January 22, 2025

Finding feedback
Hospitalists rarely get unsolicited feedback on their diagnostic acumen, so some are starting to search for it.
Unpalette-able
Medicine comes in a rainbow of colors.
Rapid methadone titration appeared safe for selected inpatients
Of 19 hospitalizations included in a trial of rapid methadone titration for patients using fentanyl, only four incurred sedation events, all mild or moderate, and only one hospitalization ended in patient-directed discharge.
Risk model predicts inpatient mortality after myocardial infarction
The newly developed and validated risk model includes 14 variables available at admission, and a risk score derived from it has just five variables and can be calculated at the bedside.
Score identifies ED patients with COVID-19 who will end up in ICU
An 11-point score based on confusion, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and oxygen supplementation performed better than existing tools in predicting need for intensive care within seven days of ED presentation with COVID-19, a German study found.
Intervention reduced low-value preoperative testing with decision support, other steps
The percentage of general surgery patients receiving an unnecessary test before surgery decreased from 37% in the preintervention period to 25% in the intervention period and 14% in the postimplementation period, a single-center quality improvement study found.
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