BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Clinical guidelines discourage antibiotic prescribing for many acute respiratory infections (ARIs), especially for non-antibiotic appropriate diagnoses. Electronic health record (EHR)-based clinical decision support has the potential to improve antibiotic prescribing for ARIs. METHODS We randomly assigned 27 primary care clinics to receive an EHR-integrated, documenta...

BACKGROUND According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 2 million people are infected and 23,000 die each year in the United States as a result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Antibiotic use is the most important factor contributing to antibiotic resistance and overuse is common, especially for upper respiratory tract infections. There is a perception amon...

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES The appropriate use of antibiotic prophylaxis in the perioperative period may reduce the rate of infection in the surgical site. The purpose of this review was to evaluate adherence to guidelines for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis. METHODS The present systematic review was performed according to the Cochrane Collaboration methodology. The databases selected for this re...

The emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) across global healthcare networks poses a serious threat to hospitalized individuals. Strategies to limit the emergence and spread of MDROs include oversight to decrease selective pressure for MDROs by promoting appropriate antibiotic use via antibiotic stewardship programs. However, restricting the use of one antibiotic often re...

METFORMIN: OPTIMAL DOSING AND MYTHS SURROUNDING LACTIC ACIDOSIS ccording to the CDC, acute upper respiratory infections are the 3rd leading primary diagnosis at ambulatory care office visits in the U.S.1 One of the more common upper respiratory infections is rhinosinusitis which describes an inflammation of one or more of the paranasal sinuses.2 Symptoms, which last 4 weeks or fewer in acute ca...

In the last several years, the use of double-stranded DNA templates together with thermostable-polymerase PCR has essentially replaced the use single-stranded DNA templates using the thermolabile polymerase for in vitro mutagenesis. Numerous PCR methods are now available, such as overlap-extension PCR, megaprimer PCR, and inverse PCR. All these PCR methods are reliable, effective, and convenien...