Mixed Messages or Miscommunication? Investigating the Relationship Between Assessors' Workplace-Based Assessment Scores and Written Comments

PURPOSE

The shift toward broader, programmatic assessment has revolutionized the approaches that many take in assessing medical competence. To understand the association between quantitative and qualitative evaluations, the authors explored the relationships that exist among assessors' checklist scores, task ratings, global ratings, and written comments.

METHOD

The authors collected and analyzed, using regression analyses, data from the McMaster Modular Assessment Program. The data were from emergency medicine residents in their first or second year of postgraduate training from 2012 through 2014. Additionally, using content analysis, the authors analyzed narrative comments corresponding to the "done" and "done, but needs attention" checklist score options.

RESULTS

The regression analyses revealed that the task ratings, provided by faculty assessors, are associated with the use of the "done, but needs attention" checklist score option. Analyses also identified that the "done, but needs attention" option is associated with a narrative comment that is balanced, providing both strengths and areas for improvement. Analysis of qualitative comments revealed differences in the type of comments provided to higher- and lower-performing residents.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights some of the relationships that exist among checklist scores, rating scales, and written comments. The findings highlight that task ratings are associated with checklist options while global ratings are not. Furthermore, analysis of written comments supports the notion of a "hidden code" used to communicate assessors' evaluation of medical competence, especially when communicating areas for improvement or concern. This study has implications for how individuals should interpret information obtained from qualitative assessments.

High-sensitivity cardiac troponin concentrations at emergency department presentation in females and males with an acute cardiac outcome

Background There is interest in utilizing different cut-offs per sex for high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) but less so for high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) for patient management in the acute setting. Our objective was to assess if differences in hs-cTn concentrations exist between males and females for an acute cardiac outcome following the presentation measurement in the emergency department. Methods An observational emergency department population with hs-cTn measurements (Roche Diagnostics and Abbott Diagnostics) at presentation with seven-day outcomes for a composite acute cardiac outcome (i.e. myocardial infarction, unstable angina, ventricular arrhythmia, heart failure or cardiovascular death) (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01994577). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were performed for each sex with both hs-cTn assays. Results In those patients who had a composite acute cardiac outcome ( n = 128 females; n = 145 males), there was no difference in hs-cTn concentrations between the sexes (median [IQR] female hs-cTnT = 35 ng/L [21-69] vs. male hs-cTnT = 38 ng/L [19-77], P = 0.95; and median [IQR] female hs-cTnI = 27 ng/L [12-75] vs. male hs-cTnI = 26 ng/L [12-85], P = 0.97]. There was also no difference in the area under the curve between the hs-cTn assays and between the sexes ( P > 0.10). Comparing hs-cTn concentrations in those patients with the composite outcome between the sexes <60 years and ≥60 years of age also did not yield significant differences ( P > 0.70). Conclusions The concentrations and area under the curves of hs-cTnT and hs-cTnI at patient presentation in the emergency department for an acute composite cardiac outcome were similar between the sexes in this exploratory study.

Reanimating Patients After Traumatic Cardiac Arrest: A Practical Approach Informed by Best Evidence

Resuscitation of traumatic cardiac arrest is typically considered futile. Recent evidence suggests that traumatic cardiac arrest is survivable. In this article key principles in managing traumatic cardiac arrest are discussed, including the importance of rapidly seeking prognostic information, such as signs of life and point-of-care ultrasonography evidence of cardiac contractility, to inform the decision to proceed with resuscitative efforts. In addition, a rationale for deprioritizing chest compressions, steps to quickly reverse dysfunctional ventilation, techniques for temporary control of hemorrhage, and the importance of blood resuscitation are discussed. The best available evidence and the authors' collective experience inform this article.

One Click Away: Digital Mentorship in the Modern Era

Mentorship is a valuable component of the career development of junior faculty. The digital era has allowed for greater access to mentors spanning geographic barriers and time zones. This article discusses the concept of digital mentorship, as well as strategies and techniques for developing and supporting a digital mentoring relationship in the modern era.

Eyeballing: the use of visual appearance to diagnose 'sick'

CONTEXT

Prior studies suggest that clinicians can categorise patients in an emergency room as 'sick' or 'not sick' using rapid visual assessment. The rapid nature of these decisions suggests clinicians are relying on pattern recognition or System 1 processing; however, this has not been studied experimentally. In this study, we explore the accuracy of these decisions using patient disposition (discharge, admission to ward or admission to critical care) as an objective outcome, and collect evidence to argue for the use of System 1 processing in the 'sick' or 'not sick' decision process.

