Publications by authors named "Katharine A Ball Ricks"
Background: Food insecurity is associated with worse glycemic management for individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but whether medically tailored meals (MTM), a food insecurity intervention, can improve glycemic management is unclear.
Objective: To describe the protocol for a trial assessing whether an MTM plus lifestyle intervention improves hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and participant-reported outcomes, relative to a food subsidy (money that can be spent on foods participants choose), for adults with both T2DM and food insecurity.
Methods: The Food as Medicine for Diabetes (FAME-D) randomized clinical trial (goal n = 200) is a pragmatic trial with an active comparator.
Background: Extensive literature support telehealth as a supplement or adjunct to in-person care for the management of chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure (CHF) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Evidence is needed to support the use of telehealth as an equivalent and equitable replacement for in-person care and to assess potential adverse effects.
Objective: We conducted a systematic review to address the following question: among adults, what is the effect of synchronous telehealth (real-time response among individuals via phone or phone and video) compared with in-person care (or compared with phone, if synchronous video care) for chronic management of CHF, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and T2DM on key disease-specific clinical outcomes and health care use?
Methods: We followed systematic review methodologies and searched two databases (MEDLINE and Embase).
Background: Healthcare organisations and teams perform improvement activities to facilitate high-quality healthcare. The use of an improvement coach who provides support and guidance to the healthcare team may facilitate improvement activities; however, no systematic review exists on the facilitators and barriers to implementing an improvement coach.
Aims: We conducted a qualitative evidence synthesis to examine the facilitators and barriers to the implementation of improvement coaching.
Background: A culture of improvement is an important feature of high-quality health care systems. However, health care teams often need support to translate quality improvement (QI) activities into practice. One method of support is consultation from a QI coach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Determine the cost of implementing a call center-based cancer screening navigator program.
Methods: Social service call centers in Houston and Weslaco, TX, assessed cancer risks and implemented cancer screening promotion and navigation. Micro costing was used to estimate the program costs.