Role of bone marrow biopsy for staging new patients with Ewing sarcoma: A systematic review.

The incidence of bone marrow metastasis (BMM) in newly diagnosed Ewing sarcoma (ES) is variable across studies. An optimal staging strategy for detecting BMM is not defined. While bone marrow (BM) biopsy and/or aspirate (BMBA) have been the gold standard, [F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to detect BMM may decrease reliance on BMBA.

Impact of Agency Receipt of Incentives and Reminders on Engagement and Continuity of Care for Clients With Co-Occurring Disorders.

Objective: This study examined whether having co-occurring substance use and mental disorders influenced treatment engagement or continuity of care and whether offering financial incentives, client-specific electronic reminders, or a combination to treatment agencies improved treatment engagement and continuity of care among clients with co-occurring disorders.

Methods: The study used a randomized cluster design to assign agencies (N=196) providing publicly funded substance use disorder treatment in Washington State to a research arm: incentives only, reminders only, incentives and reminders, and a control condition. Data were analyzed for 76,044 outpatient, 32,797 residential, and 39,006 detoxification admissions from Washington's treatment data system.

Gender-sensitive substance abuse treatment and arrest outcomes for women.

The present study links an empirically-developed quantitative measure of gender-sensitive (GS) substance abuse treatment to arrest outcomes among 5109 substance abusing women in mixed-gender short-term residential programs in Washington State. Frailty models of survival analysis and three-level hierarchical linear models were conducted to test the beneficial effects of GS treatment on decreasing criminal justice involvement. Propensity scores were used to control for the pre-existing differences among women due to the quasi-experimental nature of the study.

Impact of record-linkage methodology on performance indicators and multivariate relationships.

Program evaluation often requires the linkage of records from independently maintained data systems (e.g., substance abuse treatment and criminal justice).

Record linkage software in the public domain: a comparison of Link Plus, The Link King, and a 'basic' deterministic algorithm.

The study objective was to compare the accuracy of a deterministic record linkage algorithm and two public domain software applications for record linkage (The Link King and Link Plus). The three algorithms were used to unduplicate an administrative database containing personal identifiers for over 500,000 clients. Subsequently, a random sample of linked records was submitted to four research staff for blinded clerical review.

Impact of substance abuse treatment on arrests among opiate users in Washington State.

Administrative data from Washington State's Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse drive this three-year prospective study of the impact of substance abuse treatment on arrests among 12,962 opiate users receiving publicly funded substance abuse services. Using survival analysis, the risk of arrest among opiate users who receive substance abuse treatment is compared to those who do not receive treatment. Propensity scores control for client characteristics associated with admission to substance abuse treatment.