Abstract
BACKGROUND: To examine the utilization of the Tuberculosis (TB) Centers of Excellence (COE) medical consultation service and evaluate how these services were being employed for patients in relation to multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). METHODS: Medical consults are documented in a secure database. The database was queried for MDR-TB consultations over the period 1 January 2013-31 December 2017. All were analyzed to assess provider type, center, setting, year of call, and type of patient (pediatric vs. adult). A subgroup was randomly selected for thematic analysis. RESULTS: The centers received 1560 MDR-TB consultation requests over this period. Providers requesting consults were primarily physicians (55%). The majority of requests were from public health departments (64%) and for adult patients (80%). Four major topic areas emerged: 1) initial management of MDR-TB, 2) MDRTB longitudinal treatment and complications, 3) management of persons exposed to MDR-TB, and 4) MDRTB treatment completion. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of these consultations provides insight into the type of expert advice about MDRTB that was provided. These findings highlight topics where increased medical training and education may help to improve MDR-TB-related practices.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 409-413 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 1 2020 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine
Keywords
- CDC
- Drug resistance
- Treatment efficacy