Healthy and Unhealthy Food Prices across Neighborhoods and Their Association with Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Proportion Black/Hispanic.

This paper evaluates variation in food prices within and between neighborhoods to improve our understanding of access to healthy foods in urbanized areas and potential economic incentives and barriers to consuming a higher-quality diet. Prices of a selection of healthier foods (dairy, fruit juice, and frozen vegetables) and unhealthy foods (soda, sweets, and salty snacks) were obtained from 1953 supermarkets across the USA during 2009-2012 and were linked to census block group socio-demographics. Analyses evaluated associations between neighborhood SES and proportion Black/Hispanic and the prices of healthier and unhealthy foods, and the relative price of healthier foods compared with unhealthy foods (healthy-to-unhealthy price ratio).

Institutional Substance Use Disorder Intervention Improves General Internist Preparedness, Attitudes, and Clinical Practice.

Objective: To assess the impact of hospital substance use disorder (SUD) initiative, which, beginning in October 2014, implemented an inpatient addiction consult team, a postdischarge addiction clinic, recovery coaches, and SUD treatment within primary care on general internists' attitudes, clinical practice, and preparedness to care for SUD.

Methods: Pre and postintervention survey of general internal medicine physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts, in September 2014 (n = 290) and 2015 (n = 296) was conducted.

Results: There were 149 respondents for the pre and 143 respondents for the post survey.

Public Awareness of and Contact With Physicians Who Receive Industry Payments: A National Survey.

Background: The Physician Payments Sunshine Act, part of the Affordable Care Act, requires pharmaceutical and medical device firms to report payments they make to physicians and, through its Open Payments program, makes this information publicly available.

Objective: To establish estimates of the exposure of the American patient population to physicians who accept industry payments, to compare these population-based estimates to physician-based estimates of industry contact, and to investigate Americans' awareness of industry payments.

Design: Cross-sectional survey conducted in late September and early October 2014, with data linkage of respondents' physicians to Open Payments data.

Trust, vulnerable populations, and genetic data sharing.

Recent policies and proposed regulations, including the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the Common Rule and the 2014 NIH Genetic Data Sharing Policy, seek to improve research subject protections. Protections for subjects whose genetic data is shared are critical to reduce risks such as loss of confidentiality, stigma, and discrimination. In the article 'It depends whose data are being shared: considerations for genomic data sharing policies', Robinson et al.

Attitudes, practices, and preparedness to care for patients with substance use disorder: Results from a survey of general internists.

Background: Previous research demonstrates that most primary care physicians feel unprepared to diagnose and treat substance use disorder (SUD). Confidence in SUD management has been associated with improved clinical practices.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 290 inpatient and outpatient general internists in an academic medical center evaluating attitudes, preparedness, and clinical practice related to SUD.

The Changing Nature of Scientific Sharing and Withholding in Academic Life Sciences Research: Trends From National Surveys in 2000 and 2013.

Purpose: Since 2000, federal funders and many journals have established policies requiring more open sharing of data and materials post-publication, primarily through online supplements and third-party repositories. This study examined changes in sharing and withholding practices among academic life scientists, particularly geneticists, between 2000 and 2013.

Method: In 2000 and 2013, the authors surveyed separate samples of 3,000 academic life scientists at the 100 U.

The growth and gaps of genetic data sharing policies in the United States.

The 1996 Bermuda Principles launched a new era in data sharing, reflecting a growing belief that the rapid public dissemination of research data was crucial to scientific progress in genetics. A historical review of data sharing policies in the field of genetics and genomics reflects changing scientific norms and evolving views of genomic data, particularly related to human subjects' protections and privacy concerns. The 2013 NIH Draft Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) Policy incorporates the most significant protections and guidelines to date.

Act II of the Sunshine Act.

To coincide with the introduction in the United States of the Sunshine Act, Genevieve Pham-Kanter discusses what we need to look for to fight hidden bias and deliberate or unconscious corruption. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.

