Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

32 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT Memorial Sloan Kettering creates endowed chair, fellowships for health equity By Erica Carbajal A $7 million gift will fund an endowed chair and re- search fellowships focused on addressing health disparities in cancer care at New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The permanently endowed Nicholls-Biondi Chair for Health Equity aims to improve cancer patient outcomes for those with lack of access to quality medical care, MSK said in a Feb. 8 announcement. The cancer center named Carol Brown, MD, as the chair's inaugural incumbent. Dr. Brown is a gynecologic cancer surgeon and has worked at MSK for more than 20 years. The newly established Nicholls-Biondi Diversity Clinical Scientist Fellowships for Academic Careers in Cancer Research will improve MSK's cancer research by recruiting and training physicians from historically underrepresented groups in science, according to the news release. Jamie Nicholls, vice president of the MSK Boards of Trust- ees and Governing Trustees, and her husband O. Francis Biondi, provided the gift to fund the new efforts. n Blood thinners as early COVID-19 treatment could improve mortality rates, study says By Katie Adams P rescribing blood thinners early on in COVID-19 pa- tients' hospital stays reduced their 30-day mortality risk, according to an EHR-based study published Feb. 11 in The BMJ. Researchers analyzed the EHR records for more than 4,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the VA health system from March through July. They found patients who received preventive anticoagulants within 24 hours of being admitted were less likely to die in 30 days than patients who did not receive them. The 30-day mortality rate among those who received anticoagulants early was 14 percent, compared to 19 percent among patients who did not. The study authors said blood thinners may improve COVID-19 patients' outcomes because the disease sometimes causes irregular blood clotting. They also said randomized, clinical trials are needed to validate their findings. n Roche arthritis drug reduces COVID-19 death risk, Oxford research suggests By Mackenzie Bean R oche's rheumatoid arthritis drug tocilizumab reduced the risk of death in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 in a large U.K. study con- ducted by the University of Oxford. Researchers examined the outcomes of 2,022 patients randomly selected to receive tocilizumab and 2,094 patients who received usual care. Twenty-nine percent of patients receiving tocilizumab died within 28 days compared to 33 percent of patients in the control group. "This means that for every 25 patients treated with tocili- zumab, one additional life would be saved," the Universi- ty of Oxford said in a Feb. 11 news release. Researchers also found the arthritis drug shortened the time to discharge and reduced patients' need for a ventilator. The research has not been peer reviewed and follows several other smaller studies that showed mixed results about tocilizumab's benefit for COVID-19 patients, re- ported Bloomberg. n Black, Hispanic kids receive less imaging at EDs, study finds By Mackenzie Bean B lack and Hispanic children are less likely to undergo diagnostic imaging during an emergency department visit than white children, suggesting race and ethnicity may influence diagnostic decisions in the ED, according to a study published Jan. 29 in JAMA Network Open. Researchers analyzed data on more than 13 million ED visits to 44 children's hospitals nationwide between 2016 and 2019. Overall, diagnostic imaging occured in 28.2 percent of visits. Clinicians performed imaging for 33.5 percent of visits involving white children, compared to 24.1 percent for Black children and 26.1 percent for Hispanic children. This disparity existed even after researchers adjusted for relevant factors. This pattern was also consistent across all insurance types. "Further investigation is needed to better understand the factors underpinning these disparities, with the goal of developing measurable interventions to mitigate the dis- parities in ED imaging and allowing for more equitable and improved care," researchers concluded. n

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