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Background: This study aims to explore patients' with acute myeloid leukemia perceptions about precision medicine and their preferences for involvement in this new area of shared decision-making. Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in Finland, Italy and Germany (n = 16). The study population included patients aged 24-79 years. Interviews were analyzed with thematic content analysis. Results: Patient's perceived lack of knowledge as a barrier for their involvement in decision-making. Treatment decisions were often made rapidly based on the patient's intuition and trust for the physician rather than on information, in situations that decrease the patient's decision capacity. The patients emphasized that they are in a desperate situation that makes them willing to accept treatment with low probabilities of being cured. Conclusions: The study raised important issues regarding patients' understanding of precision medicine and challenges concerning how to involve patients in medical decision-making. Although technical advances were viewed positively, the role of the physician as an expert and person-of-trust cannot be replaced. Practice implications: Regardless of patients' preferences for involvement in decision-making, information plays a crucial role for patients' perceived involvement in their care. The concepts related to precision medicine are complex and will imply challenges to patient education.

ObjectiveAlthough treatment adherence and lifestyle changes significantly improve the prognosis of cardiovascular disease, many patients do not comply with clinician recommendations. Personality functioning appears to be of importance and is hypothesized to be superior to symptom-based measures in explaining individual differences in non-adherence. Methods194 cardiology inpatients (mean age = 70.6 years, 60% male) were assessed using self-report measures in a cross-sectional design. Patients were assessed using the short version of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis Structure Questionnaire (OPD-SQS) to measure personality functioning, as well as the Childhood Trauma Screener (CTS), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for symptoms of depression, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7). To assess non-adherence we introduced a brief, novel scale. ResultsNon-adherence correlated significant with personality functioning (r = 0.325), childhood trauma (r = 0.204) and depressiveness (r = 0.225). In a stepwise multiple regression analysis with socio-demographic variables inputted into the model, higher deficits in personality functioning, higher levels of childhood trauma, and male gender were associated with non-adherence (adjusted R-2 = 0.149, F-(3,F-190) = 12.225, p < 0.01). Level of depressive symptoms, anxiety, age, education, and income showed no significant additional predictive value and were excluded from the model. ConclusionIn cardiovascular disease, personality functioning, childhood trauma and male gender are associated with non-adherence and appear to be more important than symptom reports of depression and anxiety. This highlights the relevance of basic impairments in intra- and interpersonal functioning in chronic disease, where the patient's adherence is central.

We focus on the two-dimensional Falicov-Kimball model in the neutral case with U >> 0. We determine the ground state ion configurations for all rational densities in (1/3, 2/5), as well as densities 1/6 and 2/11. We also determine the ground states for a sequence of densities starting at 1/5 and converging to 0. On the interval (1/3, 2/5) we show that the ground states are periodic, having the same structure as the one-dimensional ground states. For densities between 1/6 and 2/11 we show that the ground states exhibit a phase separation.