METHODS

Fourteen practising emergency physicians reviewed 25 videos of patients presenting to the emergency room. They were asked to predict patient disposition (discharge, admission to ward or admission to critical care) and estimate whether they were 'sick' or 'not sick' using a continuous slider on a 'sick' scale from 'not sick' (0) to 'sick' (100). We collected decision time and asked physicians to identify how they came to the decision using a continuous slider on a 'system processing' scale from 'knew immediately' (0) to 'deliberated intently' (1).

RESULTS

Inter-rater reliability judging 'sick' was computed as an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.54. Agreement among physicians in predicting disposition was 68% with ICC of 0.44, and accuracy at predicting disposition was 55%. Physicians made their decision in an average of 10 - 11 seconds and rated 70% of their decisions as < 0.5 on the scale from 'knew immediately' (0) to 'deliberated intently' (1).

CONCLUSIONS

Experienced emergency physicians are able to visually assess patients rapidly and predict disposition in a very short time, albeit with fair reliability and lower accuracy than reported previously. Subjectively, they reported that the majority of decisions were on the side of 'knew immediately', consistent with the application of System 1 processing.

Multiple Wins: Embracing Technology to Increase Efficiency and Maximize Efforts

Clinician educators (CEs) are challenged to produce meaningful scholarship while balancing various clinical and administrative roles. The increasing availability of technology provides new opportunities for scholarly output and dissemination. This article proposes three strategies for utilizing technology to enhance scholarly output for the busy CE. The strategies are supported by real examples of these techniques, followed by a discussion of potential limitations and future directions.

Evolving concepts of assessment in a competency-based world

Competency-based medical education (CBME) is an approach to the design of educational systems or curricula that focuses on graduate abilities or competencies. It has been adopted in many jurisdictions, and in recent years an explosion of publications has examined its implementation and provided a critique of the approach. Assessment in a CBME context is often based on observations or judgments about an individual's level of expertise; it emphasizes frequent, direct observation of performance along with constructive and timely feedback to ensure that learners, including clinicians, have the expertise they need to perform entrusted tasks. This paper explores recent developments since the publication in 2010 of Holmboe and colleagues' description of CBME assessment. Seven themes regarding assessment that arose at the second invitational summit on CBME, held in 2013, are described: competency frameworks, the reconceptualization of validity, qualitative methods, milestones, feedback, assessment processes, and assessment across the medical education continuum. Medical educators interested in CBME, or assessment more generally, should consider the implications for their practice of the review of these emerging concepts.

Toward a shared language for competency-based medical education

The paradigm shift brought about by the advent of competency-based medical education (CBME) can be characterized as an adaptive change. Currently, its development and implementation suffer from the lack of a lingua franca. A shared language is needed to support collaboration and dissemination across the world community of medical educators. The International CBME Collaborators held a second summit in 2013 to explore this and other contemporary CBME issues. We present the resulting International CBME Collaborator's glossary of CBME terms. Particular attention is given to the terms competency, entrustable professional activity (EPA), and milestone and their interrelationships. Medical education scholars and enthusiasts of the competency-based approach are encouraged to adopt these terms and definitions, although no doubt the vocabulary of CBME will continue to evolve.

A call to action: The controversy of and rationale for competency-based medical education

Although medical education has enjoyed many successes over the last century, there is a recognition that health care is too often unsafe and of poor quality. Errors in diagnosis and treatment, communication breakdowns, poor care coordination, inappropriate use of tests and procedures, and dysfunctional collaboration harm patients and families around the world. These issues reflect on our current model of medical education and raise the question: Are physicians being adequately prepared for twenty-first century practice? Multiple reports have concluded the answer is "no." Concurrent with this concern is an increasing interest in competency-based medical education (CBME) as an approach to help reform medical education. The principles of CBME are grounded in providing better and safer care. As interest in CBME has increased, so have criticisms of the movement. This article summarizes and addresses objections and challenges related to CBME. These can provide valuable feedback to improve CBME implementation and avoid pitfalls. We strongly believe medical education reform should not be reduced to an "either/or" approach, but should blend theories and approaches to suit the needs and resources of the populations served. The incorporation of milestones and entrustable professional activities within existing competency frameworks speaks to the dynamic evolution of CBME, which should not be viewed as a fixed doctrine, but rather as a set of evolving concepts, principles, tools, and approaches that can enable important reforms in medical education that, in turn, enable the best outcomes for patients.

