Editor's Note This study, led by researchers at the University of California San Diego, La Jolla, finds that an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot assistant can provide responses to patient questions that are of comparable quality and empathy to those of physicians. A total of 195 randomly drawn patients’ medical questions…

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Editor's Note In response to questions, on April 21, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided an update to its Safety Communication that enables the use of existing inventory of the O&M Halyard FLUIDSHIELD Surgical N95 Respirator Masks, Orange (Regular), Level 3, (Model 46727). The FDA recommends that, if necessary,…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 19, identified the recall by Fresenius Kabi USA of its Ivenix Infusion System as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of a leak in the system that allows fluid to enter the administration set loading area…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 13, updated prescribing information for all opioid pain medications, including requiring all packaging to have updated labeling and safety information. This includes stating that: for both immediate-release (IR) and extended release/long acting (ER/LA) opioid pain medications, the risk of overdose…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 12, issued a Safety Communication recommending that consumers, healthcare providers, and facilities not use certain surgical N95 respirators and to use caution with certain surgical masks and pediatric face masks, all manufactured by O&M Halyard. The FDA says it is…

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Editor's Note In this study, led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, overlapping surgery was shown to reduce in-hospital mortality and to have similar patient safety indicators and readmission rates as nonoverlapping cases. Operative time was shown to increase with overlapping cases. A total of 87,426 cases were included…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration, on April 7, identified the recall by Philips Respironics of certain reworked DreamStation continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and bileveled positive airway pressure (BiPAP) machines as Class I, the most serious. These machines also were recalled in June 2021. The recall was initiated…

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Editor's Note This study from Stanford University finds that anesthesia residents who worked night float call rotations slept the same number of hours, but had less REM sleep, were more fatigued, and had less positive affect. All of these resolved a week after their rotation except fatigue. A total of…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on April 4, released its Sentinel Event Data 2022 Annual Review, which covered serious adverse events from January 1 through December 31, 2022. There were 1,441 sentinel events reported in 2022, a 19% increase over 2021, and a 78% increase over 2020, with COVID-19 continuing…

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Editor's Note This randomized, controlled study led by researchers from the University of Colorado, Denver, and the Mayo Clinic, finds that 6 months of professional coaching can reduce burnout, improve quality of life, and increase resilience among surgeons. A total of 80 surgeons were included in the analysis. At the…

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