Hoarding disorder (HD) is characterised by excessive acquisition and distress associated with discarding objects, resulting in significant clutter. At present, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) represents the strongest evidence base for treating HD, although some limitations exist. Little research has examined the effectiveness of remote-CBT interventions for HD in older adults. This case study focuses on Mary, an older female adult presenting with clinically significant hoarding behaviours which severely impact her daily functioning and quality of life. Assessment and intervention followed a structured CBT approach. Despite the complicating factor of COVID-19, Mary responded well to a remote-CBT intervention, with progress indicators suggesting modest improvements in personal, social and occupational functioning. These findings support the use of remote-CBT for HD in both reducing frequency and intensity of hoarding behaviours and improving wellbeing.

Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) TL1 trainees and KL2 scholars were surveyed to determine the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on training and career development. The most negative impact was lack of access to research facilities, clinics, and human subjects, plus for KL2 scholars lack of access to team members and need for homeschooling. TL1 trainees reported having more time to think and write. Common strategies to maintain research productivity involved time management, virtual connections with colleagues, and shifting to research activities not requiring laboratory/clinic settings. Strategies for mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on training and career development are described.

Choosing an intervention for a patient experiencing distressing symptoms and/or suffering with a mental disorder is part of routine practice for clinicians. While there are now many effective pharmacological and psychological therapies for mental health problems, syndromes and persistent physical symptoms (e.g. chronic pain), choosing the ‘right’ therapy can sometimes be a challenge. This can certainly be the case when it comes to psychological therapies. There are many different approaches to choose from and many have not been subjected to rigorous study.

In this article, we aim to help inform and guide the busy clinician in choosing a psychological therapy for their patient. We give a brief overview of the major psychotherapy modalities and consider which guidelines to refer to and which psychological therapies have been found to be most effective for the presenting problem(s) seen in clinic. Lastly, we discuss the limitations of the current guidelines in relation to comorbid presentations and consider how this can be best addressed.

The Florida Children’s Medical Services (CMS) has a long-standing history of ensuring that providers of multiple paediatric subspecialties abide by the highest standards. The cardiac sub-committee has written quality standard documents that participating programmes must meet or exceed. These standards oversee paediatric cardiology services including surgery, catheterisations, and outpatient services. On April, 2012, the cardiac sub-committee decided to develop similar standards in paediatric electrophysiology. A task force was created and began this process. These standards include a catalogue of required and optional equipment, as well as staff and physician credentials. We sought to establish expectations of procedural numbers by practitioner and facility. The task force surveyed the members of the Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society. Finding no consensus, the task force is committed to generate the data by requiring that the CMS participating programmes enrol and submit data to the Multicenter Pediatric and Adult Congenital EP Quality (MAP-IT™) Initiative. This manuscript details the work of the Florida CMS Paediatric Electrophysiology Task Force.

This study determined whether surrogate organisms can predict activity against Clostridium difficile spores and compared the efficacy of hand hygiene preparations against C. difficile. Our data suggest that surrogate organisms were not predictive of C. difficile spore removal. Four preparations were significantly more effective than tap water at removing C. difficile.

Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) provide a simple technique for measuring subjective experience. They have been established as valid and reliable in a range of clinical and research applications, although there is also evidence of increased error and decreased sensitivity when used some subject groups. Decisions concerned with the choice of scoring interval, experimental design, and statistical analysis for VAS have in some instances been based on convention, assumption and convenience, highlighting the need for more comprehensive assessment of individual scales if this versatile and sensitive measurement technique is to be used to full advantage.

A 50-year-old married woman who had had a radical mastectomy was on the threshold of ceasing to take adjuvant chemotherapy because of a longstanding needle and blood phobia and a recently acquired conditioned nausea response to hospital and medical situations. A cognitive-behavioural therapy programme incorporating relaxation training, imaginal systematic densitization and video modelling, allowed her to complete the chemotherapy course and to feel less anxious in hospital and medical settings.