New issue of FMCH Journal examines evidence-based population health and patient care

Evidence-Based Approaches to Population Health and Family Practice is the theme of the new issue of Family Medicine and Community Health (FMCH), an international peer reviewed medical journal with editorial offices in China and the U.S. The Summer 2015 issue includes six original research articles, two educational research articles and two systematic reviews addressing various topics in evidence based population health and patient care.

Evidence-based approaches promote incorporating the "best available" evidence from research into practice. Increasing disease rates, limited funding, and the growing scientific basis for interventions create the need for proven strategies to improve population health and patient care methods.  This special issue of FMCH, coordinated by the Baylor College of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine, explores emerging trends in research, teaching, epidemiology, clinical practice, and interdisciplinary and international exchange of ideas.

The featured work in this issue is an original research article entitled "Rural Congestive Heart Failure Mortality Among US Elderly, 1999-2013: Identifying Counties with Promising Outcomes and Opportunities for Implementation Research." http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cscript/fmch/2015/00000003/00000002/art00005 . As stated by authors Maria C. Mejia de Grubb, Robert S. Levine, Barbara Kilbourne, Baqar A. Husaini, Tyler Skelton, and Lisa Gittner, declining US mortality trajectories for some medical conditions have been found to be related to successful research innovations, clinical implementation, and public health advances. Identifying successful locales and health systems with big-data analysis may prove a valuable tool in recognizing and disseminating effective models to broader populations.  However, further research is needed to understand the relative contribution of research innovation, medical care, and public health to rural-urban disparities and the relative success of positive deviance counties.