The COVID-19 pandemic has proven the need for point-of-care diagnosis of respiratory diseases and microfluidic technology has risen to the occasion. Mesa Biotech (San Diego, CA) originally developed the Accula platform for the diagnosis of influenza A and B and then extended the platform to SARS-CoV-2. Mesa Biotech has experienced tremendous success, culminating in acquisition by Thermo Fisher for up to $550m USD. The Accula microfluidics platform accomplished the leap from the lab to commercial product through clever design and engineering choices. Through information obtained from interviews with key Mesa Biotech leaders and publicly-available documents, we describe the keys to Mesa's success and how they might inform other lab-on-a-chip companies.

Objectives: We explored possible correlates of cigarette smoking and their associations with levels of smoking among a sample of Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM). We also explored the syndemic associations of substance use and psychosocial problems on sexual risk behaviors. Methods: Cross-sectional data collection from 404 MSM in Shanghai, China. Results: MSM exhibit a high prevalence of smoking (66.3%). Both light and heavy smoking were associated with alcohol and drug use, depression, intimate partner violence, sexual attitudes, and gay identity (though the associations for light smokers were moderate compared to those for heavy smokers). Conclusions: Our findings indicate the presence of a health syndemic among MSM, and suggest that smoking prevention and cessation and other substance abuse interventions should be integrated into efforts preventing sexual risk behaviors among MSM.

Mass media in China play a significant role in the dissemination of HIV/AIDS knowledge to the general public. Previous studies have described how the Chinese mass media portray HIV/AIDS in general, but no study has yet to examine changes in patterns of HIV/AIDS reporting over time. This study aims to describe and examine newspaper coverage of HIV/AIDS in China from 2000 to 2010. A systematic search of the China Core Newspapers Database was conducted to identify HIV/AIDS-focused news articles; we found 3648 articles. Results show that coverage rates of HIV/AIDS in newspapers remained low, with only about three articles published per newspaper per year between 2000 and 2010. The sources focused primarily on prevention methods (23.7%), development of a cure or vaccine (21.2%), and education and awareness (17.2%). The HIV/AIDS-related topic covered in an article varied significantly depending on scope (national vs. local) of the newspaper (χ2=130.37, p<0.001) and article type (χ2=455.72, p<0.001). Totally, more articles were classified as positive than negative from 2002 to 2010. Findings indicate that the HIV/AIDS news-reporting pattern has shifted in the past decade, with more news stories disclosing information about prevention or treatment. However, coverage of HIV/AIDS remains insufficient. Enhancing collaboration between health educators and media sources can be an important strategy in disseminating HIV/AIDS knowledge.

Engineering plays a critical role in the development of medical devices, and this has been magnified since 2020 as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 swept over the globe. In response to the coronavirus disease 2019, the National Institutes of Health launched the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative to help meet the testing needs of the United States and effectively manage the pandemic. As the Engineering and Human Factors team for the RADx Tech Test Verification Core, we directly assessed more than 30 technologies that ultimately contributed to an increase of the country’s total testing capacity by 1.7 billion tests to date. In this review, we present central lessons learned from this “apples-to-apples” comparison of novel, rapidly developed diagnostic devices. Overall, the evaluation framework and lessons learned presented in this review may serve as a blueprint for engineers developing point-of-care diagnostics, leaving us better prepared to respond to the next global public health crisis rapidly and effectively.

Public health concerns regarding opioids and marijuana have implications for their medical use. This study examined use motives and perceived barriers in relation to opioid and marijuana use and interest in use among US adult cancer survivors. Self-administered surveys were distributed using social media to assess use motives and perceived barriers among participants living with cancer. Overall, 40.9% of cancer survivors reported current (past 30-day) use of opioids, 42.5% used marijuana, and 39.7% used both. The most common use motives for either/both drugs were to cope with pain and stress/anxiety (>70%). Highest-rated barriers to using either/both drugs were missing symptoms of worsening illness and not wanting to talk about their symptoms. Controlling for sociodemographics, binary logistic regression indicated that current opioid use was associated with reporting greater barriers to use (OR = 1.17, p =.011; Nagelkerke R-square =.934) and that current marijuana use was associated with reporting greater barriers to use (OR = 1.37, p =.003; Nagelkerke R-square =.921). Cancer survivors report various use motives and barriers to use regarding opioids and marijuana. While use motives and barriers for both drugs were similar, these constructs were differentially associated with use and interest in use across drugs. Understanding patients’ perceptions about opioids and marijuana is an essential component to effectively manage symptoms related to a cancer diagnosis and improve quality of life for cancer survivors.