How Expert Clinicians Intuitively Recognize a Medical Diagnosis

Research has shown that expert clinicians make a medical diagnosis through a process of hypothesis generation and verification. Experts begin the diagnostic process by generating a list of diagnostic hypotheses using intuitive, nonanalytic reasoning. Analytic reasoning then allows the clinician to test and verify or reject each hypothesis, leading to a diagnostic conclusion. In this article, we focus on the initial step of hypothesis generation and review how expert clinicians use experiential knowledge to intuitively recognize a medical diagnosis.

Academic Primer Series: Five Key Papers about Study Designs in Medical Education

Introduction

A proper understanding of study design is essential to creating successful studies. This is also important when reading or peer reviewing publications. In this article, we aimed to identify and summarize key papers that would be helpful for faculty members interested in learning more about study design in medical education research.

Methods

The online discussions of the 2016–2017 Academic Life in Emergency Medicine Faculty Incubator program included a robust and vigorous discussion about education study design, which highlighted a number of papers on that topic. We augmented this list of papers with further suggestions by expert mentors. Via this process, we created a list of 29 papers in total on the topic of medical education study design. After gathering these papers, our authorship group engaged in a modified Delphi approach to build consensus on the papers that were most valuable for the understanding of proper study design in medical education.

Results

We selected the top five most highly rated papers on the topic domain of study design as determined by our study group. We subsequently summarized these papers with respect to their relevance to junior faculty members and to faculty developers.

Conclusion

This article summarizes five key papers addressing study design in medical education with discussions and applications for junior faculty members and faculty developers. These papers provide a basis upon which junior faculty members might build for developing and analyzing studies.

Examining the Influence of Context and Professional Culture on Clinical Reasoning Through Rhetorical-Narrative Analysis

According to the dual process model of reasoning, physicians make diagnostic decisions using two mental systems: System 1, which is rapid, unconscious, and intuitive, and System 2, which is slow, rational, and analytical. Currently, little is known about physicians' use of System 1 or intuitive reasoning in practice. In a qualitative study of clinical reasoning, physicians were asked to tell stories about times when they used intuitive reasoning while working up an acutely unwell patient, and we combine socio-narratology and rhetorical theory to analyze physicians' stories. Our analysis reveals that in describing their work, physicians draw on two competing narrative structures: one that is aligned with an evidence-based medicine approach valuing System 2 and one that is aligned with cooperative decision making involving others in the clinical environment valuing System 1. Our findings support an understanding of clinical reasoning as distributed, contextual, and influenced by professional culture.

Academic Primer Series: Key Papers About Competency-Based Medical Education

Introduction

Competency-based medical education (CBME) presents a paradigm shift in medical training. This outcome-based education movement has triggered substantive changes across the globe. Since this transition is only beginning, many faculty members may not have experience with CBME nor a solid foundation in the grounding literature. We identify and summarize key papers to help faculty members learn more about CBME.

Methods

Based on the online discussions of the 2016–2017 ALiEM Faculty Incubator program, a series of papers on the topic of CBME was developed. Augmenting this list with suggestions by a guest expert and by an open call on Twitter for other important papers, we were able to generate a list of 21 papers in total. Subsequently, we used a modified Delphi study methodology to narrow the list to key papers that describe the importance and significance for educators interested in learning about CBME. To determine the most impactful papers, the mixed junior and senior faculty authorship group used three-round voting methodology based upon the Delphi method.

Results

Summaries of the five most highly rated papers on the topic of CBME, as determined by this modified Delphi approach, are presented in this paper. Major themes include a definition of core CBME themes, CBME principles to consider in the design of curricula, a history of the development of the CBME movement, and a rationale for changes to accreditation with CBME. The application of the study findings to junior faculty and faculty developers is discussed.

Conclusion

We present five key papers on CBME that junior faculty members and faculty experts identified as essential to faculty development. These papers are a mix of foundational and explanatory papers that may provide a basis from which junior faculty members may build upon as they help to implement CBME programs.

Leveraging a Virtual Community of Practice to Participate in a Survey-based Study: A Description of the METRIQ Study Methodology

OBJECTIVES

To power the METRIQ (Medical Education Translational Resources: Impact and Quality) Study adequately, we aimed to recruit > 200 medical students, residents, and attendings to complete a 90- to 120-minute survey by leveraging a virtual community of practice (vCoP).

