Preventive care for low-income women in massachusetts post-health reform.

Background: Before enacting health insurance reform in 2006, Massachusetts provided free breast, cervical cancer, and cardiovascular risk screening for low-income uninsured women through a federally subsidized program called the Women's Health Network (WHN). This article examines whether, as women transitioned to insurance to pay for screening tests after health reform legislation was passed, cancer and cardiovascular disease screening changed among WHN participants between 2004 and 2010.

Methods: We examined claims data from the Massachusetts health insurance exchange and chart review data to measure utilization of mammography, Pap smear, and blood pressure screening among WHN participants in five community health centers in greater Boston.

Lessons learned obtaining informed consent in research with vulnerable populations in community health center settings.

Background: To improve equity in access to medical research, successful strategies are needed to recruit diverse populations. Here, we examine experiences of community health center (CHC) staff who guided an informed consent process to overcome recruitment barriers in a medical record review study.

Methods: We conducted ten semi-structured interviews with CHC staff members.

Innovation in ambulatory care: a collaborative approach to redesigning the health care workplace.

Purpose: To improve the quality of patient care and work satisfaction of the physicians and staff at an ambulatory practice that had recently started an innovative model of clinical care for women.

Method: The authors used an inclusive process, collaborative interactive action research, to engage all physicians and staff members in assessing and redesigning their work environment. Based on key barriers to working effectively and integrating work and family identified in that process, a pilot project with new work practices and structures was developed, implemented, and evaluated.