Sean M Bloos

All Publications

• Maximizing Equity in Acute Coronary Syndrome Screening across Sociodemographic Characteristics of Patients. Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) Bunney, G., Bloos, S. M., Graber-Naidich, A., Pasao, M. A., Kabeer, R., Kim, D., Miller, K., Yiadom, M. Y. 2023; 13 (12)

  Abstract

  We compared four methods to screen emergency department (ED) patients for an early electrocardiogram (ECG) to diagnose ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in a 5-year retrospective cohort through observed practice, objective application of screening protocol criteria, a predictive model, and a model augmenting human practice. We measured screening performance by sensitivity, missed acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and STEMI, and the number of ECGs required. Our cohort of 279,132 ED visits included 1397 patients who had a diagnosis of ACS. We found that screening by observed practice augmented with the model delivered the highest sensitivity for detecting ACS (92.9%, 95%CI: 91.4-94.2%) and showed little variation across sex, race, ethnicity, language, and age, demonstrating equity. Although it missed a few cases of ACS (7.6%) and STEMI (4.4%), it did require ECGs on an additional 11.1% of patients compared to current practice. Screening by protocol performed the worst, underdiagnosing young, Black, Native American, Alaskan or Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic patients. Thus, adding a predictive model to augment human practice improved the detection of ACS and STEMI and did so most equitably across the groups. Hence, combining human and model screening--rather than relying on either alone--may maximize ACS screening performance and equity.

  View details for DOI 10.3390/diagnostics13122053

  View details for PubMedID 37370948

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10297640

• Variation in ACS patient hospital resource utilization: Is it time for advanced NSTEMI risk stratification in the ED? The American journal of emergency medicine Saxena, M., Bloos, S. M., Graber-Naidich, A., Sundaram, V., Pasao, M., Yiadom, M. Y. 2023; 70: 171-174

  Abstract

  A majority of patients who experience acute coronary syndrome (ACS) initially receive care in the emergency department (ED). Guidelines for care of patients experiencing ACS, specifically ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) are well defined. We examine the utilization of hospital resources between patients with NSTEMI as compared to STEMI and unstable angina (UA). We then make the case that as NSTEMI patients are the majority of ACS cases, there is a great opportunity to risk stratify these patients in the emergency department.We examined hospital resource utilization measure between those with STEMI, NSTEMI, and UA. These included hospital length of stay (LOS), any intensive care unit (ICU) care time, and in-hospital mortality.The sample included 284,945 adult ED patients, of whom 1195 experienced ACS. Among the latter, 978 (70%) were diagnosed with NSTEMI, 225 (16%) with STEMI, and 194 with UA (14%). We observed 79.1% of STEMI patients receiving ICU care. 14.4% among NSTEMI patients, and 9.3% among UA patients. NSTEMI patients' mean hospital LOS was 3.7 days. This was shorter than that of non-ACS patients 4.75 days and UA patients 2.99. In-hospital mortality for NSTEMI was 1.6%, compared to, 4.4% for those with STEMI patients and 0% for UA. There are recommendations for risk stratification among NSTEMI patients to evaluate risk for major adverse cardiac events (MACE) that can be used in the ED to guide admission decisions and use of ICU care, thus optimizing care for a majority of ACS patients.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ajem.2023.05.028

  View details for PubMedID 37327683

• Clinical characteristics, outcomes, and seasonality of acute respiratory infection associated with single and codetected rhinovirus species among hospitalized children in Amman, Jordan JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY Talj, R., Amarin, J. Z., Rankin, D. A., Bloos, S. M., Shawareb, Y., Rahman, H., Haddadin, Z., Howard, L. M., Probst, V., Naffa, R. G., Johnson, M., Lane, S., Kinzler, A. J., Spieker, A. J., Faouri, S., Shehabi, A., Chappell, J., Khuri-Bulos, N., Williams, J., Halasa, N. 2022; 94 (12): 5904-5915

