The Students Participating as Ambassadors for Research in Kentucky (SPARK) program provides novel health equity research training and targeted mentorship for undergraduates, particularly those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral research and workforce. SPARK aims to address inadequate diversity in the medical and scientific research fields by providing comprehensive research mentorship and skill-building. Unlike most existing research training programs that are brief, focus on laboratory research, or are limited to graduate students and junior faculty, SPARK delivers a 16-month intensive behavioral and population health science training, equipping students with needed tools to conceptualize, plan, execute, and analyze their own health equity research study. Trainees complete didactic coursework on health equity, study design and proposal development, data analysis, and ethics. Students receive a stipend and research expenses, and multiple mentors guide them in creating original research projects for which they serve as Principal Investigator. Students disseminate their findings annually at an academic research conference as a capstone. Evaluation data from the first three cohorts suggest SPARK has been pivotal in preparing students for graduate studies and research careers in health equity and behavioral and population health sciences, providing strong support for further investments in similar undergraduate research training models.

Healthcare innovations often represent important improvements in population welfare, but at what cost, and to whom? Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process to inform resource allocation. HTA is conventionally anchored on health maximization as the only relevant output of health services. If we accept the proposition that health technologies can generate value outside the healthcare system, resource allocation decisions could be suboptimal from a societal perspective. Incorporating “broader value” in HTA as derived from social values and patient experience could provide a richer evaluative space for informing resource allocation decisions. This article considers how HTA is practiced and what its current context implies for adopting “broader value” to evaluating health technologies. Methodological challenges are highlighted, as is a future research agenda. Ireland serves as an example of a healthcare system that both has an explicit role for HTA and is evolving under a current program of reform to offer universal, single-tier access to public services. There are various ways in which HTA processes could move beyond health, including considering the processes of care delivery and/or expanding the evaluative space to some broader concept of well-being. Methods to facilitate the latter exist, but their adaptation to HTA is still emerging. We recommend a multi-stakeholder working group to develop and advance an international agenda for HTA that captures welfare/benefit beyond health.

The purpose of this study was to identify factors at various time points in life that are associated with surviving to age 90. Data from men enrolled in a cohort study since 1948 were considered in 12-year intervals. Logistic regression models were constructed with the outcome of surviving to age 90. Factors were: childhood illness, blood pressure (BP), body mass index (BMI), chronic diseases, and electrocardiogram (ECG) findings. After 1996, the Short Form-36 was added. A total of 3,976 men were born in 1928 or earlier, and hence by the end of our study window in 2018, each had the opportunity of surviving to age 90. Of these, 721 did live to beyond his 90th birthday.The factors in 1948 which predicted surviving were: lower diastolic BP, lower BMI, and not smoking. In 1960, these factors were: lower BP, lower BMI, not smoking, and no major ECG changes. In 1972, these factors were lower BP, not smoking, and fewer disease states. In 1984, these factors were lower systolic BP, not smoking, ECG changes, and fewer disease states. In 1996, the factors were fewer disease states and higher physical and mental health functioning. In 2008, only higher physical functioning predicted survival to the age of 90. In young adulthood, risk factors are important predictors of surviving to age 90; in mid-life, chronic illnesses emerge, and in later life, functional status becomes predominant.

Public representations of long-term residential care (LTRC) facilities have received limited focus in Canada, although literature from other countries indicates that public perceptions of LTRC tend to be negative, particularly in contexts that prioritize aging and dying in place. Using Manitoba as the study context, we investigate a question of broad relevance to the Canadian perspective; specifically, what are current public perceptions of the role and function of long-term care in the context of a changing health care system? Through critical discourse analysis, we identify four overarching discourses dominating public perceptions of LTRC: the problem of public aging, LTRC as an imperfect solution to the problem, LTRC as ambiguous social spaces, and LTRC as a last resort option. Building on prior theoretical work, we suggest that public perceptions of LTRC are informed by neoliberal discourses that privilege individual responsibility and problematize public care.

Rock debris covers ~30% of glacier ablation areas in the Central Himalaya and modifies the impact of atmospheric conditions on mass balance. The thermal properties of supraglacial debris are diurnally variable but remain poorly constrained for monsoon-influenced glaciers over the timescale of the ablation season. We measured vertical debris profile temperatures at 12 sites on four glaciers in the Everest region with debris thickness ranging from 0.08 to 2.8 m. Typically, the length of the ice ablation season beneath supraglacial debris was 160 days (15 May to 22 October)—a month longer than the monsoon season. Debris temperature gradients were approximately linear (r2 > 0.83), measured as −40°C m–1 where debris was up to 0.1 m thick, −20°C m–1 for debris 0.1–0.5 m thick, and −4°C m–1 for debris greater than 0.5 m thick. Our results demonstrate that the influence of supraglacial debris on the temperature of the underlying ice surface, and therefore melt, is stable at a seasonal timescale and can be estimated from near-surface temperature. These results have the potential to greatly improve the representation of ablation in calculations of debris-covered glacier mass balance and projections of their response to climate change.

