This study examines the use of career ladders for medical assistants (MAs) in primary care practices as a mechanism for increasing wages and career opportunity for MAs. A growing body of research on primary care suggests that successful expansion of support staff roles such as MAs may have positive organizational and quality of care outcomes, but little is known about worker outcomes.

Evaluate the effectiveness of career ladders in improving wages and career opportunity among MAs.

We use a mixed-methods design to evaluate the impact of career ladders on MA job quality.

We draw on interview data collected from 115 key informants at four large health systems (ranging from 24 to 29 clinics each), and we analyze wage and employment data for MAs from primary care clinics in the four health systems in the sample.

We describe the MA career ladder context and infrastructure within primary care clinics and evaluate the rewards to MAs for participation in the career ladder programs.

The expanded roles within career ladders for MAs focused on the following four clinical and educational areas panel management and care coordination, EHR documentation support, supporting delivery of person-centered care, and supervision and training. The three primary components of the career ladder infrastructure were training and education for MAs and providers, credentialing and certification for MAs, and differentiated job levels for MAs. The use of career ladders in the four large health systems in our case study sample resulted in yearly income increases ranging from $3000 to $10,000 annually.

Investing in career ladders in primary care clinics can improve MA job quality while also potentially addressing issues of equity, efficiency, and quality in the health care sector.

Investing in career ladders in primary care clinics can improve MA job quality while also potentially addressing issues of equity, efficiency, and quality in the health care sector.As a metabolic syndrome, obesity has become a global public health problem. Bacillus licheniformis has been shown to inhibit obesity by regulating the gut microbiota, but the underlying mechanism of its therapeutic effect is still unknown. In this study, the anti-obesity mechanism of Bacillus licheniformis Zhengchangsheng® was investigated by examining a high-fat diet-induced obesity mouse model. Our results showed that Bacillus licheniformis Zhengchangsheng® significantly decreased body weight gain and fat accumulation, serum lipid profiles, and proinflammatory cytokine levels and improved glucose and lipid metabolism in obese mice. Furthermore, compared with those of high-fat diet-fed mice, Bacillus licheniformis Zhengchangsheng® treatment also inhibited nuclear factor-κB activation, increased phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase activation in the liver, and regulated the expression of genes associated with lipid metabolism. These results indicated that Bacillus licheniformis Zhengchangsheng®-induced obesity inhibition could occur by activating the AMP-activated protein kinase signaling pathway. Thus, our results suggested that Bacillus licheniformis Zhengchangsheng® has the potential to treat obesity and related metabolic diseases in the clinic.

Most adult survivors of childhood cancer do not complete the recommended surveillance tests for late effects of their treatment. We used a theory-informed method to elucidate the barriers and enablers among childhood cancer survivors to accessing such tests.

Semi-structured interviews were completed with adult survivors of childhood cancer. Participants were eligible for the surveillance tests of interest (echocardiogram, mammogram/breast MRI and/or colonoscopy) but had not attended a specialised aftercare clinic in over five years. The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), a tool specifically developed for implementation research to identify influences on desired behaviour(s), informed the interview guide and analysis; interview transcripts were coded line-by-line and mapped to domains in accordance with the framework.

Thirty childhood cancer survivors were interviewed (ages 25-60). The TDF domains described by survivors included intention to complete the tests, which was facilitated by the fear of another cancer (emotion), confidence in the benefits of early detection (beliefs about consequences), and supportive reminders (memory, attention, and decision-making). In contrast, a lack of knowledge of late effects and relevant guidelines and the burden of arranging tests (social identity) were key barriers.

Interventions seeking to increase surveillance testing for late effects may be more effective if they feature components that explicitly address all the theory-informed determinants identified.

Awareness about the recommendations among survivors and their physicians is a necessary (but likely not sufficient) step towards implementation of guidelines regarding surveillance for late effects.

Awareness about the recommendations among survivors and their physicians is a necessary (but likely not sufficient) step towards implementation of guidelines regarding surveillance for late effects.

To assess sociodemographic differences in postpartum women screened for intimate partner violence and who disclosed to their Maternal and Child Health nurses.

Secondary analyses of survey data from women participating in a cluster randomised trial. The trial tested a nurse-designed, enhanced violence screening model-versus routine screening among eight community nurse clinics in Melbourne, Australia. Self-completion anonymous surveys were sent to all clinic attendees who had given birth in the previous eight months. We measured intimate partner violence with the Composite Abuse Scale and other sociodemographic variables. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyse characteristics of screened versus unscreened women and those who did or did not disclose.

