On the Use of Summary Comorbidity Measures for Prognosis and Survival Treatment Effect Estimation.

Prognostic scores have been proposed as outcome based confounder adjustment scores akin to propensity scores. However, prognostic scores have not been widely used in the substantive literature. Instead, comorbidity scores, which are limited versions of prognostic scores, have been used extensively by clinical and health services researchers.

Current and future directions in culture and happiness research.

Once believed to be universal, a growing body of research shows that both the conception and predictors of happiness vary cross-culturally. First, the meaning and importance of happiness varies both across time and between nations. Americans, for instance, tend to define happiness in terms of pleasure or enjoyment and view happiness as universally positive, whereas East Asian and Middle Eastern cultures may highlight the transient and socially disruptive nature of happiness and be ambivalent about whether it is good.

Counterfactuals, control, and causation: why knowledgeable people get blamed more.

Legal and prescriptive theories of blame generally propose that judgments about an actor's mental state (e.g., her knowledge or intent) should remain separate from judgments about whether the actor caused an outcome.

Training Addiction Counselors to Implement an Evidence-Based Intervention: Strategies for Increasing Organizational and Provider Acceptance.

One barrier to widespread public access to empirically supported treatments (ESTs) is the limited availability and high cost of professionals trained to deliver them. Our earlier work from two clinical trials demonstrated that front-line addiction counselors could be trained to deliver a manualized, group-based cognitive behavioral therapy (GCBT) for depression, a prototypic example of an EST, with a high level of adherence and competence. This follow-up article provides specific recommendations for the selection and initial training of counselors, and for the structure and process of their ongoing clinical supervision.

Development of a continuous renal replacement program in critically ill patients.

Background: Critically ill patients encounter many obstacles, such as acute renal failure, that increases length of stay as well as hospital cost. Dialysis in these patients is often ineffective thereby prolonging the inevitable and significantly increasing the cost of care. A dialysis program that could improve patient care, potentially improve outcome and be "revenue neutral" would be ideal.