  Abstract

  Rhinovirus (RV)-specific surveillance studies in the Middle East are limited. Therefore, we aimed to study the clinical characteristics, outcomes, and seasonality of RV-associated acute respiratory infection among hospitalized young children in Jordan. We conducted a prospective viral surveillance study and enrolled children <2 years old admitted to a large public hospital in Amman, Jordan (2010-2013). Demographic and clinical data were collected by structured interviews and chart abstractions. Nasal and/or throat swabs were collected and tested for a panel of respiratory viruses, and RV genotyping and speciation was performed. At least one virus was detected in 2641/3168 children (83.4%). RV was the second most common virus detected (n = 1238; 46.9%) and was codetected with another respiratory virus in 730 cases (59.0%). Children with RV codetection were more likely than those with RV-only detection to have respiratory distress but had similar outcomes. RV-A accounted for about half of RV-positive cases (54.7%), while children with RV-C had a higher frequency of wheezing and reactive airway disease. RV was detected year-round and peaked during winter. In conclusion, though children with RV codetection had worse clinical findings, neither codetection nor species affected most clinical outcomes.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/jmv.28042

  View details for Web of Science ID 000837724700001

  View details for PubMedID 35918790

• Clinical presentations of adult and pediatric SARS-CoV-2-positive cases in a community cohort, Nashville, Tennessee JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY Rankin, D. A., Yanis, A., Talj, R., Howe, H. L., Bloos, S. M., Fernandez, K. N., Amarin, J. Z., Bruce, M., Salib, S., Hargrave, S., Chappell, J. D., Spieker, A. J., Halasa, N. B., Howard, L. M. 2022; 94 (11): 5560-5566

  Abstract

  Compared to adults, the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) illness in children has been lower and less severe. However, reports comparing SARS-CoV-2 infection among children and adults are limited. As part of our longitudinal cohort study of adults and children with SARS-CoV-2 infection and their household contacts in Nashville, Tennessee, we compared the clinical characteristics and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infections between children and adults. Children were more likely to be asymptomatically infected and had a shorter illness duration compared to adults. The differences observed in clinical presentation across ages may inform symptom-specific testing, screening, and management algorithms.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/jmv.27988

  View details for Web of Science ID 000827938800001

  View details for PubMedID 35815457

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC9350274

• The impact of community closures among nonessential and essential workers, Nashville, Tennessee: A cross-sectional study HEALTH SCIENCE REPORTS Rankin, D. A., Yanis, A., Haddadin, Z., Talj, R., Fernandez, K. N., Bloos, S. M., Stahl, A., Gu, W., Nicotera, J., Howe, H. L., Salib, S., Chappell, J., Howard, L. M., Khankari, N. K., Halasa, N. B. 2022; 5 (3): e658

  Abstract

  The effects of community closures and relaxing social distancing restrictions on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) by occupational risk remain unclear. Therefore, we evaluated the impact of community closures and reopening phases with the prevalence of testing SARS-CoV-2-positive among nonessential and essential workers.We constructed a cross-sectional cohort from March 20 to July 31, 2020, of 344 adults from Metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee. We performed an unconditional logistic regression model to evaluate the impact of community closures and phase implementation on testing SARS-CoV-2 positive by occupation to estimate adjusted prevalence odds ratios (aPORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).During a stay-at-home/Phase I order, those with non-essential occupations had 59% decreased prevalence odds (aPOR:0.41; 95% CI: 0.20-0.84) of testing SARS-CoV-2-positive compared to when no restrictions were in place. Persons with essential occupations had four times the prevalence odds of testing SARS-CoV-2-positive (aPOR:4.19; 95% CI:1.57-11.18) compared with nonessential occupations when no community restrictions were established.Stay-at-home restrictions were associated with a lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the community for nonessential workers. Essential employees remained at increased risk for SARS-CoV-2, including when no community restrictions were in place and vaccines were not available. This study supports targeting prevention measures for these high-risk occupations.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/hsr2.658

  View details for Web of Science ID 000799247600001

  View details for PubMedID 35620536

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC9128158

• Establishing a High Throughput Epidermal Spheroid Culture System to Model Keratinocyte Stem Cell Plasticity JOVE-JOURNAL OF VISUALIZED EXPERIMENTS Woappi, Y., Ezeka, G., Vercellino, J., Bloos, S. M., Creek, K. E., Pirisi, L. 2021

