Primary Care News and Research

Latest Primary Care News and Research

Patients with low back pain can benefit from immediate physiotherapy

Immediate treatment by a physiotherapist, bypassing a waiting list, can reduce problems with recurring low back pain, reveals a thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

19 Apr 2011

NIDA launches Addiction Performance Project for primary care providers

The National Institute on Drug Abuse announced today the launch of its Addiction Performance Project, an innovative continued medical education program designed to help primary care providers break down the stigma associated with addiction.

19 Apr 2011

Nathan Littauer Hospital selects ProVation Order Sets to deliver safe and high-quality care

Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information for healthcare professionals and students, announced today that Nathan Littauer Hospital has selected ProVation® Order Sets, powered by UpToDate® Decision Support, as the hospital's electronic order set solution.

18 Apr 2011

Mother’s Day can be tough when your Mum has cancer

This May, in the spirit of Mother’s Day, youth cancer charity CanTeen reaches out to the 15,000 Australians aged 12-24 years who have a parent diagnosed with cancer each year.

18 Apr 2011

Study uses simulation model to assess cost-effective eye screenings for Americans with diabetes

Eye examinations every other year are more cost-effective than currently recommended annual eye exams for people with diabetes who are at low risk of diabetic retinopathy progression.

16 Apr 2011

Roundup: Medicaid bill headed for Florida Senate floor; Texas nursing home funding vulnerable in state budget

The Texas Legislature is faced with a budget challenge that has pitted the Republican majority's desire to cut government spending against a vulnerable target: nursing homes.

16 Apr 2011

Obama's deficit plan earns raves, pans from editorial boards; more views on abortion and planned parenthood

I've proposed a balanced approach that looks at the entire budget for savings. The third step is to reduce the growth in health care spending in order to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid for future generations. We will get rid of wasteful subsidies and fraud that cost Medicare billions of dollars each year. We'll cut spending on prescription drugs by helping to get generic brands of medicine to market faster.

15 Apr 2011

Report: 10 recommendations on how to achieve ACO success

Accountable care organizations have the potential to improve health outcomes and lower costs, but success requires leadership, clear goals and a strong connection between performance and payments, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund.

15 Apr 2011

Longer looks: Cities coping with aging populations; new apps for health

Robert Lustig is a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. … The viral success of his lecture, though, has little to do with Lustig's impressive credentials and far more with the persuasive case he makes that sugar is a "toxin" or a "poison," terms he uses together 13 times through the course of the lecture, in addition to the five references to sugar as merely "evil."

15 Apr 2011

Good News Care Center launches ER Diversion Program for South Florida Hospitals

The Good News Care Center has launched their ER Diversion Program to provide relief for over populated emergency rooms in main South Florida Hospitals. The program is held initially in accordance with Homestead and Baptist Hospitals.

12 Apr 2011

Kaiser Permanente inaugurates new medical facility at South Los Angeles

More than 80,000 Kaiser Permanente members who live and work in the South Los Angeles area will now have convenient access to medical care with the official opening of the new Kaiser Permanente South Los Angeles Medical Office Building at the intersection of Manchester and Denker avenues on Monday, April 11.

12 Apr 2011

ACP's paper provides brief updates on changes to Medicaid program

A reformed Medicaid program must put coordinated primary care at the forefront of its efforts, the American College of Physicians said in a new position paper released today at Internal Medicine 2011, ACP's annual scientific meeting.

11 Apr 2011

NIDA, ASAM launch new screening resources for primary care providers

A free, nationwide service was launched today to help primary care providers seeking to identify and advise substance-abusing patients.

11 Apr 2011

'Every woman should know her breast density'

D.E.N.S.E. CA, breast cancer survivors advocating for breast density awareness, and Are You Dense, Inc., a non-profit breast cancer organization, kicked off a California-wide public awareness campaign today designed to increase awareness of the risks of dense breast tissue and its impact on the early detection of breast cancer.

8 Apr 2011

Medicare doctor payments sometimes pit specialties against each other

One of the biggest disputes in the Relative Value Scale Update Committee came in 2005, when members clashed over primary-care groups' push for increases in the payments for doctor office visits, which are among the most commonly-billed Medicare services.

8 Apr 2011

Research Roundup: The cost of medical errors; 'Unreasonable rate increases'

Health Affairs: The $17.1 Billion Problem: The Annual Cost Of Measurable Medical Errors - "The estimated total cost of measurable medical errors in the United States was $17.1 billion in 2008, which was 0.72 percent of the $2.391 trillion spent on health care," write the authors of this study that used an "an actuarial approach to measure the frequency and costs of measurable U.S. medical errors, identified through medical claims data."

8 Apr 2011

First Edition: April 8, 2011

Today's headlines include stories tracking the partisan negotiations surrounding a current-year spending bill. Currently at an impasse, the differences between the GOP and Democrats as well as the White House surrounds more than just the total dollar figure attached to spending cuts. It also involves controversial "policy riders." Meanwhile, without resolution, a government shutdown is just hours away.

8 Apr 2011

Two new studies on Veterans Affairs health care system

As recently as the 1990s, the Veterans Affairs health care system had a subpar reputation for quality, but two new studies of standard quality metrics, both led by Amal Trivedi, assistant professor of community health at Brown University and a physician at the Providence VA Medical Center, show that the system that cares for more than 5 million patients has improved markedly in the last decade.

8 Apr 2011

First trial to test shared decision making for weight-loss surgery

A video-based decision aid helped severely obese people to make more informed choices about bariatric surgery and reach more certainty about them, according to a trial involving 152 Group Health patients, e-published in Obesity in advance of print. This randomized controlled trial is the first to test shared decision making for weight-loss surgery.

8 Apr 2011

National policy needed to address heath care system for immigrants, ACP says

As the U.S. immigrant population grows it will be necessary to address the vast number of immigrants who do not have access to health insurance coverage, or who face other barriers to accessing health care, the American College of Physicians said in a new policy paper released today at Internal Medicine 2011, ACP's annual scientific meeting.

8 Apr 2011