Publications by authors named "Peter Basch"

Article Synopsis
  • Pain is a significant and debilitating symptom affecting quality of life, with various causes and classifications such as acute and chronic, necessitating effective management strategies.
  • The American College of Physicians (ACP) emphasizes the importance of sound, evidence-based performance measures for pain management to enhance care quality, but acknowledges the overwhelming number of low-value measures that burden healthcare providers.
  • The ACP's Performance Measurement Committee (PMC) evaluates and recognizes high-quality pain-related performance measures, ultimately reviewing six relevant measures and proposing a new concept to address gaps in care for improved patient outcomes.
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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a severe mood disorder that affects at least 8.4% of the adult population in the United States. Characteristics of MDD include persistent sadness, diminished interest in daily activities, and a state of hopelessness.

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Primary osteoporosis is characterized by decreasing bone mass and density and reduced bone strength that leads to a higher risk for fracture, especially hip and spine fractures. The prevalence of osteoporosis in the United States is estimated at 12.6% for adults older than 50 years.

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There has been an exponential growth in the use of telemedicine services to provide clinical care, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical care delivered via telemedicine has become a major and accepted method of health care delivery for many patients. There is an urgent need to understand quality of care in the telemedicine environment.

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Background & Objectives: Screening for hepatitis C virus is the first critical decision point for preventing morbidity and mortality from HCV cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma and will ultimately contribute to global elimination of a curable disease. This study aims to portray the changes over time in HCV screening rates and the screened population characteristics following the 2020 implementation of an electronic health record (EHR) alert for universal screening in the outpatient setting in a large healthcare system in the US mid-Atlantic region.

Methods: Data was abstracted from the EHR on all outpatients from 1/1/2017 through 10/31/2021, including individual demographics and their HCV antibody (Ab) screening dates.

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Background: There are approximately 300,000 people in the United States who are co-infected with HIV and HCV. Several organizations recommend that individuals who are HCV infected, as well as persons over the age of 13, should be HIV tested. Comorbidities associated with HCV can be reduced with early identification of HIV.

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Objectives: CDC reported that 45% of Hepatitis C (HCV) infected people denied known risk factors. Electronic health record RF-based, non-Birth Cohort (born outside of years 1945-1965) screening is challenging as risk factors are often input as nonsearchable data. Testing non-Birth Cohort patients solely based on risk factors has the potential to miss a substantial number of HCV infected patients.

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Highly efficacious and tolerable treatments that cure hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection exist today, increasing the feasibility of disease elimination. However, large healthcare systems may not be fully prepared for supporting recommended actions due to knowledge gaps, inadequate infrastructure and uninformed policy direction. Additionally, the HCV cascade of care is complex, with many embedded barriers, and a significant number of patients do not progress through the cascade and are thus not cured.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hypertension is defined as having a systolic blood pressure of at least 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure of at least 90 mmHg, and also includes anyone using medication for blood pressure control.
  • It is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and strokes, affecting about 75 million U.S. adults aged 18 and older.
  • Approximately half of those with hypertension have unmanaged conditions, with 33% unaware they have it, 20% aware but untreated, and 47% aware and treated but not effectively controlling their blood pressure.
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Clinical documentation was developed to track a patient's condition and communicate the author's actions and thoughts to other members of the care team. Over time, other stakeholders have placed additional requirements on the clinical documentation process for purposes other than direct care of the patient. More recently, new information technologies, such as electronic health record (EHR) systems, have led to further changes in the clinical documentation process.

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A heart health initiative is a perfect fit for a system's EHR.

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webAzyxxi has become an integral part of medical practice at MedStar Health. As a modern, component, object-based, three-tier Web-application, webAzyxxi 2.0 is capable of rapid expansion through the introduction of both enterprisewide and per hospital functionality.

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