Using Electronic Health Records and Clinical Decision Support to Provide Return-to-Work Guidance for Primary Care Practitioners for Patients With Low Back Pain.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the process by which a group of subject matter experts in the area of return to work developed a resource tool to provide clinical decision support (CDS) for primary care clinicians.

Methods: A common musculoskeletal disorder, low back pain (LBP), was selected, pertinent literature reviewed, and specific recommendations for action in the clinical setting developed.

Results: Primary care practitioners (PCPs) are routinely expected to create work activity prescriptions.

Reducing Disability Durations and Medical Costs for Patients With a Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery Through the Use of Opioid Prescribing Guidelines.

Objective: The impacts of compliance with opioid prescribing guidelines on disability durations and medical costs for carpal tunnel release (CTR) were examined.

Methods: Using a dataset of insured US employees, opioid prescriptions for 7840 short-term disability cases with a CTR procedure were identified. Opioids prescriptions were compared with the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM)'s opioid prescribing guidelines for postoperative, acute pain, which recommends no more than a 5-day supply, a maximum morphine equivalent dose of 50 mg/day, and only short-acting opioids.

Effect of a total smoking ban in a maximum security psychiatric hospital.

An archival study was performed in a maximum security forensic hospital to evaluate the effects of a total ban on smoking and all tobacco products. One hundred and forty patients were characterized as nonsmokers or light, moderate or heavy smokers. Patient records for the four weeks prior to the ban were compared with their records for the four weeks subsequent to the ban.

Does Alcoholics Anonymous work? The results from a meta-analysis of controlled experiments.

This article reviews the outcome (usually abstinence at 12 months) of 21 controlled studies of AA, with emphasis on methodological quality. Severe selection biases compromised all quasi-experiments. Randomized studies yielded worse results for AA than nonrandomized studies, but were biased by selection of coerced subjects.