The Launch of Massachusetts Community Health Worker Certification: Findings From the Massachusetts Community Health Worker Workforce Surveys.

Objectives: The launch of state certification for community health workers (CHWs) in Massachusetts in 2018 aimed to promote and champion this critical workforce. However, concerns exist about unintentional adverse effects of certification. Given this, we conducted 2 cross-sectional surveys to evaluate this certification policy.

Evaluating the impact of community health worker certification in Massachusetts: Design, methods, and anticipated results of the Massachusetts community health worker workforce survey.

Background: Professional certification of community health workers (CHWs) is a debated topic. Although intended to promote CHWs, certification may have unintended impacts given the grassroots nature of the workforce. As such, both intended effects and unintended adverse effects should be carefully evaluated.

A feasibility study of avoiding positive calcium balance and parathyroid hormone increase in patients on peritoneal dialysis.

Background: The effect of the dialysate calcium concentration (D[Ca]) on mineral and bone metabolism in patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) is overlooked. D[Ca] of 1.75 mmol/L is still prescribed to many patients on PD around the world.

Use of icodextrin solution to evaluate peritoneal transport capacity.

Peritoneal equilibration test (PET) is the gold standard for evaluating peritoneal transport, and measurement of the drain volume after 4-h dwell time with glucose 4.25% is a simple means of evaluating failure of ultrafiltration. The study objective was to verify if the measurement of the volume drained after 4 h dwell of icodextrin at 7.

Patient Navigation for Comprehensive Cancer Screening in High-Risk Patients Using a Population-Based Health Information Technology System: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Patient navigation (PN) to improve cancer screening in low-income and racial/ethnic minority populations usually focuses on navigating for single cancers in community health center settings.

Objective: We evaluated PN for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening using a population-based information technology (IT) system within a primary care network.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Randomized clinical trial conducted from April 2014 to December 2014 in 18 practices in an academic primary care network.

[Anal cytology as a screening method for early detection of anal cancer: are hydrophilic cotton smears really unsatisfactory?].

Purpose: To test the ability of analpaps performed with cotton swab smears to produce satisfactory cytologic readings as compared to traditional sampling materials.

Methods: 318 consecutive patients were examined at the Ambulatório Araújo Lima of Hospital Universitario Getúlio Vargas in the Anal Cancer Prevention Week and were sampled for the performance of analpap. 180 of these patients were randomly sorted to be sampled by either one of the following materials: cytologic brush, dacron swab or cotton swab.