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Introduction The Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) Member Health Survey (MHS) is used to describe sociodemographic and health-related characteristics of the adult membership of this large, integrated health care delivery system to monitor trends over time, identify health disparities, and conduct research. Objective To provide an overview of the KPNC MHS and share findings that illustrate how survey statistics and data have been and can be used for research and programmatic purposes. Methods The MHS is a large-scale, institutional review board-approved survey of English-speaking KPNC adult members. The confidential survey has been conducted by mail triennially starting in 1993 with independent age-sex and geographically stratified random samples, with an option for online completion starting in 2005. The full survey sample and survey data are linkable at the individual level to Health Plan and geocoded data. Respondents are assigned weighting factors for their survey year and additional weighting factors for analysis of pooled survey data. Results Statistics from the 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, and 2011 surveys show trends in sociodemographic and health-related characteristics and access to the Internet and e-mail for the adult membership aged 25 to 79 years and for 6 age-sex subgroups. Pooled data from the 2008 and 2011 surveys show many significant differences in these characteristics across the 5 largest race/ethnic groups in KPNC (non-Hispanic whites, blacks, Latinos, Filipinos, and Chinese). Conclusion The KPNC MHS has yielded unique insights and provides an opportunity for researchers and public health organizations outside of KPNC to leverage our survey-generated statistics and collaborate on epidemiologic and health services research studies.

The 18th International Congress on Neutron Capture Therapy was held successfully for the first time in Taipei, Taiwan from October 28 through November 2, 2018. The congress was spread over six days and featured training courses, parallel sessions, plenary talks, invited lectures, and poster viewing and presentations.

Dr. Mansour ( Figure 1 ) is the Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Associate Professor of Surgery. He is also a surgical oncologist on the nationally recognized gastrointestinal cancer team at UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Background/Aims The aim was to describe the percentages and characteristics of seniors eligible to receive an emailed link to an online health survey and that chose to respond online vs. by hardcopy.

Background/Aims We will introduce researchers and administrators to the KP Northern California Member Health Survey Project (MHS) and illustrate how it has been used for research and to monitor population sociodemographic and health-related characteristics over time.

This open-label pilot study was designed (1) to determine the effect of hydroxyurea on the hemoglobin level in children with sickle cell anemia, (2) to evaluate the toxicity of hydroxyurea, and (3) to assess any impact of hydroxyurea on the frequency of vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs).Ten children (group 1) with three or more VOCs of the extremities or two or more VOCs of the lungs (acute chest syndrome) in the preceding 12 months, and five children (group 2) with hemoglobin levels less than 70 gm/L were treated with hydroxyurea in doses of 20 to 35 mg/kg per day. The frequency of VOCs before hydroxyurea therapy was compared with the frequency during therapy, and the peak hemoglobin levels during hydroxyurea therapy were compared with the pretreatment values.One patient in group 1 was removed from the study within 1 month because of nausea. Seven of the remaining nine patients in group 1 had a decrease in the frequency of VOCs. The number of VOCs per patient-year for all 14 patients decreased from 2.5 before hydroxyurea therapy to 0.87 during hydroxyurea therapy, a decrease of 65% (p0.00001). Two of five patients in group 2 had an increase in hemoglobin of 27 gm/L and 34 gm/L over the baseline. The median rise in hemoglobin was 19 gm/L (range, 7 to 37) for all 14 patients. Nine patients are still receiving hydroxyurea for a median period of 23 months (range, 18 to 59).Hydroxyurea decreases the severity of anemia in some patients, and it may decrease the frequency of VOC. Its short-term hematologic toxicity is minimal.

✓ It is recognized that incomplet treatment of an aneurysm may result in recurrent hemorrhage with serious or fatal consequences. For this reason, patients treated at the authors' institution in whom a large portion of the aneurysm neck or sac remained after application of a clip or ligature have been subjected to reoperation. However, 1- to 2-mm residual necks seen in postoperative angiography have been thought to pose little risk. Some cases of aneurysms recurring from a narrow residual neck after clipping have been reported, and a few instances of recurrent aneurysm have been described after apparently complete occlusion of the neck (as observed angiographically or in the surgeon's judgment). In recent years, a surprising number of cases have been presented in which this seemingly unimportant remnant of the neck dilated over a long period to become a dangerous aneurysm. This finding stresses the importance of complete aneurysm occlusion and of postoperative angiography for the recognition of a residual aneurysm neck. This should be important not only in aneurysm clipping but also in the endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms with detachable balloons.