Verbal Fluency as a Measure of Executive Function in Middle-Aged Adults with Mild Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

This study investigates verbal fluency as an indicator of executive function in middle-aged adults with mild sensorineural hearing loss, comparing them to age-matched controls with normal hearing. In this study, 50 middle-aged participants were recruited, comprising 25 with bilateral unaided mild hearing loss and 25 age-matched controls with normal hearing. Demographic information, including age, gender, and health-related factors, was collected.

Assessment of dementia knowledge in Indian speech-language pathology students.

Objectives: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have a crucial role in assisting individuals with dementia due to the communication and swallowing challenges associated with the disease. As the number of dementia cases rises in India at an increasing rate, investigating the level of dementia knowledge of SLP students can offer insight into the preparedness of the healthcare system to meet this emerging demand.

Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on SLP students pursuing their final year undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral degrees from four universities across India.

Stopping the flood: reducing harmful cascades of care.

Cascades of care are common and can lead to significant harms for patients, clinicians, and the health care system at large. In this commentary, we argue that there are 2 ways to reduce cascades: decrease the use of unnecessary services that often initiate cascades (ie, close the floodgates) and mitigate cascades once they begin (ie, slow the flow through the floodgates). So far, most efforts to address cascades have focused on identifying, measuring, and educating clinicians on low-value services, with only modest success.

Implementing a targeted approach to social determinants of health interventions.

The scale of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations has spurred unprecedented focus on and investment in social determinants of health (SDOH). Although the greater focus on social determinants is laudable and necessary, there is a tendency for health care organizations to implement SDOH programs at scale without rigorous evidence of effect, rather than targeting interventions to specific patients and assessing their impact. This broad, and sometimes blind, application of SDOH interventions can be costly and wasteful.

Addressing Patient Bias and Discrimination Against Clinicians of Diverse Backgrounds.

The duty to care for all patients is central to the health professions, but what happens when clinicians encounter patients who exhibit biased or discriminatory behaviors? While significant attention has focused on addressing clinician bias toward patients, incidents of patient bias toward clinicians also occur and are difficult to navigate.Clinicians anecdotally describe their experiences with patient bias, prejudice, and discrimination as profoundly painful and degrading. Though this phenomenon has not been rigorously studied, it is not unreasonable to postulate that the moral distress caused by patient bias may ultimately contribute to clinician burnout.

Eliminating barriers to virtual care: implementing portable medical licensure.

Telemedicine offers a promising solution to the growing physician shortage, but state-based medical licensing poses a significant barrier to the widespread adoption of telemedicine services. We thus recommend a mutual recognition scheme whereby states honor each other's medical licenses. Successfully implementing mutual recognition requires policy, technological, and administrative changes, including a federal mandate for states to participate in mutual recognition, consistent standards for using and regulating telemedicine, a mechanism to enable interstate data sharing, financial support for states, and a "state of principal license" requirement for physicians.

Impact of a Student-Run Clinic on Emergency Department Utilization.

Background And Objectives: Student-run clinics (SRCs) provide primary care access to low-income patients who would otherwise pursue more expensive care, such as visits to emergency departments (ED). Decreasing inappropriate ED utilization offers an opportunity to create value in the health care system. However, to date, no SRC has rigorously studied this.

Exploring online communication about cigarette smoking among Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia.

Novel approaches are needed to address elevated tobacco use among people with schizophrenia. This exploratory study examined the frequency, timing, and type of communication about tobacco-related content on Twitter among users who self-identify as having schizophrenia compared with users from the general population. Over a 200-day period from January to July 2016, Twitter users who self-identify as having a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n = 203) and a randomly selected group of general population control users (n = 173) posted 1,544,122 tweets.