METHODS

Participants were recruited using personal (conference campaign and e-mails) and online (a study website and social media campaign utilizing Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts, an infographic, and a YouTube video) techniques that leveraged relationships within a virtual community or practice. Participants received weekly survey reminders for 4 weeks and at the end of the rating period. Survey completion rates were calculated.

RESULTS

A total of 380 potential participants completed an intake form (139 medical students, 120 residents, 121 attendings), 330 consented to participate, and 309 (81.3% of interested and 93.9% of consenting participants) completed the full survey (121, 88, and 100, respectively). The required sample size was achieved.

CONCLUSIONS

The METRIQ Study utilized a multimodal recruitment campaign that targeted a vCoP. It recruited large numbers of participants with high completion rates. Response rates could not be calculated given the uncertainty surrounding the number of individuals invited to participate.

Health advocacy. MEDICAL TEACHER 2017;39:128-135. [PMID: 27866451 DOI: 10.1080/0142159x.2017.1245853]

In the medical profession, activities related to ensuring access to care, navigating the system, mobilizing resources, addressing health inequities, influencing health policy and creating system change are known as health advocacy. Foundational concepts in health advocacy include social determinants of health and health inequities. The social determinants of health (i.e. the conditions in which people live and work) account for a significant proportion of an individual's and a population's health outcomes. Health inequities are disparities in health between populations, perpetuated by economic, social, and political forces. Although it is clear that efforts to improve the health of an individual or population must consider "upstream" factors, how this is operationalized in medicine and medical education is controversial. There is a lack of clarity around how health advocacy is delineated, how physicians' scope of responsibility is defined and how teaching and assessment is conceptualized and enacted. Numerous curricular interventions have been described in the literature; however, regardless of the success of isolated interventions, understanding health advocacy instruction, assessment and evaluation will require a broader examination of processes, practices and values throughout medicine and medical education. To support the instruction, assessment and evaluation of health advocacy, a novel framework for health advocacy is introduced. This framework was developed for several purposes: defining and delineating different types and approaches to advocacy, generating a "roadmap" of possible advocacy activities, establishing shared language and meaning to support communication and collaboration across disciplines and providing a tool for the assessment of learners and for the evaluation of teaching and programs. Current approaches to teaching and assessment of health advocacy are outlined, as well as suggestions for future directions and considerations.

JGME-ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education: Analysis of a Multimodal Online Discussion About Team-Based Learning

BACKGROUND

Team-based learning (TBL) is an instructional method that is being increasingly incorporated in health professions education, although use in graduate medical education (GME) has been more limited.

OBJECTIVE

To curate and describe themes that emerged from a virtual journal club discussion about TBL in GME, held across multiple digital platforms, while also evaluating the use of social media in online academic discussions.

METHODS

The Journal of Graduate Medical Education (JGME) and the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine blog facilitated a weeklong, open-access, virtual journal club on the 2015 JGME article "Use of Team-Based Learning Pedagogy for Internal Medicine Ambulatory Resident Teaching." Using 4 stimulus questions (hosted on a blog as a starting framework), we facilitated discussions via the blog, Twitter, and Google Hangouts on Air platforms. We evaluated 2-week web analytics and performed a thematic analysis of the discussion.

RESULTS

The virtual journal club reached a large international audience as exemplified by the blog page garnering 685 page views from 241 cities in 42 countries. Our thematic analysis identified 4 domains relevant to TBL in GME: (1) the benefits and barriers to TBL; (2) the design of teams; (3) the role of assessment and peer evaluation; and (4) crowdsourced TBL resources.

CONCLUSIONS

The virtual journal club provided a novel forum across multiple social media platforms, engaging authors, content experts, and the health professions education community in a discussion about the importance, impediments to implementation, available resources, and logistics of adopting TBL in GME.

Academic Primer Series: Eight Key Papers about Education Theory

Introduction

Many teachers adopt instructional methods based on assumptions of best practices without attention to or knowledge of supporting education theory. Familiarity with a variety of theories informs education that is efficient, strategic, and evidence-based. As part of the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine Faculty Incubator Program, a list of key education theories for junior faculty was developed.