91 clinics (163 nurses) participated in the trial. 2621/10,472 (25%) women responded to the survey. Notable characteristics, such as level of intimate partner violence (AdjOR 1.14, CI 0.94-1.40), parity (AdjOR 1.13, CI 0.94-1.35), education (AdjOR 1.20 CI 0.91-1.58) and being born in Australia (AdjOR 0.94, CI 0.86-1.03) made no significant difference to screening. However, nurses were significantly less likely to screen women with a lower income than those with a higher one (AdjOR 0.59, CI 0.40-0.87) with a dose response relationship. Women on the lowest levels of income were significantly more likely to disclose abuse (AdjOR 3.06, CI 1.02-9.17), indicating missed opportunities for nurses to provide timely care.

Despite being required to screen all women, nurses are almost twice as likely to screen more affluent women, who would be less likely to be experiencing or disclose intimate partner violence.

Despite being required to screen all women, nurses are almost twice as likely to screen more affluent women, who would be less likely to be experiencing or disclose intimate partner violence.Mutations in recombinase activating genes 1 and 2 (RAG1/2) result in human severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). The products of these genes are essential for V(D)J rearrangement of the antigen receptors during lymphocyte development. Mutations resulting in null-recombination activity in RAG1 or RAG2 are associated with the most severe clinical and immunological phenotypes, whereas patients with hypomorphic mutations may develop leaky SCID, including Omenn syndrome (OS). A group of previously unrecognized clinical phenotypes associated with granulomata and/or autoimmunity have been described as a consequence of hypomorphic mutations. Here, we present six patients from unrelated families with missense variants in RAG1 or RAG2. Phenotypes observed in these patients ranged from OS to severe mycobacterial infections and granulomatous disease. Moreover, we report the first evidence of two variants that had not been associated with immunodeficiency. This study represents the first case series of RAG1- or RAG2-deficient patients from Mexico and Latin America.Cancer is a devastating disease whose incidence has increased in recent times and early detection can lead to effective treatment. Existing detection tools suffer from low sensitivity and specificity, and are high cost, invasive and painful procedures. Cancers affecting different tissues, ubiquitously express embryonic markers including Oct-4A, whose expression levels have also been correlated to staging different types of cancer. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) that initiate cancer are possibly the 'transformed’ and pluripotent very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSELs) that also express OCT-4A. Excessive self-renewal of otherwise quiescent, pluripotent VSELs in normal tissues possibly initiates cancer. In an initial study on 120 known cancer patients, it was observed that Oct-4A expression in peripheral blood correlated well with the stage of cancer. Based on these results, we developed a proprietary HrC scale wherein fold change of OCT-4A was linked to patient status – it is a numerical scoring system ranging from non-cancer (0-2), inflammation (>2-6), high-risk (>6-10), stage I (>10-20), stage II (>20-30), stage III (>30-40), and stage IV (>40) cancers. Later the scale was validated on 1000 subjects including 500 non-cancer and 500 cancer patients. Ten case studies are described and show (i) HrC scale can detect cancer, predict and monitor treatment outcome (ii) is superior to evaluating circulating tumor cells and (iii) can also serve as an early biomarker. HrC method is a novel breakthrough, non-invasive, blood-based diagnostic tool that can detect as well as classify solid tumors, hematological malignancies and sarcomas, based on their stage.Cartilage injuries following trauma create a puzzling clinical scenario. The finite reparative potential of articular cartilage is well known, and injuries are associated with an increased risk of osteoarthritis. Cell-based therapies have spotlighted chondrocytes and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) as the functional unit of articular cartilage and the progenitor cells, respectively. The available clinical treatments cannot reproduce the biomechanical properties of articular cartilage and call for continuous investigations into alternative approaches. Co-cultures of chondrocytes and MSCs are an attractive in vitro system to step closer to the in vivo multicellular environment’s complexity. Research on the mechanisms of interaction between both cell types will reveal essential cues to understand cartilage regeneration. This review describes the latest discoveries on these interactions, along with advantages and main challenges in vitro and in vivo. The successful clinical translation of in vitro studies requires establishing rigorous standards and clinically relevant research models and an organ-targeting therapeutic strategy.Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are so far the most widely researched stem cells in clinics and used as an experimental cellular therapy module, particularly in cardiac regeneration and repair. Ever since the discovery of cardiomyogenesis induction in MSCs, a wide variety of differentiation protocols have been extensively used in preclinical models. However, pre differentiated MSC-derived cardiomyocytes have not been used in clinical trials; highlighting discrepancies and limitations in its use as a source of derived cardiomyocytes for transplantation to improve the damaged heart function. Therefore, this review article focuses on the strategies used to derive cardiomyocytes-like cells from MSCs isolated from three widely used tissue sources and their differentiation efficiencies. We have further discussed the role of MSCs in inducing angiogenesis as a cellular precursor to endothelial cells and its secretory aspects including exosomes. We have then discussed the strategies used for delivering cells in the damaged heart and how its retention plays a critical role in the overall outcome of the therapy.