The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program sponsors an array of innovative, collaborative research. This study uses complementary bibliometric approaches to assess the scope, influence, and interdisciplinary collaboration of publications supported by single CTSA hubs and those supported by multiple hubs. Authors identified articles acknowledging CTSA support and assessed the disciplinary scope of research areas represented in that publication portfolio, their citation influence, interdisciplinary overlap among research categories, and characteristics of publications supported by multihub collaborations. Since 2006, CTSA hubs supported 69,436 articles published in 4,927 journals and 189 research areas. The portfolio is well distributed across diverse research areas with above-average citation influence. Most supported publications involved clinical/health sciences, for example, neurology and pediatrics; life sciences, for example, neuroscience and immunology; or a combination of the two. Publications supported by multihub collaborations had distinct content emphasis, stronger citation influence, and greater interdisciplinary overlap. This study characterizes the CTSA consortium’s contributions to clinical and translational science, identifies content areas of strength, and provides evidence for the success of multihub collaborations. These methods lay the foundation for future investigation of the best policies and priorities for fostering translational science and allow hubs to understand their progress benchmarked against the larger consortium.

HIV and syphilis are pronounced among men who have sex with men (MSM) in China and often occur as co-infections, while testing remains low. Few studies examine common predictors across these outcomes. This observational venue-based sample of 546 MSM in Shanghai, China used a common set of psychosocial predictors to construct logistic models for the outcomes (HIV non-testing, syphilis non-testing, HIV sero-status, and syphilis sero-status). Fifty-seven (10.7%) participants tested positive for HIV, 126 (23.5%) for syphilis, and 33% of HIV-positive participants had a co-infection. Non-sex working MSM had consistently higher odds of HIV and syphilis non-testing (OR= 2.2, 95% CI 1.4–3.5, p < 0.001; OR = 2.4, 95, 95% CI 1.5–3.8, p < 0.001, respectively) compared to ‘money boy’ sex workers. Participants with a 0 score on HIV knowledge had 4.1 times (95% CI 1.4–12.5, p = 0.01) the odds of reporting HIV non-testing, 6.0 (95% CI 1.96–18.5, p < 0.01) times the odds of reporting non-testing for syphilis, and 8.44 times (95% CI 1.19–59.7, p = 0.03) the odds of testing positive for HIV, compared to a score of 8. The results highlighted the importance of integrating HIV/syphilis education and promoting testing for both HIV and syphilis among all sub-groups of MSM in China.

Publications are commonly used to evaluate the productivity and impact of research programs. Traditional metrics examine publication impact through slowly accumulating academic citations. “Altmetrics” are a new way to describe early publication influence in nonacademic media/community spheres (news, tweets, and blogs). Articles with significant altmetric attention make a big splash of immediate impact, whereas papers with high rates of academic citation reflect ripple effects of influence over time. Past research has found weak associations between altmetrics and academic citations. However, no previous research has focused on clinical/translational research, which aims to translate scientific discoveries to public use. Further, no previous research has assessed the relationship between altmetrics and modern citation impact factors like the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Relative Citation Ratio (RCR). It is also unclear whether publication in journals with higher journal impact factors (JIFs) may drive both public attention and academic impact. We investigated whether early altmetric indicators of splash predict citation ripples, beyond the effect of the JIF. For a portfolio of 2188 publications supported by the NIH’s Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance from 2007–2020, we collected 2020 Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS), 2020 JIFs, and 2021 RCRs. All three were significantly correlated with one another. Regression analyses revealed that AAS significantly predicts later RCR, controlling for JIF and publication year. Findings indicate that in clinical/translational science, articles that make a big splash of altmetric attention have ripple effects through increased citation influence, which is not entirely due to publication in higher impact journals. Altmetric attention may be a useful early indicator of eventual influence and potential for translational advancement.

