Understanding uptake of information about innovations among emergency department clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, little was known about managing sick patients, but emergency department (ED) clinicians had to decide which treatments and care processes to adopt. Our objective was to describe how ED clinicians learned about innovations and how they assessed them for credibility during the pandemic.

Methods: We purposively sampled clinicians from hospital-based EDs to conduct focus groups with ED clinicians and staff.

Using a digital tool to detect early changes in everyday functioning in older adults: A pilot study of the Assessment of Smartphone Everyday Tasks (ASSET).

Introduction: To investigate the utility of a new digital tool for measuring everyday functioning in preclinical Alzheimer's disease, we piloted the Assessment of Smartphone Everyday Tasks (ASSET) application.

Methods: Forty-six participants (50.3 ± 27.

Trends in 2-1-1 Calls During Public Health Emergencies, Overall and By Gender: Hurricane Irma and COVID-19 in Broward County, Florida.

Trends in 2-1-1 calls reflect evolving community needs during public health emergencies (PHEs). The study examined how changes in 2-1-1 call volume after 2 PHEs (Hurricane Irma and the coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19] pandemic declaration) in Broward County, Florida, varied by PHE type and whether variations differed by gender and over time. Examining 2-1-1 calls during June to December 2016, June to December 2017, and March 2019 to April 2021, this study measured changes in call volume post-PHEs using interrupted time series analysis.

Changes in Poison Center Calls for Intentional Exposure During Public Health Emergencies: COVID-19 and Winter Storm Uri in Dallas County, Texas.

Objective: This study aimed to: (1) explore changes in the volume of calls to poison control centers (PCs) for intentional exposures (IEs) in Dallas County, Texas, overall and by gender and age, and (2) examine the association between 2 different public health emergencies (PHEs) and changes in IE call volume.

Methods: PCs categorize calls they receive by intentionality of the exposure, based on information from the caller. We analyzed data on PC calls categorized as intentional in Dallas County, Texas, from March 2019 - April 2021.

Use Of And Willingness To Use Video Telehealth Through The COVID-19 Pandemic.

We examined use of and willingness to use video telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic in a longitudinally followed cohort. Between February 2019 and March 2021, use and willingness to use increased among nearly all subgroups, with large increases among Black adults and adults with lower educational attainment. In March 2021 Black adults, adults ages 20-39, and high-income adults reported the greatest willingness to use video telehealth.

Barriers to Price and Quality Transparency in Health Care Markets.

Consumers of health care in the United States often lack information on the actual prices of the care they receive and can also lack access to information about the quality of their care. RAND researchers gathered information on how health care prices are set, price variation in health care markets, barriers to price and quality transparency for consumers, and the extent to which price and quality information is used in marketing efforts. Public payers typically set prices for physicians and hospitals prospectively, and commercial health plans negotiate with physicians and hospitals to determine prices.

Standardized assessment of medication reconciliation in post-acute care.

Background: Medication reconciliation (MR) facilitates safety during transitions of care, which occur frequently across post-acute care (PAC) settings. Under the intent of the IMPACT Act of 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services contracted with the RAND Corporation to develop and test standardized assessment data elements (SADEs) that assess the MR process.

Methods: We employed an iterative process that incorporated stakeholder input and three rounds of testing to identify, refine, and evaluate MR SADEs.

Assessment of Patient Preferences for Telehealth in Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Health Care.

Importance: Telehealth use greatly increased in 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient preferences for telehealth or in-person care are an important factor in defining the role of telehealth in the postpandemic world.

Objective: To ascertain patient preferences for video visits after the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency and to identify patient perceptions of the value of video visits and the role of out-of-pocket cost in changing patient preference for each visit modality.

What if health care worked like everything else?

Doctors use up-to-date communication technology in their personal lives, but the tools they use to communicate with professional colleagues are much more limited. In light of new research exploring the use of WhatsApp in Israel, this commentary explores the barriers to such use and the technological, legal, and cultural factors that enable adoption of such technologies for medical communication. Common tools can be used for professional collaboration but must be adapted for that use as well as culturally acceptable for broad implementation.

Assessment of Variation in Electronic Health Record Capabilities and Reported Clinical Quality Performance in Ambulatory Care Clinics, 2014-2017.

Importance: Electronic health records (EHRs) are widely promoted to improve the quality of health care, but information about the association of multifunctional EHRs with broad measures of quality in ambulatory settings is scarce.

