitude, And Practice Of Mnri® Core Specialists, Jerzie-Ann Coppola

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Statement of the Problem: The Masgutova Method® is a research emergent area with a growing yet limited research base. In order to facilitate a widespread and robust acceptance and integration of The Masgutova Method® as evidence-based practice, a significant increase in research is warranted. MNRI® Core Specialists are well-positioned to be scholars in The Masgutova Method®. At this time, there is no literature exploring MNRI® Core Specialists’ foundational research knowledge, attitude toward research, and research practice.

Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study is to establish a baseline understanding of MNRI® Core Specialists’ research knowledge, attitude, and practices. …

Development Of A Community Hospital Medicine Affiliated Inpatient Rotation For Family Medicine Residents - A Collaborative Success, David M. Gallagher, Anthony J. Viera, William E. Bynum, Poonam Sharma, John W. Ragsdale, Jeffrey Eschbach, Lalit Verma

Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives

Background: Hospitalists perform key roles as inpatient educators for family medicine residents. For the past decade, Duke University Family Medicine Residency Program had its inpatient family medicine resident rotation at non-Duke facilities.

Objective: The authors describe the steps taken in 2020 to develop an inpatient Duke family medicine rotation at a North Carolina community hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, and provide outcomes data.

Methods: Duke Family Medicine Residency and Duke Regional Hospital Medicine collaborated in addressing key issues to develop an inpatient rotation for family medicine residents. Performance metrics of patients cared for by both the family medicine inpatient resident team …