Reengineering health care delivery to combat chronic disease
Chronic disease has become the great epidemic of our times, responsible for 75% of total health care costs and the majority of deaths in the U.S. Our current delivery model is poorly constructed to manage chronic disease, as evidenced by low adherence to quality indicators and poor control of treatable conditions. New technologies have emerged that can engage patients and offer additional modalities in the treatment of chronic disease. Modifying our delivery model to include team-based care in concert with patient-centered technologies offers great promise in managing the chronic disease epidemic. The American Journal of Medicine
(4/2015) Share: 
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Do text message reminders improve pediatric influenza vaccination rates?
The effectiveness of text message vaccination reminders on children with delayed influenza vaccination requires examination. A randomized controlled trial was created to determine the impact of text message reminders on influenza vaccination of urban, low-income children aged 6 months to 17 years. More children of parents who received educational plus interactive text messages were vaccinated versus those whose parents received the educational-only text message or usual care. The results indicate text message reminders with embedded educational information and options for interactivity have a small positive effect on influenza vaccination rates. American Journal of Preventive Medicine
(4/2015) Share:
Early stressors affect cardiometabolic risk
Youths' exposure to socioeconomic adversity and precocious life transitions earlier in life are associated with cardiometabolic disease risk in young adulthood. Furthermore, analyses indicated that these stressors have distinct and independent effects on cardiometabolic disease risk. These findings may contribute to improved intervention efforts to reduce disease risk. Journal of Adolescent Health
(4/2015) Share:
Vestibular deficits in children with concussion
An estimated 44,000 children are seen in U.S. emergency departments for concussions each year. Balance and vestibular ocular reflex deficits (e.g., vertigo, dizziness and imbalance) have been recognized as key components of morbidity from concussions. In this retrospective study of 5-to-18-year-olds with concussion, patients with vestibular signs took longer to return to school, be fully cleared or recover from neurocognitive deficits; they also scored more poorly on initial neurocognitive testing. The Journal of Pediatrics online
(3/6) Share:
Depression, frailty and mortality
Do older depressed men have more frailty and higher risk of mortality? Researchers from Perth, Western Australia, studied 2,565 men age 75 and older and found that current depression, but not past, was associated with increased mortality as well as frailty. There is a need for interventions intended to treat frailty and depression to try to decrease mortality in older depressed men. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
(4/2015) Share:
Trends in pelvic organ prolapse management
Limited data exist on how the patterns of care for women with pelvic organ prolapse may have changed over the last decade, and whether mesh implantation techniques have influenced the type of specific compartment repair performed. The authors used a national dataset to analyze the temporal trends in patterns of care for women with pelvic organ prolapse. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology
(4/2015) Share:
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Global CV mortality is rising as population grows, ages
Although medical care has advanced, cardiovascular disease mortality is increasing around the world as the population grows and ages, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. Some 12.3 million people died of conditions such as stroke, heart attack, rheumatic heart disease and aortic aneurysm in 1990, and 17.3 million died of such conditions in 2013, a jump of 40%. PhysiciansBriefing.com/HealthDay News
(4/2) Share:
NIH guidelines would put many young patients on statins
Researchers examined data on more than 6,300 17- to 21-year-olds and found that 2.5% of those with high LDL cholesterol levels qualified for statin therapy under the guidelines released by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a division of the NIH, translating to 483,500 Americans. Guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, focused on adults, would qualify 78,200 Americans for statins. The authors of the study, reported in JAMA Pediatrics, recommend "shared decision making around the potential benefits, harms, and patient preferences for treatment." HealthDay News
(4/6) Share:
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Government eases physicians into quality-based payments
The CMS is gradually implementing its physician value-based payment modifier, which uses quality measures as a part of reimbursement, but data from larger physician groups show few got payment increases or reductions. All Medicare physicians will be included in the payment system in 2017, but some are concerned about the quality measures that will be tracked and whether the program is worthwhile. USA Today/Kaiser Health News
(4/4) Share:
AHRQ white paper outlines best practices for primary care HIT use
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has found that health IT is underused in primary care practices to support quality improvement, so the agency has released a white paper on best practices for these providers. AHRQ suggests collaborative efforts among practices, facilitators and vendors to better use HIT, including: giving providers and staff adequate training and knowledge of the systems, redesigning workflows to accommodate HIT use, continuing to refine technology and creating a culture that encourages the use of health IT for quality improvement. Health Data Management
(4/3) Share:
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Healthy adults' need for annual physicals is questioned
Evidence raising questions about the benefits of annual physical exams for healthy adults can be traced back to the 1980s, but a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 92% of Americans believe the practice is important, and many doctors agree. Physician Mark Caruso says annual physicals foster important relationships and uncover real health problems when they can still be addressed. However, some experts advise people only see the doctor when something is amiss or they need a routine screening in order to avoid unnecessary tests and potential harms associated with false positive results. Kaiser Health News
(4/6) Share:
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Indecision and delay are the parents of failure."
-- George Canning, statesman Share:
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