  Abstract

  Epithelial dysregulation is a node for a variety of human conditions and ailments, including chronic wounding, inflammation, and over 80% of all human cancers. As a lining tissue, the skin epithelium is often subject to injury and has evolutionarily adapted by acquiring the cellular plasticity necessary to repair damaged tissue. Over the years, several efforts have been made to study epithelial plasticity using in vitro and ex vivo cell-based models. However, these efforts have been limited in their capacity to recapitulate the various phases of epithelial cell plasticity. We describe here a protocol for generating 3D epidermal spheroids and epidermal spheroid-derived cells from primary neonatal human keratinocytes. This protocol outlines the capacity of epidermal spheroid cultures to functionally model distinct stages of keratinocyte generative plasticity and demonstrates that epidermal spheroid re-plating can enrich heterogenous normal human keratinocytes (NHKc) cultures for integrinα6hi/EGFRlo keratinocyte subpopulations with enhanced stem-like characteristics. Our report describes the development and maintenance of a high throughput system for the study of skin keratinocyte plasticity and epidermal regeneration.

  View details for DOI 10.3791/62182

  View details for Web of Science ID 000646171700054

  View details for PubMedID 33586700

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8693483

• Comparing the Timeliness of Treatment in Younger vs. Older Patients with ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction: A Multi-Center Cohort Study. The Journal of emergency medicine Bloos, S. M., Kaur, K. n., Lang, K. n., Gavin, N. n., Mills, A. M., Baugh, C. W., Patterson, B. W., Podolsky, S. R., Salazar, G. n., Mumma, B. E., Tanski, M. n., Hadley, K. n., Roumie, C. n., McNaughton, C. D., Yiadom, M. Y. 2021

  Abstract

  ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) predominantly affects older adults. Lower incidence among younger patients may challenge diagnosis.We hypothesize that among patients ≤ 50 years old, emergent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for STEMI is delayed when compared with patients aged > 50 years.This 3-year, 10-center retrospective cohort study included emergency department (ED) STEMI patients ≥ 18 years of age treated with emergent PCI. We excluded patients with an electrocardiogram (ECG) completed prior to ED arrival or a nondiagnostic initial ECG. Our primary outcome was door-to-balloon (D2B) time. We compared characteristics and outcomes among younger vs. older STEMI patients, and among age subgroups.There were 576 ED STEMI PCI patients, of whom 100 were ≤ 50 years old and 476 were > 50 years old. Median age was 44 years in the younger cohort (interquartile range [IQR] 41-47) vs. 62 years (IQR 57-70) among older patients. Median D2B time for the younger cohort was 76.5 min (IQR 67.5-102.5) vs. 81.0 min (IQR 65.0-105.5) in the older cohort (p = 0.91). This outcome did not change when ages 40 or 45 years were used to demarcate younger vs. older. The younger cohort had a higher prevalence of nonwhite races (38% vs. 21%; p < 0.001) and those currently smoking (36% vs. 23%; p = 0.005). The very young (≤30 years; 6/576) and very old (>80 years; 45/576) had 5.51 and 2.2 greater odds of delays.We found no statistically significant difference in D2B times between patients ≤ 50 years old and those > 50 years old. Nonwhite patients and those who smoke were disproportionately represented within the younger population. The very young and very old had higher odds of D2B times > 90 min.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jemermed.2021.01.031

  View details for PubMedID 33676790

• Understanding the Information Needs and Context of Trauma Handoffs to Design Automated Sensing Clinical Documentation Technologies: Qualitative Mixed-Method Study of Military and Civilian Cases JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH Novak, L., Simpson, C. L., Coco, J., McNaughton, C. D., Ehrenfeld, J. M., Bloos, S. M., Fabbri, D. 2020; 22 (9): e17978