Methods

A list of key papers on theories relevant to medical education was generated using an expert panel, a virtual community of practice synthetic discussion, and a social media call for resources. A three-round, Delphi-informed voting methodology including novice and expert educators produced a rank order of the top papers.

Results

These educators identified 34 unique papers. Eleven papers described the general use of education theory, while 23 papers focused on a specific theory. The top three papers on general education theories and top five papers on specific education theory were selected and summarized. The relevance of each paper for junior faculty and faculty developers is also presented.

Conclusion

This paper presents a reading list of key papers for junior faculty in medical education roles. Three papers about general education theories and five papers about specific educational theories are identified and annotated. These papers may help provide foundational knowledge in education theory to inform junior faculty teaching practice.

McMaster Modular Assessment Program (McMAP) Through the Years: Residents' Experience With an Evolving Feedback Culture Over a 3-year Period

BACKGROUND

Assessing resident competency in emergency department settings requires observing a substantial number of work-based skills and tasks. The McMaster Modular Assessment Program (McMAP) is a novel, workplace-based assessment (WBA) system that uses task-specific and global low-stakes assessments of resident performance. We describe the evaluation of a WBA program 3 years after implementation.

METHODS

We used a qualitative approach, conducting focus groups with resident physicians in all 5 postgraduate years (n = 26) who used McMAP as part of McMaster University's emergency medicine residency program. Responses were triangulated using a follow-up written survey. Data were analyzed using theory-based thematic analysis. An audit trail was reviewed to ensure that all themes were captured.

RESULTS

Findings were organized at the level of the learner (residents), faculty, and system. Residents identified elements of McMAP that were perceived as supporting or inhibiting learning. Residents shared their opinions on the feasibility of completing daily WBAs, perceptions and utilization of rating scales, and the value of structured feedback (written and verbal) from faculty. Residents also commented extensively on the evolving and improving feedback culture that has been created within our system.

CONCLUSION

The study describes an evolving culture of feedback that promotes the process of informed self-assessment. A programmatic approach to WBAs can foster opportunities for feedback although barriers must still be overcome to fully realize the potential of a continuous WBA system. A professional culture change is required to implement and encourage the routine use of WBAs. Barriers, such as familiarity with assessment system logistics, faculty member discomfort with providing feedback, and empowering residents to ask faculty for direct observations and assessments must be addressed to realize the potential of a programmatic WBA system. Findings may inform future research in identifying key components of successful implementation of a programmatic workplace-based assessment system.

The Causes of Errors in Clinical Reasoning: Cognitive Biases, Knowledge Deficits, and Dual Process Thinking

Contemporary theories of clinical reasoning espouse a dual processing model, which consists of a rapid, intuitive component (Type 1) and a slower, logical and analytical component (Type 2). Although the general consensus is that this dual processing model is a valid representation of clinical reasoning, the causes of diagnostic errors remain unclear. Cognitive theories about human memory propose that such errors may arise from both Type 1 and Type 2 reasoning. Errors in Type 1 reasoning may be a consequence of the associative nature of memory, which can lead to cognitive biases. However, the literature indicates that, with increasing expertise (and knowledge), the likelihood of errors decreases. Errors in Type 2 reasoning may result from the limited capacity of working memory, which constrains computational processes. In this article, the authors review the medical literature to answer two substantial questions that arise from this work: (1) To what extent do diagnostic errors originate in Type 1 (intuitive) processes versus in Type 2 (analytical) processes? (2) To what extent are errors a consequence of cognitive biases versus a consequence of knowledge deficits?The literature suggests that both Type 1 and Type 2 processes contribute to errors. Although it is possible to experimentally induce cognitive biases, particularly availability bias, the extent to which these biases actually contribute to diagnostic errors is not well established. Educational strategies directed at the recognition of biases are ineffective in reducing errors; conversely, strategies focused on the reorganization of knowledge to reduce errors have small but consistent benefits.

Mind the Gap: The Prospects of Missing Data

BACKGROUND

The increasing use of workplace-based assessments (WBAs) in competency-based medical education has led to large data sets that assess resident performance longitudinally. With large data sets, problems that arise from missing data are increasingly likely.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to examine (1) whether data are missing at random across various WBAs, and (2) the relationship between resident performance and the proportion of missing data.

