Primary Care News and Research

Latest Primary Care News and Research

State highlights: Jails treat huge number of mentally ill; class action bid denied in Fla. lawsuit over disabled children in nursing homes

America's lockups are its new asylums. After scores of state mental institutions were closed beginning in the 1970s, few alternatives materialized. … The country's three biggest jail systems -- Cook County, in Illinois; Los Angeles County; and New York City -- are on the front lines. With more than 11,000 prisoners under treatment on any given day, they represent by far the largest mental-health treatment facilities in the country. By comparison, the three largest state-run mental hospitals have a combined 4,000 beds.

27 Sep 2013

Michigan's Medicaid expansion could act as model for bipartisan health care reform in other states

Michigan's newly expanded Medicaid program could act as a model for other states to achieve bipartisan health care reform even in a heated national political climate, says the head of the University of Michigan's health policy institute in an article published online today by the New England Journal of Medicine.

26 Sep 2013

First Edition: September 25, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about projected health insurance premium costs on the health law's new online marketplaces, as well as news from Capitol Hill and a joint appearance by President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton to talk about the overhaul.

25 Sep 2013

Simple traffic light test helps reduce drinking rates in people with risk of liver disease

A simple 'traffic light' test that detects hidden liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in high risk populations could reduce harmful drinking rates and potentially prevent hundreds of alcohol-related deaths a year.

25 Sep 2013

Primary care services may result in less costly care for residents with advanced dementia: Study

Nursing home residents with advanced dementia commonly experience burdensome, costly interventions that do not improve their quality of life or extend their survival. Now a new study suggests that providing intensive primary care services may result in less burdensome and less costly care for these terminally ill residents.

24 Sep 2013

Combining acupuncture or counselling with usual care may benefit patients with depression

Acupuncture or counselling, provided alongside usual care, could benefit patients with depression, according to a study by researchers at the University of York.

24 Sep 2013

Mayo Clinic expands genomic research by establishing biobank at Arizona campus

Mayo Clinic has again broadened the base of its genomic research efforts by establishing a biobank at its Arizona campus, which will support studies in obesity, metabolism and diabetes, all areas of special concern in the Latino population.

24 Sep 2013

Frequency of marijuana use not linked to health services utilization or health status

Researchers from Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine have found frequency of marijuana use was not significantly associated with health services utilization or health status. These findings currently appear online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

24 Sep 2013

Study sheds light on investment levels across 12 key marketing, education and payer activities

In order for a new product to gain a foothold in today's competitive pharmaceutical market, executives must understand where and when to invest in key launch activities. At the same time, product launch leaders have to balance the goals of containing expenditures and generating a successful launch.

21 Sep 2013

Research roundup: 'Cadillac' plan taxes; 'chronic care management' for substance abusers; long-term care services

As health coverage expands to tens of millions of Americans--through Medicaid expansion in states and the new state health insurance exchanges that will soon begin selling individual health coverage--some Americans with employer-sponsored health coverage are seeing their benefits decrease.

21 Sep 2013

Regular reminders improve preventative screening for primary care patients

Regular reminders for health care providers and patients to schedule preventative health screening tests and procedures resulted in improved provider performance in ordering overdue preventative screening for primary care patients, according to research published in the September special issue "Emerging Models of Care and Payment Delivery" of the Journal for Healthcare Quality, the peer-reviewed publication of the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ), www.nahq.org.

21 Sep 2013

Specialty asthma care no benefit to adherence in underserved children

Results of a study of underserved children with asthma in the USA suggest that they may be losing out on the benefits of specialty care.

20 Sep 2013

Viewpoints: Rove warns GOP that defunding could be 'self-defeating;' Jonathan Cohn says latest Obamacare fight reveals Republicans' will to overlook gains from law

Today, independents look more like Republicans than Democrats, especially when it comes to health care. In a new Crossroads GPS health-care policy survey conducted in 10 states likely to have competitive Senate races and in House districts that lean Republican or are swing seats, 60 percent of independents oppose President Obama's Affordable Care Act. If this holds through 2014, then Republicans should receive another big boost in the midterms. There is, however, one issue on which independents disagree with Republicans: using the threat of a government shutdown to defund ObamaCare (Karl Rove, 9/18).