Codifying collegiality: recent developments in data sharing policy in the life sciences.

Over the last decade, there have been significant changes in data sharing policies and in the data sharing environment faced by life science researchers. Using data from a 2013 survey of over 1600 life science researchers, we analyze the effects of sharing policies of funding agencies and journals. We also examine the effects of new sharing infrastructure and tools (i.

Medicine Resident Preparedness to Diagnose and Treat Substance Use Disorders: Impact of an Enhanced Curriculum.

Background: The authors' previous study found that despite caring for many patients with addiction, most Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) internal medicine residents feel unprepared to treat substance use disorders (SUDs) and rate SUD instruction during training as fair or poor. This follow-up study evaluates the impact of an enhanced curriculum on resident perceptions of the quality of instruction, knowledge base, and self-perceived preparedness to diagnose and treat SUDs.

Methods: Based on the findings of the earlier study, an enhanced SUD curriculum was designed and delivered to MGH medicine residents.

Revisiting financial conflicts of interest in FDA advisory committees.

Context: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Safety and Innovation Act has recently relaxed conflict-of-interest rules for FDA advisory committee members, but concerns remain about the influence of members' financial relationships on the FDA's drug approval process. Using a large newly available data set, this study carefully examined the relationship between the financial interests of FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) advisory committee members and whether members voted in a way favorable to these interests.

Methods: The study used a data set of voting behavior and reported financial interests of 1,379 FDA advisory committee members who voted in CDER committee meetings that were convened during the 15-year period of 1997-2011.

Internal medicine residents' training in substance use disorders: a survey of the quality of instruction and residents' self-perceived preparedness to diagnose and treat addiction.

Background: Resident physicians are the direct care providers for many patients with addiction. This study assesses residents' self-perceived preparedness to diagnose and treat addiction, measures residents' perceptions of the quality of addictions instruction, and evaluates basic knowledge of addictions.

Methods: A survey was e-mailed to 184 internal medicine residents at Massachusetts General Hospital in May 2012.

Brightening up: the effect of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act on existing regulation of pharmaceutical marketing.

With the passage of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act as part of the federal health care reform law, pharmaceutical manufacturers are now required to disclose a wide range of payments made by manufacturers to physicians. We review current state regulation of pharmaceutical marketing and consider how the federal sunshine provision will affect existing marketing regulation. We analyze the legal and practical implications of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act.

Do sons reduce parental mortality?

Background: Although sons are thought to impose greater physiological costs on mothers than daughters, sons may be advantageous for parental survival in some social contexts. The authors examined the relationship between the sex composition of offspring and parental survival in contemporary China and Taiwan. Because of the importance of sons for the provision of support to elderly parents in these populations, the authors hypothesised that sons would have a beneficial effect on parental survival relative to daughters.

Social comparisons and health: can having richer friends and neighbors make you sick?

Do richer friends and neighbors improve your health through positive material effects, or do they make you feel worse through the negative effect of social comparison and relative deprivation? Using the newly available National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) data set that reports individuals' income positions within their self-defined social networks, this paper examines whether there is an association between relative position and health in the US. Because this study uses measures of individuals' positions within their self-defined social groups rather than researcher-imputed measures of relative position, I am able to more precisely examine linkages between individual relative position and health. I find a relationship between relative position and health status, and find indirect support for the biological mechanism underlying the relative deprivation model: lower relative position tends to be associated with those health conditions thought to be linked to physiological stress.

Measures of chronic conditions and diseases associated with aging in the national social life, health, and aging project.

Objectives: This paper presents a description of the methods used in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project to detect the presence of chronic conditions and diseases associated with aging. It also discusses the validity and distribution of these measures.

Methods: Markers associated with common chronic diseases and conditions of aging were collected from 3,005 community-dwelling older adults living in the United States, aged 57-85 years, during 2006.