Biomechanical differences and variability during sustained motorized treadmill running versus outdoor overground running using wearable sensors.

This study aimed to compare running biomechanics and biomechanical variability across 3 run segments and between conditions for 5-km outdoor overground and indoor treadmill running. Seventy-one recreationally-active adults (31F, 40 M; age: 37 ± 11 years; body mass index: 22.9 ± 2.

Testing the Feasibility of a Newly Developed Lifestyle Practice Targeting Social Connections: Narrative Healing Circle Shared Medical Appointments.

Unlabelled: The aim of this pilot was to assess the feasibility and acceptability of virtual Narrative Healing Circles (NHC), a new form of Shared Medical Appointments (SMA) among mixed diagnosis population within an urban tertiary academic medical center.

Methods: Multi-method, voluntary recruitment of eligible patients, included referrals, flyers, hospital events page, and patients who participated in an ongoing 7-week integrative oncology SMA series. Two physicians (lifestyle medicine and chaplaincy specialists), both trained in narrative medicine, co-led one-hour long virtual NHC SMAs held every other week for a total of either 4 or 8 sessions.

Attachment and Sexual Functioning in Couples Seeking Fertility Treatment: The Role of Infertility-Specific Coping Strategies.

Couples facing infertility often experience sexual difficulties. Yet, little is known about the factors associated with these difficulties. We examined whether infertility-related coping strategies explain the associations between attachment insecurities (anxiety, avoidance) and sexual function and satisfaction in 97 couples seeking fertility treatment.

Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrated by Men Seeking Help: The Explanatory Roles of Psychological Distress and Affect Dysregulation.

Despite an increase in research initiatives and prevention campaigns, intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a public health problem that affects many victims worldwide. The current study aims to examine whether psychological distress symptoms (anger, depression, and anxiety) are indirectly related to the perpetration of IPV (physical assault, psychological abuse, and coercive control) through affect dysregulation (AD) in men seeking help. Online questionnaires assessing psychological distress symptoms, AD, and violent behaviors were completed by 335 adult men entering treatment for IPV.

SyllabO+: A new tool to study sublexical phenomena in spoken Quebec French.

Sublexical phonotactic regularities in language have a major impact on language development, as well as on speech processing and production throughout the entire lifespan. To understand the impact of phonotactic regularities on speech and language functions at the behavioral and neural levels, it is essential to have access to oral language corpora to study these complex phenomena in different languages. Yet, probably because of their complexity, oral language corpora remain less common than written language corpora.

Consensus Statement on Electronic Health Predictive Analytics: A Guiding Framework to Address Challenges.

Context: The recent explosion in available electronic health record (EHR) data is motivating a rapid expansion of electronic health care predictive analytic (e-HPA) applications, defined as the use of electronic algorithms that forecast clinical events in real time with the intent to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. There is an urgent need for a systematic framework to guide the development and application of e-HPA to ensure that the field develops in a scientifically sound, ethical, and efficient manner.

Objectives: Building upon earlier frameworks of model development and utilization, we identify the emerging opportunities and challenges of e-HPA, propose a framework that enables us to realize these opportunities, address these challenges, and motivate e-HPA stakeholders to both adopt and continuously refine the framework as the applications of e-HPA emerge.

Assessing Community Quality of Health Care.

Objective: To determine the agreement of measures of care in different settings-hospitals, nursing homes (NHs), and home health agencies (HHAs)-and identify communities with high-quality care in all settings.

Data Sources/study Setting: Publicly available quality measures for hospitals, NHs, and HHAs, linked to hospital service areas (HSAs).

Study Design: We constructed composite quality measures for hospitals, HHAs, and nursing homes.

Paradoxical low-flow, low-gradient aortic stenosis despite preserved left ventricular ejection fraction: new insights from weights of operatively excised aortic valves.

Aims: We reported that patients with small aortic valve area (AVA) and low flow despite preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), i.e. 'paradoxical' low flow (PLF), have worse outcomes compared with patients with normal flow (NF), although they generally have a lower mean gradient (MG).

Community factors and hospital readmission rates.

Objective: To examine the relationship between community factors and hospital readmission rates.

Data Sources/study Setting: We examined all hospitals with publicly reported 30-day readmission rates for patients discharged during July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2010, with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF), or pneumonia (PN). We linked these to publicly available county data from the Area Resource File, the Census, Nursing Home Compare, and the Neilsen PopFacts datasets.

Analysis of early accountable care organizations defines patient, structural, cost, and quality-of-care characteristics.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) have attracted interest from many policy makers and clinical leaders because of their potential to improve the quality of care and reduce costs. Federal ACO programs for Medicare beneficiaries are now up and running, but little information is available about the baseline characteristics of early entrants. In this descriptive study we present data on the structural and market characteristics of these early ACOs and compare ACOs' patient populations, costs, and quality with those of their non-ACO counterparts at baseline.