Background: Certain nursing home (NH) resident care tasks have a higher risk for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) transfer to healthcare personnel (HCP), which can result in transmission to residents if HCPs fail to perform recommended infection prevention practices. However, data on HCP-resident interactions are limited and do not account for intrafacility practice variation. Understanding differences in interactions, by HCP role and unit, is important for informing MDRO prevention strategies in NHs. Methods: In 2019, we conducted serial intercept interviews; each HCP was interviewed 6–7 times for the duration of a unit’s dayshift at 20 NHs in 7 states. The next day, staff on a second unit within the facility were interviewed during the dayshift. HCP on 38 units were interviewed to identify healthcare personnel (HCP)–resident care patterns. All unit staff were eligible for interviews, including certified nursing assistants (CNAs), nurses, physical or occupational therapists, physicians, midlevel practitioners, and respiratory therapists. HCP were asked to list which residents they had cared for (within resident rooms or common areas) since the prior interview. Respondents selected from 14 care tasks. We classified units into 1 of 4 types: long-term, mixed, short stay or rehabilitation, or ventilator or skilled nursing. Interactions were classified based on the risk of HCP contamination after task performance. We compared proportions of interactions associated with each HCP role and performed clustered linear regression to determine the effect of unit type and HCP role on the number of unique task types performed per interaction. Results: Intercept-interviews described 7,050 interactions and 13,843 care tasks. Except in ventilator or skilled nursing units, CNAs have the greatest proportion of care interactions (interfacility range, 50%–60%) (Fig. 1). In ventilator and skilled nursing units, interactions are evenly shared between CNAs and nurses (43% and 47%, respectively). On average, CNAs in ventilator and skilled nursing units perform the most unique task types (2.5 task types per interaction, Fig. 2) compared to other unit types (P < .05). Compared to CNAs, most other HCP types had significantly fewer task types (0.6–1.4 task types per interaction, P < .001). Across all facilities, 45.6% of interactions included tasks that were higher-risk for HCP contamination (eg, transferring, wound and device care, Fig. 3). Conclusions: Focusing infection prevention education efforts on CNAs may be most efficient for preventing MDRO transmission within NH because CNAs have the most HCP–resident interactions and complete more tasks per visit. Studies of HCP-resident interactions are critical to improving understanding of transmission mechanisms as well as target MDRO prevention interventions.

Funding: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (grant no. U01CK000555-01-00)

Disclosures:Scott Fridkin, consulting fee, vaccine industry (spouse)

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Examine data from PNID patients to evaluation the strength of associations between pre-operative and post-operative levels of pain, quality of life, and emotional reactions to pain to determine if one or more can serve as better predictors of surgical success than pain. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: In our preliminary study, we gathered data from a pre-existing database of 464 PNID patients that contains self-reported visual analog scale scores (VAS) of pain intensity, QoL, and depression. We measured these variables at three time points: pre-operatively, post-operatively, and at the final visit. We used the Wilcoxon signed rank test to determine if each of these three variables differed significantly between the pre-operative visit and the post-operative visit period and from the pre-operative visit to the final visit. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Median time from the pre-operative visit to surgery was 9 weeks; median time from surgery to the post-operative visit was 4 weeks; and median time from the post-operative visit to the final visit was 23.5 weeks. There was a clinically meaningful difference in pain scores between the pre-operative and post-operative visits (median difference 1.15; 95% CI 0.75-1.55). In the period between the post-operative visit and the final visit there was also a decrease in pain (0.90; 95% CI 0.55-1.30). The magnitude of change in median difference of 1.85 (95% CI 1.50-2.20) between the pre-operative visit and the final visit was larger than the change in median difference of 0.90 (95% CI 0.55-1.30) between the post-operative visit and the final visit. The pre-operative visit median QoL score was higher than the median score at the post-operative visit (1.65; 95% CI 1.25-2.10). The smallest median difference in QoL of occurred between the post-operative and the final visit (1.10; 95% CI 0.60-1.45). As seen with the pain scores, the magnitude of change in median difference of 2.50 (95% CI 2.20-2.85) for QoL was greatest between the pre-operative and the final visit. Depression scores showed the least amount of change amongst all the variables, between the pre-operative and the post-operative visit (1.00; 95% CI (0.70-1.40), and similarly between the post-operative visit and the final visit (0.15; 95% CI (0-.40). The median differences between the pre-operative and final visit were greatest in QoL (2.50; 95% CI 2.20-2.85), followed by pain scores (1.85; 95% CI 1.50-2.20), and finally, depression (1.05; 95% CI 0.70-1.40). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Our results show that all three variables measured improve with surgery and continue to improve over the post-operative course to the final visit. This suggest that the relationships between pain, QoL, and depression should be further investigated. We are hopeful that elucidating how these variables interact in the PNID patient population, will encourage peripheral nerve surgeons to use these parameters in conjunction with pain intensity to measure outcomes. A follow-up study expanding on these results and including measures of anger and frustration in a larger sample is underway.

I begin with thanks to Professor Freeman for a helpful article, and with the admission that I am torn by this topic. On the one hand, I have shared by direct experience and that of friends the same pain Freeman describes of being unable to commune at the Saturday evening mass at the CTS/NABPR convention. I remember Sandra Yocum's words of public lament in her 2014 CTS presidential address. Some of us may remember our convention at Spring Hill in 2005 when the celebrant at the Saturday mass that year, Fr. David Robinson, who grew up a New England Congregationalist, spoke with deep anguish of his deep desire to share communion with the Baptists, coupled with the inability to do so. We had sung Susan Toolan's “I Am the Bread of Life,” hearing in our own voices Christ's promise of being raised up on the last day. And then we sensed how that day was not yet. But we should remember that the “last day” when we will unquestionably be one, if I may borrow words from the poet W. H. Auden, “is not in our present, and not in our future, but in the fullness of time.” So we ask now about the prospects of provisionally—proleptically—embodying that oneness this side of the eschaton.