METHODS

During 2012-2013, a total of 844 WBAs of CanMEDs Roles were completed for 9 second-year emergency medicine residents. To identify whether missing data were randomly distributed across various WBAs, the total number of missing data points was calculated for each Role. To examine whether the amount of missing data was related to resident performance, 5 faculty members rank-ordered the residents based on performance. A median rank score was calculated for each resident and was correlated with the proportion of missing data.

RESULTS

More data were missing for Health Advocate and Professional WBAs relative to other competencies (P < .001). Furthermore, resident rankings were not related to the proportion of missing data points (r = 0.29, P > .05).

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the present study illustrate that some CanMEDS Roles are less likely to be assessed than others. At the same time, the amount of missing data did not correlate with resident performance, suggesting lower-performing residents are no more likely to have missing data than their higher-performing peers. This article discusses several approaches to dealing with missing data.

Rule-In and Rule-Out of Myocardial Infarction Using Cardiac Troponin and Glycemic Biomarkers in Patients with Symptoms Suggestive of Acute Coronary Syndrome

BACKGROUND

Early rule-in/rule-out of myocardial infarction (MI) in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) is important for patient care and resource allocation. Given that dysglycemia is a strong risk factor for MI, we sought to explore and compare different combinations of cardiac troponin (cTn) cutoffs with glycemic markers for the early rule-in/rule-out of MI.

METHODS

We included ED patients (n = 1137) with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who had cTnI, high-sensitivity cTnI (hs-cTnI), hs-cTnT, glucose, and hemoglobin A_1c (Hb A_1c) measurements. We derived rule-in/rule-out algorithms using different combinations of ROC-derived and literature cutoffs for rule-in and rule-out of MI within 7 days after presentation. These algorithms were then tested for MI/cardiovascular death and ACS/cardiovascular death at 7 days. ROC curves, sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV), and CIs were determined for various biomarker combinations.

RESULTS

MI was diagnosed in 133 patients (11.7%; 95% CI, 9.8-13.8). The algorithms that included cTn and glucose produced the greatest number of patients ruled out/ruled in for MI and yielded sensitivity ≥99%, NPV ≥99.5%, specificity ≥99%, and PPV ≥80%. This diagnostic performance was maintained for MI/cardiovascular death but not for ACS/cardiovascular death. The addition of hemoglobin A_1c (Hb A_1c) (≥6.5%) to these algorithms did not change these estimates; however, 50 patients with previously unknown diabetes may have been identified if Hb A_1c was measured.

CONCLUSIONS

Algorithms incorporating glucose with cTn may lead to an earlier MI diagnosis and rule-out for MI/cardiovascular death. Addition of Hb A_1c into these algorithms allows for identification of diabetes. Future studies extending these findings are needed for ACS/cardiovascular death. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01994577.

Economic Considerations of Early Rule-In/Rule-Out Algorithms for The Diagnosis of Myocardial Infarction in The Emergency Department Using Cardiac Troponin and Glycemic Biomarkers

BACKGROUND

We have previously demonstrated the utility of a rule-in/rule-out strategy for myocardial infarction (MI) using glycemic biomarkers in combination with cardiac troponin in the emergency department (ED). Given that the cost of assessing patients with possible MI in the ED is increasing, we sought to compare the health services cost of our previously identified early rule-in/rule-out approaches for MI among patients who present to the ED with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

METHODS

We compared the cost differences between different rule-in/rule-out strategies for MI using presentation cardiac troponin I (cTnI), high-sensitivity cTnI (hs-cTnI), high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT), glucose, and/or hemoglobin A_1c (Hb A_1c) in 1137 ED patients (7-day MI n = 133) as per our previously defined algorithms and compared them with the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 0-h algorithm-cutoffs. Costs associated with each decision model were obtained from site-specific sources (length of stay) and provincial sources (Ontario Case Costing Initiative).

RESULTS

Algorithms incorporating cardiac troponin and glucose for early rule-in/rule-out were the most cost effective and clinically safest methods (i.e., ≤1 MI missed) for early decision making, with hs-cTnI and glucose yielding lower costs compared to cTnI and glucose, despite the higher price for the hs-cTnI test. The addition of Hb A_1c to the algorithms increased the cost of these algorithms but did not miss any additional patients with MI. Applying the ESC 0-h algorithm-cutoffs for hs-cTnI and hs-cTnT were the most costly.

CONCLUSIONS

Rule-in/rule-out algorithms incorporating presentation glucose with high-sensitivity cardiac troponin are the safest and most cost-effective options as compared to the ESC 0-h algorithm-cutoffs.