Publications by authors named "Amanda Brucker"

Real world data is an increasingly utilized resource for post-market monitoring of vaccines and provides insight into real world effectiveness. However, heterogeneous mechanisms may drive observed breakthrough infections among vaccinated individuals, such as waning vaccine-induced immunity or the emergence of a new strain against which the vaccine has reduced protection. Analyses of breakthrough infection incidence rates are typically predicated on a presumed temporal mechanism in their choice of an "analytic time zero" after which infection rates are modeled.

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Influenza and tetanus toxoid reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) are safe and effective vaccines that are recommended in pregnancy. Despite this, significant vaccine hesitancy exists in pregnancy. However, impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on vaccine hesitancy is not well understood.

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Copy number variants (CNVs) are DNA gains or losses involving >50 base pairs. Assessing CNV effects on disease risk requires consideration of several factors. First, there are no natural definitions for CNV loci.

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Objective: Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) poses a significant public health challenge, with pronounced disparities in control and outcomes. Social determinants of health (SDoH) significantly contribute to these disparities, affecting healthcare access, neighborhood environments, and social context. We discuss the design, development, and use of an innovative web-based application integrating real-world data (electronic health record and geospatial files), to enhance comprehension of the impact of SDoH on T2 DM health disparities.

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Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) programs are an effective, yet underutilized, resource to improve health outcomes and behaviors for people with diabetes. We examined the attendance and referral rates for people with diabetes to DSMES classes at an academic medical center, noting a 10% referral rate and 37% completion rate for those referred. We identified barriers to DSMES care at patient, provider, and health system levels.

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Background: Patients with diabetes at risk of food insecurity face cost barriers to healthy eating and, as a result, poor health outcomes. Population health management strategies are needed to improve food security in real-world health system settings. We seek to test the effect of a prescription produce program, 'Eat Well' on cardiometabolic health and healthcare utilization.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess how donor gamete utilization, patient satisfaction, and fertility outcomes vary based on the race and ethnicity of both the patients and their chosen gamete donors at a Southeastern U.S. fertility clinic from 2015 to 2020.
  • Out of 450 patients eligible, 170 participated; findings showed that 59% preferred non-Hispanic White donors, with those preferring non-Hispanic Black donors facing significantly lower usage rates (OR 0.13) and satisfaction levels (OR 0.19).
  • The results indicated that both non-Hispanic Black patients and those using non-Hispanic Black donors had notably lower chances of successful conception (OR
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Background: Contamination of work surfaces by used laryngoscopes after endotracheal intubation is a serious infection control concern but no strategies are available to address it. We assessed if contamination of the surfaces after endotracheal intubation would be reduced when providers used a dedicated, self-erected, disposable plastic sleeve (BladePouch) to store the used laryngoscope as compared to using single gloves or double gloves and sheathing the laryngoscope with the outer gloves.

Methods: Twenty participants were recruited including attending physicians, trainees and allied health care professionals.

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Introduction: Detection of adverse reactions to drugs and biologic agents is an important component of regulatory approval and post-market safety evaluation. Real-world data, including insurance claims and electronic health records data, are increasingly used for the evaluation of potential safety outcomes; however, there are different types of data elements available within these data resources, impacting the development and performance of computable phenotypes for the identification of adverse events (AEs) associated with a given therapy.

Objective: To evaluate the utility of different types of data elements to the performance of computable phenotypes for AEs.

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Importance: Health care workers (HCWs) have been experiencing substantial stress and burnout, and evidence-based mitigation strategies are needed. Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a mantra meditation practice with potential efficacy in reducing stress.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of TM practice in reducing stress among HCWs over a 3-month period.

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Unlabelled: We assessed the effect of implementing a protocol-directed strategy to determine when patients can be liberated from venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation duration, time to initiation of first sweep-off trial, duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU length of stay, hospital length of stay, and survival to hospital discharge.

Design: Single-center retrospective before and after study.

Setting: The medical ICU at an academic medical center.

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Objective: For the diagnosis of COVID-19, the yield of nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs is unclear, and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is obtained to confirm the diagnosis. We assessed the utilisation of bronchoscopy for COVID-19 diagnosis in a multicenter study and compared the diagnostic yield of BAL versus NP swabs.

Methods: This retrospective study included all patients who were admitted with clinical presentation concerning for COVID-19 and underwent BAL from 1 March to 31 July 2020 at four tertiary care centres in North America.

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Unplanned hospital readmissions represent a significant health care value problem with high costs and poor quality of care. A significant percentage of readmissions could be prevented if clinical inpatient teams were better able to predict which patients were at higher risk for readmission. Many of the current clinical decision support models that predict readmissions are not configured to integrate closely with the electronic health record or alert providers in real-time prior to discharge about a patient's risk for readmission.

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Copy number variants (CNVs) are the gain or loss of DNA segments in the genome that can vary in dosage and length. CNVs comprise a large proportion of variation in human genomes and impact health conditions. To detect rare CNV associations, kernel-based methods have been shown to be a powerful tool due to their flexibility in modeling the aggregate CNV effects, their ability to capture effects from different CNV features, and their accommodation of effect heterogeneity.

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Greater optimism regarding recovery from chronic illness is associated with improved quality of life and clinical outcomes. We performed a post-hoc analysis on the association between optimism and outcomes in Ranolazine in Patients with Incomplete Revascularization after Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (RIVER-PCI), a randomized trial in patients with chronic angina pectoris who had incomplete revascularization following percutaneous coronary intervention. At baseline, patients answered how much they agreed with the phrase, "I am optimistic about my future and returning to a normal lifestyle.

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International variability in infarct size following acute anterior ST-elevation myocardial infarction without shock treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been little studied. Patients enrolled in the Counterpulsation to Reduce Infarct Size pre-PCI for Acute Myocardial Infarction international randomized trial were analyzed according to their region of enrollment: United States (US) (n = 60), Europe/Australia (EU/AU) (n = 104), or India (n = 123). Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging was performed 3-5 days after PCI to assess infarct size, expressed as percentage of left ventricular mass, and analyzed by an imaging core laboratory.

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Background: Patients with nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) have worse outcomes compared with those without CAD; however, few studies have compared the intermediate- and long-term impact of CAD severity as a function of patient sex.

Methods: We evaluated 5-year and long-term all-cause mortality of women and men undergoing elective coronary angiography at a single center by degree of CAD: no CAD (1%-24% stenosis), nonobstructive CAD (25%-69% epicardial stenosis or 25%-49% left main stenosis), or obstructive CAD (epicardial stenosis ≥70% or left main stenosis ≥50%), both overall and after adjusting for baseline clinical risk factors using Cox proportional-hazards models.

Results: Between January 1986 and July 2010, 8,766 women and 11,638 men underwent angiography and were followed for a median of 9.

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In pulmonary hypertension (PH), measurement of various echocardiographic parameters that assess right heart function is recommended by current clinical guidelines. Limited data exists on the combined value of clinical and echocardiographic parameters in precapillary PH in the modern era of therapy. We examined the association of clinical and echocardiographic parameters with surrogate outcomes (6-minute walk distance) and hard outcomes (hospitalization or death) in patients with precapillary PH.

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