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Objectives To reflect on the achievements of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Digital Healthcare Research Program over the past 20 years, evaluate its impact on US healthcare quality and safety, and outline current and future priorities for digital healthcare research and innovation. Process The article reviews key milestones in AHRQ's digital healthcare initiatives, including its founding and its advances in telehealthcare and clinical decision support. It highlights AHRQ's contributions to advancing technology integration in healthcare, promoting patient safety, and addressing equity gaps. The article also examines the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare delivery. Conclusions AHRQ's Digital Healthcare Research Program has significantly contributed to improving healthcare quality. As digital technologies evolve, particularly with AI, the program remains focused on enhancing safety, equity, and efficiency in healthcare. Continued research and investment will be essential to maintaining progress and addressing new challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIAN) comprise about 2% of the US population and 0.5% of the faculty in higher education. While scholars have documented the experiences of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty, the perspectives of AIAN faculty at elite universities are largely absent. Although AIAN faculty share many of the same barriers to success as URM colleagues, their unique status as Tribal peoples and their relationship to settler colonialism pose particular challenges and resistance strategies. Findings from a mixed methods study of 25 AIAN faculty at research universities, employing a decolonizing, survivance-oriented framework, examines their lived institutional experiences. The data yielded five themes regarding (1) institutional climate, (2) mentorship, (3) family--work balance, (4) cultural taxation and role stress, and (5) discrimination. The authors conclude that decolonization involves the repatriation of Indigenous epistemologies and Indigenous 'place' in the growth of science, research, and knowledge production, creating liberatory spaces within the academy.

Molluscum contagiosum (MC) is a common viral disease in the pediatric population characterized by smooth, shiny papules measuring a few millimeters. In immunosuppressed patients, these lesions can appear atypically, with multiple, extensive and verruciform appearance. We describe the case of a 7-year-old child diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who, after stopping antiretroviral treatment, presented with multiple verruciform lesions on the scalp dating back a few months. Histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of MC. A topical treatment with 10% potassium hydroxide reduced the lesions which were then removed with curettage. A literature review is also performed including pathogenesis, clinical manifestations and treatment options in children with HIV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The exposome serves as a popular framework in which to study exposures from chemical and nonchemical stressors across the life course and the differing roles that these exposures can play in human health. As a result, data relevant to the exposome have been used as a resource in the quest to untangle complicated health trajectories and help connect the dots from exposures to adverse outcome pathways. OBJECTIVES: The primary aim of this methods seminar is to clarify and review preprocessing techniques critical for accurate and effective external exposomic data analysis. Scalability is emphasized through an application of highly innovative combinatorial techniques coupled with more traditional statistical strategies. The Public Health Exposome is used as an archetypical model. The novelty and innovation of this seminar’s focus stem from its methodical, comprehensive treatment of preprocessing and its demonstration of the positive effects preprocessing can have on downstream analytics. DISCUSSION: State-of-the-art technologies are described for data harmonization and to mitigate noise, which can stymie downstream interpretation, and to select key exposomic features, without which analytics may lose focus. A main task is the reduction of multicollinearity, a particularly formidable problem that frequently arises from repeated measurements of similar events taken at various times and from multiple sources. Empirical results highlight the effectiveness of a carefully planned preprocessing workflow as demonstrated in the context of more highly concentrated variable lists, improved correlational distributions, and enhanced downstream analytics for latent relationship discovery. The nascent field of exposome science can be characterized by the need to analyze and interpret a complex confluence of highly inhomogeneous spatial and temporal data, which may present formidable challenges to even the most powerful analytical tools. A systematic approach to preprocessing can therefore provide an essential first step in the application of modern computer and data science methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the efforts of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to address health inequities in the United States. AHRQ has published a research and action agenda focused on advancing health equity, with a particular emphasis on five action domains: healthcare delivery system structure, payment, social determinants of health and social needs, implementation science, and access to care. The article highlights the importance of centering patients and communities in efforts to advance equity, emphasizing the need for authentic engagement and participation. It also emphasizes the importance of tailoring solutions to diverse populations, particularly those who are minoritized, and addresses the need to consider historical and present-day systems of oppression in research and interventions. The document discusses the importance of addressing structural racism and other systems of oppression in healthcare to achieve health equity. The authors emphasize the need to recognize and address racism and oppression in dissemination and implementation frameworks, as well as the need for social care and interventions to directly address these issues. The document also highlights the role of payment and financing in advancing health equity, the benefits of whole-person and whole-community approaches, and the need for evidence-based interventions across diverse contexts. Additionally, the authors stress the importance of a diverse and inclusive healthcare workforce in dismantling inequities. The document concludes by stating that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is committed to advancing health equity and will prioritize research and action based on the insights provided in the document. [Extracted from the article]