Where are we on the diffusion curve? Trends and drivers of primary care physicians' use of health information technology.

Objective: To describe trends in primary care physicians' use of health information technology (HIT) between 2009 and 2012, examine practice characteristics associated with greater HIT capacity in 2012, and explore factors such as delivery system and payment reforms that may affect adoption and functionality.

Data: We used data from the 2012 and 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Surveys of Primary Care Physicians. The data were collected in both years by postal mail between March and July among a nationally representative sample of primary care physicians in the United States.

Bladder and erectile dysfunctions in the Type 2 diabetic Goto-Kakizaki rat.

Despite the fact that urogenito-sexual complications significantly impact the quality of life of diabetic patients, a robust in vivo experimental model is lacking. Bladder and erectile function in the Type 2 diabetic Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rat and responses to standard-of-care treatments for each disorder have been assessed. GK rats (n = 25, 18-wk-old, GK/Par colony) and age-matched Wistar rats (n = 23), characterized for their metabolic parameters, were used.

Meeting meaningful use criteria and managing patient populations: a national survey of practicing physicians.

Background: Meaningful use, as defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, will require the aggregation of patient data to enable population assessment. Little is known about the proportion of physicians who are able to meet meaningful use criteria or their use of electronic health records (EHRs) to manage patient populations.

Objective: To evaluate physicians' reports of EHR adoption and ease of use and their ability to use EHRs for patient panel management.

Hospitals on the path to accountable care: highlights from a 2011 national survey of hospital readiness to participate in an accountable care organization.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are forming in communities across the country. In ACOs, health care providers take responsibility for a defined patient popu­lation, coordinate their care across settings, and are held jointly accountable for the quality and cost of care. This issue brief reports on results from a survey that assesses hospitals' readiness to participate in ACOs.

Inhibition of ectonucleotidase with ARL67156 prevents the development of calcific aortic valve disease in warfarin-treated rats.

Calcific aortic valve disease is the most common heart valve disorder. So far, there is no medical treatment for calcific aortic valve disease. The expression of ectonucleotidases, which metabolize nucleotides into phosphate products, may influence the calcification of the aortic valve.

Amyloid substance within stenotic aortic valves promotes mineralization.

Aims: Accumulation of apolipoproteins may play an important role in the pathobiology of calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD). We aimed to explore the hypothesis that apolipoprotein-derived amyloid could play a role in the development of CAVD.

Methods And Results: In 70 explanted CAVD valves and 15 control non-calcified aortic valves, we assessed the presence of amyloid by using Congo red staining.

ATP acts as a survival signal and prevents the mineralization of aortic valve.

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is a disorder related to progressive mineralization of valvular tissue that is a leading cause of heart disease. Thus far, there is no medical treatment to prevent the mineralization of aortic valves. It is generally thought that pathologic mineralization is linked to apoptosis of vascular cells.

Delivery system reform tracking: a framework for understanding change.

The health care delivery system is changing rapidly, with providers forming patient-centered medical homes and exploring the creation of accountable care organizations. Enactment of the Affordable Care Act will likely accelerate these changes. Significant delivery system reforms will simultaneously affect the structures, capabilities, incentives, and outcomes of the delivery system.

Hypoadiponectinemia is associated with valvular inflammation and faster disease progression in patients with aortic stenosis.

Objectives: Adiponectin is a protein secreted by adipocytes which has anti-inflammatory properties. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between adiponectinemia and the hemodynamic progression of aortic stenosis (AS) as well as the degree of inflammation in the valve explanted at the time of aortic valve replacement (AVR).

Methods: The plasma level of adiponectin was measured in 122 patients undergoing AVR.

Sharing resources: opportunities for smaller primary care practices to increase their capacity for patient care. Findings from the 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians.

Most Americans get their health care in small physician practices. Yet, small practice settings are often unable to provide the same range of services or partici­pate in quality improvement initiatives as large practices because they lack the staff, infor­mation technology, and office systems. One promising strategy is to share clinical sup­port services and information systems with other practices.

Increased biglycan in aortic valve stenosis leads to the overexpression of phospholipid transfer protein via Toll-like receptor 2.

Aortic stenosis (AS) is the most common valvular heart disease, and it is suspected that atherosclerotic mechanisms are involved in the development of this disorder. Therefore, the retention of lipids within the aortic valve may play a role in the pathobiology of AS. In this study, a gene expression microarray experiment was conducted on human aortic valves with and without AS.

Usefulness of prescription monitoring programs for surveillance--analysis of Schedule II opioid prescription data in Massachusetts, 1996-2006.

Purpose: Electronic prescription monitoring programs (PMPs) have been developed in many states as a public health surveillance tool. We analyze herein 11 years of Massachusetts PMP data to evaluate trends in opioid prescribing, dispensing, and usage.

Methods: Prescription records from the Massachusetts PMP for Schedule II opioids from fiscal year 1996 to 2006 were analyzed.