Influenza is a common virus whose ability to change its genetic makeup allows for disease of pandemic proportion. This article summarizes the different strains of influenza circulating in the United States for the past century, the diagnosis and treatment of influenza, as well as the different ways to prevent disease. This information will be of value to clinicians caring for patients both in the hospital and in the community.

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Sitting at a patient's bedside in the inpatient setting is recommended as a best practice but has not been widely adopted. Previous studies suggest that a physician's seated posture may increase the patient's perception of time spent in the room but have not included hospitalists. We performed a cluster-randomized trial of seated versus standing physician posture during inpatient rounds on a hospitalist service at an academic medical center. Patients whose physician sat were significantly more likely to rate their physician highly on measures of listening carefully and explaining things in a way that was easy to understand. The average time spent in the patient's room was approximately 12 minutes and was not affected by physician posture. Sitting while interacting with patients is standard in the outpatient setting and encouraged in the inpatient setting as a best practice.1,2 Michael W. Kahn defined etiquette-based medicine as a set of easily taught behaviors that demonstrate respect for the patient; sitting at the bedside is included.1 A prominent healthcare consulting group also recommends that physicians and nurses sit at the bedside, claiming that "the patient will estimate you were in the room 3 times longer."3 Previous studies suggest patients may perceive physicians who sit at the bedside as more compassionate and as spending more time with them, and may perceive the overall interaction as more positive when the physician sits. [4][5][6] Two small studies found that patients perceived the physician as having spent more time with them if he or she sat rather than stood. 5,6 A study in the emergency department found no effect of posture on patient perception of physician communication skills, and a study of a single attending neurosurgeon found that patients reported a better understanding of their condition when the physician sat. 5,6 The effect of physician posture on hospitalist physician-patient communication has not been previously studied. Despite evidence that sitting in the inpatient setting may improve physician-patient communication, studies suggest that physicians rarely sit at the bedside of inpatients. 7,8We conducted a cluster-randomized trial of the impact of hospitalist physician posture during morning rounds. We hypothesized that patients whose physician sat rather than stood would perceive that their physician spent more time with them and would rate the physician's communication skills more highly. We also hypothesized that sitting would not prolong the length of the patient-physician encounter. PATIENTS AND METHODSWe conducted a cluster-randomized clinical trial with a crossover component randomizing physicians on the order of sit/stand within a consecutive 7-day workweek. We enrolled patients being cared for by attending hospitalists on a resident-uncovered general internal medicine service in an academic tertiary care hospital. We also enrolled the hospitalists and collected demographics and practice information. Wall-mounted folding chairs ( Figure 1) were installed in all rooms on t...

Virtual peer teaching can be part of the solution to challenges in medical education during the pandemic. We developed an online clinician teacher elective, implemented virtual peer teaching throughout our curriculum, and believe it benefits students, peer teachers, and faculty. We plan to continue virtual peer teaching beyond the pandemic.