  Abstract

  Current methods of communication between the point of injury and receiving medical facilities rely on verbal communication, supported by brief notes and the memory of the field medic. This communication can be made more complete and reliable with technologies that automatically document the actions of field medics. However, designing state-of-the-art technology for military field personnel and civilian first responders is challenging due to the barriers researchers face in accessing the environment and understanding situated actions and cognitive models employed in the field.To identify design insights for an automated sensing clinical documentation (ASCD) system, we sought to understand what information is transferred in trauma cases between prehospital and hospital personnel, and what contextual factors influence the collection, management, and handover of information in trauma cases, in both military and civilian cases.Using a multi-method approach including video review and focus groups, we developed an understanding of the information needs of trauma handoffs and the context of field documentation to inform the design of an automated sensing documentation system that uses wearables, cameras, and environmental sensors to passively infer clinical activity and automatically produce documentation.Comparing military and civilian trauma documentation and handoff, we found similarities in the types of data collected and the prioritization of information. We found that military environments involved many more contextual factors that have implications for design, such as the physical environment (eg, heat, lack of lighting, lack of power) and the potential for active combat and triage, creating additional complexity.An ineffectiveness of communication is evident in both the civilian and military worlds. We used multiple methods of inquiry to study the information needs of trauma care and handoff, and the context of medical work in the field. Our findings informed the design and evaluation of an automated documentation tool. The data illustrated the need for more accurate recordkeeping, specifically temporal aspects, during transportation, and characterized the environment in which field testing of the developed tool will take place. The employment of a systems perspective in this project produced design insights that our team would not have identified otherwise. These insights created exciting and interesting challenges for the technical team to resolve.

  View details for DOI 10.2196/17978

  View details for Web of Science ID 000599327200005

  View details for PubMedID 32975522

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7547393

• TGF beta promotes breast cancer stem cell self-renewal through an ILEI/LIFR signaling axis ONCOGENE Woosley, A. N., Dalton, A. C., Hussey, G. S., Howley, B. V., Mohanty, B. K., Grelet, S., Dincman, T., Bloos, S., Olsen, S. K., Howe, P. H. 2019; 38 (20): 3794-3811

  Abstract

  FAM3C/Interleukin-like EMT Inducer (ILEI) is an oncogenic member of the FAM3 cytokine family and serves essential roles in both epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and breast cancer metastasis. ILEI expression levels are regulated through a non-canonical TGFβ signaling pathway by 3'-UTR-mediated translational silencing at the mRNA level by hnRNP E1. TGFβ stimulation or silencing of hnRNP E1 increases ILEI translation and induces an EMT program that correlates with enhanced invasion and migration. Recently, EMT has been linked to the formation of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) that confer both tumor cell heterogeneity as well as chemoresistant properties. Herein, we demonstrate that hnRNP E1 knockdown significantly shifts normal mammary epithelial cells to mesenchymal BCSCs in vitro and in vivo. We further validate that modulating ILEI protein levels results in the abrogation of these phenotypes, promoting further investigation into the unknown mechanism of ILEI signaling that drives tumor progression. We identify LIFR as the receptor for ILEI, which mediates signaling through STAT3 to drive both EMT and BCSC formation. Reduction of either ILEI or LIFR protein levels results in reduced tumor growth, fewer tumor initiating cells and reduced metastasis within the hnRNP E1 knock-down cell populations in vivo. These results reveal a novel ligand-receptor complex that drives the formation of BCSCs and represents a unique target for the development of metastatic breast cancer therapies.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41388-019-0703-z

  View details for Web of Science ID 000468035600003

  View details for PubMedID 30692635

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC6525020

• Feasibility Assessment of a Pre-Hospital Automated Sensing Clinical Documentation System. AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium Bloos, S. M., McNaughton, C. D., Coco, J. R., Novak, L. L., Adams, J. A., Bodenheimer, R. E., Ehrenfeld, J. M., Heard, J. R., Paris, R. A., Simpson, C. L., Scully, D. M., Fabbri, D. 2019; 2019: 248-257

  Abstract

  Clinical documentation in the pre-hospital setting is challenged by limited resources and fast-paced, high-acuity. Military and civilian medics are responsible for performing procedures and treatments to stabilize the patient, while transporting the injured to a trauma facility. Upon arrival, medics typically give a verbal report from memory or informal source of documentation such as a glove or piece of tape. The development of an automated documentation system would increase the accuracy and amount of information that is relayed to the receiving physicians. This paper discusses the 12-week deployment of an Automated Sensing Clinical Documentation (ASCD) system among the Nashville Fire Department EMS paramedics. The paper examines the data collection methods, operational challenges, and perceptions surrounding real-life deployment of the system. Our preliminary results suggest that the ASCD system is feasible for use in the pre-hospital setting, and it revealed several barriers and their solutions.

  View details for PubMedID 32308817

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7153144