Within a medical home, primary care providers can identify needs, provide services, and coordinate care for children with heart conditions. Using parent-reported data from the 2016-2017 National Survey of Children's Health, we examined receipt of preventive care in the last 12 months and having a medical home (care that is accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centred, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective) among US children aged 0-17 years with and without heart conditions. Using the marginal predictions approach to multivariable logistic regression, we examined associations between presence of a heart condition and receipt of preventive care and having a medical home. Among children with heart conditions, we evaluated associations between sociodemographic and health characteristics and receipt of preventive care and having a medical home. Of the 66,971 children included, 2.2% had heart conditions. Receipt of preventive care was reported for more children with heart conditions (91.0%) than without (82.7%) (adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.09, 95% confidence interval: 1.05-1.13). Less than half of children with heart conditions (48.2%) and without (49.5%) had a medical home (adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.02, 95% confidence interval: 0.91-1.14). For children with heart conditions, preventive care was slightly more common among younger children and less common among those with family incomes 200-399% of the federal poverty level. Having a medical home was less common among younger children, non-Hispanic "other"race, and those with ≥2 other health conditions. Most children with heart conditions received preventive care, but less than half had a medical home, with disparities by age, socioeconomic status, race, and concurrent health conditions. These findings highlight opportunities to improve care for children with heart conditions.

Objectives: Understanding the incidence and characteristics that influence severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine breakthrough infections (VBIs) is imperative for developing public health policies to mitigate the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We examined these factors and post-vaccination mitigation practices in individuals partially and fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. Materials and methods: Adults >18 years old were voluntarily enrolled from a single metro-based SARS-CoV-2 testing network from January to July 2021. Participants were categorized as asymptomatic or symptomatic, and as unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or fully vaccinated. All participants had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection based on standard of care (SOC) testing with nasopharyngeal swabs. Variant analysis by rRT-PCR was performed in a subset of time-matched vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. A subgroup of partially and fully vaccinated individuals with a positive SARS-CoV-2 rRT-PCR was contacted to assess disease severity and post-vaccination mitigation practices. Results: Participants (n = 1,317) voluntarily underwent testing for SARS-CoV-2 during the enrollment period. A total of 29.5% of the population received at least one SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (n = 389), 12.8% partially vaccinated (n = 169); 16.1% fully vaccinated (n = 213). A total of 21.3% of partially vaccinated individuals tested positive (n = 36) and 9.4% of fully vaccinated individuals tested positive (n = 20) for SARS-CoV-2. Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA-1273 was the predominant vaccine received (1st dose = 66.8%, 2nd dose = 67.9%). Chronic liver disease and immunosuppression were more prevalent in the vaccinated (partially/fully) group compared to the unvaccinated group (p = 0.003, p = 0.021, respectively). There were more asymptomatic individuals in the vaccinated group compared to the unvaccinated group [n = 6 (10.7%), n = 16 (4.1%), p = 0.045]. CT values were lower for the unvaccinated group (median 24.3, IQR 19.1–30.5) compared to the vaccinated group (29.4, 22.0–33.7, p = 0.004). In the vaccinated group (n = 56), 18 participants were successfully contacted, 7 were lost to follow-up, and 2 were deceased. A total of 50% (n = 9) required hospitalization due to COVID-19 illness. Adherence to nationally endorsed mitigation strategies varied post-vaccination. Conclusion: The incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection at this center was 21.3% in the partially vaccinated group and 9.4% in the fully vaccinated group. Chronic liver disease and immunosuppression were more prevalent in the vaccinated SARS-CoV-2 positive group, suggesting that these may be risk factors for VBIs. Partially and fully vaccinated individuals had a higher incidence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 and higher CT values compared to unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals.