An evidence-based practice guideline of the National Society of Genetic Counselors for telehealth genetic counseling.

There are currently no practice guidelines available for genetic counseling using telehealth modalities. This evidence-based practice guideline was developed in response to increasing use of alternative service delivery models for genetic counseling, specifically telephone and video-based genetic counseling (telehealth genetic counseling or THGC). A recent systematic evidence review (SER) compared outcomes of THGC with in-person genetic counseling and found that for the majority of studied outcomes, THGC was a non-inferior and comparable service delivery model.

The impact of the individual mandate and Internal Revenue Service Form 990 Schedule H on community benefits from nonprofit hospitals.

In response to a growing concern that nonprofit hospitals are not providing sufficient benefit to their communities in return for their tax-exempt status, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) now requires nonprofit hospitals to formally document the extent of their community contributions. While the IRS is increasing financial scrutiny of nonprofit hospitals, many provisions in the recently passed historical health reform legislation will also have a significant impact on the provision of uncompensated care and other community benefits. We argue that health reform does not render the nonprofit organizational form obsolete.

Incorporating inheritance into models for understanding ventilatory behavior.

Ventilation and its components (frequency and tidal volume) appear to be determined to a significant extent by inheritance. Gene manipulation, gene identification, and functional genomics now offer powerful tools to identify the strength and mode of inheritance for ventilatory behavior under steady-state and non-steady-state conditions, in health and in disease. Conscious integration of genetic principles into existing explanatory models may increase the likelihood of detecting traits that correlate with protein systems responsible for the structures and the functional components of respiration.

Returns on investment in public health: effect of public health expenditures on infant health, 1983-1990.

In this study, we developed a broad conceptual framework focusing on how public health expenditures impact the nation's health. We then applied this framework to infant health outcomes and, using an eight-year state panel database, empirically analyzed how state public health expenditures, ceteris paribus, impact a state's level of teenage births and the receipt of prenatal care. Two hypotheses were tested.

Ventriculoperitoneal shunt dysfunction and constipation: a chart review.

Children treated for hydrocephalus frequently experience chronic constipation. A retrospective chart review was conducted to determine if there is a population of children with ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt dysfunction in whom constipation might be a factor in the shunt dysfunction. Of 51 cases reviewed, 19 had documented constipation, such as no bowel movement for 2 or more days, small hard ball-like stools or fullness of the colon noted on physical examination or abdominal radiographs.