Objective: To assess the association between EHRs with different degrees of capabilities and publicly reported ambulatory quality measures in at least 3 clinical domains of care.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional and longitudinal study was conducted using survey responses from 1141 ambulatory clinics in Minnesota, Washington, and Wisconsin affiliated with a health system that responded to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Annual Survey and reported performance measures in 2014 to 2017.

Reflections on the 7th international Jerusalem conference on health policy in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

In 2019, a conference in Israel showcased new frontiers in technology in healthcare, highlighting research conducted in Israel as well as across the globe. At the time, no one realized how critical-and ubiquitous-some of these technologies would become. In the wake of a global pandemic, the ability to provide healthcare remotely has become ever more important.

Prevalence and Characteristics of Telehealth Utilization in the United States.

Importance: Telehealth services, which allow patients to communicate with a remotely located clinician, are increasingly available; however, prevalence of telehealth use, including videoconferencing visits, remains unclear.

Objective: To measure the use of and willingness to use telehealth modalities across the US population.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This survey study, conducted between February 2019 and April 2019, asked participants about their use of different telehealth modalities, reasons for not using videoconferencing visits, and willingness to use videoconferencing visits.

Optimizing health IT to improve health system performance: A work in progress.

Background: Despite significant investments in health information technology (IT), the technology has not yielded the intended performance effects or transformational change. We describe activities that health systems are pursuing to better leverage health IT to improve performance.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with C-suite executives from 24 U.

Level of agreement on health information technology adoption and use in survey data: a mixed-methods analysis of ambulatory clinics in 1 US state.

Objective: Adoption of health information technology (HIT) is often assessed in surveys of organizations. The validity of data from such surveys for ambulatory clinics has not been evaluated. We compared level of agreement between 1 ambulatory statewide survey and 2 other data sources: a second survey and interviews with survey respondents.

Health information technology for ambulatory care in health systems.

Objectives: The adoption and use of health information technology (IT) by health systems in ambulatory care can be an important driver of care quality. We examine recent trends in health IT adoption by health system-affiliated ambulatory clinics in the context of the federal government's Meaningful Use and Promoting Interoperability programs.

Study Design: We analyzed a national sample of 17,861 ambulatory clinics affiliated with 1711 health systems, using longitudinal data (2014-2016) from the HIMSS Analytics annual surveys.

Assessing and Expanding the Evidence Base for Project ECHO and ECHO-Like Models: Findings of a Technical Expert Panel.

Background: In 2003, Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) began using technology-enabled collaborative models of care to help general practitioners in rural settings manage hepatitis C. Today, ECHO and ECHO-like models (EELM) have been applied to a variety of settings and health conditions, but the evidence base underlying EELM is thin, despite widespread enthusiasm for the model.

Methods: In April 2018, a technical expert panel (TEP) meeting was convened to assess the current evidence base for EELM and identify ways to strengthen it.

Impact of Project ECHO Models of Medical Tele-Education: a Systematic Review.

Background: Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) and related models of medical tele-education are rapidly expanding; however, their effectiveness remains unclear. This systematic review examines the effectiveness of ECHO and ECHO-like medical tele-education models of healthcare delivery in terms of improved provider- and patient-related outcomes.

Methods: We searched English-language studies in PubMed, Embase, and PsycINFO databases from 1 January 2007 to 1 December 2018 as well as bibliography review.

Defining and Evaluating Patient-Empowered Approaches to Improving Record Matching.

Despite widespread adoption of electronic health records and increasing exchange of health care data, the benefits of interoperability and health information technology have been hampered by the inability to reliably match patients and their records. The Pew Charitable Trusts contracted with the RAND Corporation to investigate "patient-empowered" approaches to record matching-solutions that have some additional, voluntary role for patients beyond simply supplying demographics to their health care providers-and to select a promising solution for further development and pilot testing. After extensive consultation with a variety of experts, researchers did not identify a "silver bullet" or achieve consensus on a single solution.

Common Laboratory Results Frequently Misunderstood by a Sample of Mechanical Turk Users.

Objectives: More patients are receiving their test results via patient portals. Given test results are written using medical jargon, there has been concern that patients may misinterpret these results. Using sample colonoscopy and Pap smear results, our objective was to assess how frequently people can identify the correct diagnosis and when a patient should follow up with a provider.

Medical Costs for Osteoporosis-Related Fractures in High-Risk Medicare Beneficiaries.

Objectives: To estimate the incremental direct medical care costs associated with first fracture observable in high-risk older adults.

Design: Retrospective analysis of claims and survey data over a 3-year period from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative biennial study of individuals aged 50 and older.

Setting: United States.