Trends and Costs of US Telehealth Use Among Patients With Cardiovascular Disease Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic affected outpatient care delivery and patients' access to health care. However, no prior studies have documented telehealth use among patients with cardiovascular disease. Methods and Results We documented the number of telehealth and in-person outpatient encounters per 100 patients with cardiovascular disease and the percentage of telehealth encounters from January 2019 to June 2021, and the average payments per telehealth and in-person encounters across a 12-month period (July 2020-June 2021) using the MarketScan commercial database.

Appraising the evidence for public health policy components using the quality and impact of component evidence assessment.

An essential strategy expected to reduce the global burden of chronic and cardiovascular disease is evidence-based policy. However, it is often unknown what specific components should constitute an evidence-based policy intervention. We have developed an expedient method to appraise and compare the strengths of the evidence bases suggesting that individual components of a policy intervention will contribute to the positive public health impact of that intervention.

Seeking best practices: a conceptual framework for planning and improving evidence-based practices.

How can we encourage ongoing development, refinement, and evaluation of practices to identify and build an evidence base for best practices? On the basis of a review of the literature and expert input, we worked iteratively to create a framework with 2 interrelated components. The first - public health impact - consists of 5 elements: effectiveness, reach, feasibility, sustainability, and transferability. The second - quality of evidence - consists of 4 levels, ranging from weak to rigorous.

Public health program capacity for sustainability: a new framework.

Background: Public health programs can only deliver benefits if they are able to sustain activities over time. There is a broad literature on program sustainability in public health, but it is fragmented and there is a lack of consensus on core constructs. The purpose of this paper is to present a new conceptual framework for program sustainability in public health.

Monitoring the tobacco use epidemic I. Overview: Optimizing measurement to facilitate change.

Objective: This Overview paper (I of V) summarizes research work to date on monitoring the tobacco use epidemic, discusses the recommendations made at the November, 2002 National Tobacco Monitoring, Research and Evaluation Workshop sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Legacy Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on the topic of tobacco surveillance and evaluation, and discusses the current state of affairs.

Impact of home smoking rules on smoking patterns among adolescents and young adults.

Introduction: Smoking restrictions in public places have been shown to reduce cigarette consumption and may reduce smoking prevalence. Evidence is emerging that smoke-free policies in nonpublic places may have a similar effect. The purpose of this study was to determine whether an association exists between household smoking rules and smoking patterns among adolescents (aged 15 to 18 years) and young adults (aged 19 to 24 years) living in parental homes (i.