20 Sep 2013

GPs urged to give up independent contractor status, become NHS employees

General practitioners should give up their independent contractor status and become NHS employees. This is the most radical alternative method of primary care funding considered by Professor Azeem Majeed, Head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London, in an editorial published today in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

20 Sep 2013

Administrative data can help gauge potential liability and risk during hospitalization

Several studies have shown that hospitalized patients still have unacceptably high rates of harm and injury due in part to limited access for quality staff to obtain primary care data from electronic medical records. As a result, hospital incident reports do not capture most harm that occurs in hospitals.

20 Sep 2013

Visual clue to schizophrenia pathology

Researchers say that retinal imaging could be a useful tool for studying some of the pathologic processes associated with schizophrenia.

19 Sep 2013

UC San Diego Health System physicians recognized as "Top Docs"

More than 130 physicians from UC San Diego Health System were named "Top Docs" in the annual San Diego Magazine "Physicians of Exceptional Excellence" annual survey. These physicians represent 47 diverse specialties from internal medicine to oncology, obstetrics, cardiovascular and surgical care.

19 Sep 2013

State highlights: Miss. officials want more money for mental health, Medicaid; Okla. Gov. blocks same-sex benefits; Mass. primary care shortage

Mississippi's prison and mental health systems and Medicaid program are seeking millions of extra dollars to get through the budget year, then more money on top of that for the coming year. Agency leaders appeared Tuesday before the Joint Legislative Budget Committee to request money for fiscal year 2014, which ends June 30, and for fiscal 2015, which begins July 1 (9/17).

19 Sep 2013

Gout: An Interview with Dr. Lawrence Edwards, Chairman and CEO of GUAES

Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis that affects adults. It's a disease caused by the presence of uric acid crystals in and around the joints. It's a disease that's becoming more and more common. It probably has doubled in its prevalence worldwide over the past twenty to thirty years.

18 Sep 2013

Smokers with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) taking varenicline have significantly higher likelihood of quitting smoking than placebo

Results of a Pfizer-commissioned study published this month in Annals of Internal Medicine reveal that smokers with a past or present diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD)* taking varenicline had a significantly higher likelihood of quitting smoking (after 12 weeks and at 52 weeks) than those who were given a placebo.

18 Sep 2013

Primary Care News and Research

Latest Primary Care News and Research

State highlights: Jails treat huge number of mentally ill; class action bid denied in Fla. lawsuit over disabled children in nursing homes

Michigan's Medicaid expansion could act as model for bipartisan health care reform in other states

First Edition: September 25, 2013

Simple traffic light test helps reduce drinking rates in people with risk of liver disease

Primary care services may result in less costly care for residents with advanced dementia: Study

Combining acupuncture or counselling with usual care may benefit patients with depression

Mayo Clinic expands genomic research by establishing biobank at Arizona campus

Frequency of marijuana use not linked to health services utilization or health status

Study sheds light on investment levels across 12 key marketing, education and payer activities

Research roundup: 'Cadillac' plan taxes; 'chronic care management' for substance abusers; long-term care services

Regular reminders improve preventative screening for primary care patients

Specialty asthma care no benefit to adherence in underserved children

Viewpoints: Rove warns GOP that defunding could be 'self-defeating;' Jonathan Cohn says latest Obamacare fight reveals Republicans' will to overlook gains from law

GPs urged to give up independent contractor status, become NHS employees

Administrative data can help gauge potential liability and risk during hospitalization

Visual clue to schizophrenia pathology

UC San Diego Health System physicians recognized as "Top Docs"

State highlights: Miss. officials want more money for mental health, Medicaid; Okla. Gov. blocks same-sex benefits; Mass. primary care shortage

Gout: An Interview with Dr. Lawrence Edwards, Chairman and CEO of GUAES

Smokers with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) taking varenicline have significantly higher likelihood of quitting smoking than placebo

Event guide: 4th Extra-Hepatic Lipid-Based Nanoparticles Delivery Summit eBook

How microRNA is transforming science: From discovery to diagnostics

Advancing benzodiazepine detection

The Surgeon-Scientist Pioneering Regenerative Engineering

Primary Care News and Research

Latest Primary Care News and Research

Event guide: 4th Extra-Hepatic Lipid-Based Nanoparticles Delivery Summit eBook

How microRNA is transforming science: From discovery to diagnostics

Advancing benzodiazepine detection

The Surgeon-Scientist Pioneering Regenerative Engineering

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