Variation in Patient Smoking Cessation Rates Among Health-Care Providers: An Observational Study.

Background: Physicians play a crucial role in providing smoking cessation counseling and medications. However, it is unknown whether individual physicians' approaches affect whether patients quit.

Research Question: This study assessed patient quit rates within a national quality-improvement learning collaborative to document variation in quit rates at the physician, practice, and health system levels.

Improving Blood Pressure Control Using Smart Technology.

Background: The authors sought to determine if wireless oscillometric home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) that integrates with smartphone technology improves blood pressure (BP) control among patients with new or existing uncontrolled hypertension (HTN).

Methods: A prospective observational cohort study monitored BP control before and after an educational intervention and introduction to HBPM. Patients in the intervention group were instructed to track their BP using a smartphone device three to seven times per week.

The CBO's Crystal Ball: How Well Did It Forecast the Effects of the Affordable Care Act?

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan agency of Congress, made official projections of the Affordable Care Act's impact on insurance coverage rates and the costs of providing subsidies to consumers purchasing health plans in the insurance marketplaces. This analysis finds that the CBO overestimated marketplace enrollment by 30 percent and marketplace costs by 28 percent, while it underestimated Medicaid enrollment by about 14 percent. Nonetheless, the CBO's projections were closer to realized experience than were those of many other prominent forecasters.

Penicillinosis in a HIV-positive individual.

Penicillium marneffei is a dimorphic fungus, which can cause fatal infection in HIV-infected patients. The aim of this article is to report a rare case of penicillinosis in an HIV-positive patient from a nonendemic area such as Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh. The patient presented with nonhealing painful ulcer on tongue, chest pain, cough, and chronic diarrhea.