Using science to advance wound care practice: lessons from the literature.

Wound care professionals can improve clinical, patient-oriented wound outcomes and do so cost-effectively by using scientific evidence to meet patient and wound care goals and needs. A review of the literature was conducted to define evidence-based wound management, describe the potential of science to improve outcomes in wound care, and summarize strategies, tactics, and tools for wound care providers and recipients to utilize science to their mutual benefit. In addition, changes in the availability of randomized and nonrandomized and clinical and preclinical evidence during the past 50 years were examined using MEDLINE database searches of English-language publications, combining the search terms wound, ulcer, or burn limited by the terms randomized or clinical for each decade since 1960.

Population mobility, globalization, and antimicrobial drug resistance.

Population mobility is a main factor in globalization of public health threats and risks, specifically distribution of antimicrobial drug-resistant organisms. Drug resistance is a major risk in healthcare settings and is emerging as a problem in community-acquired infections. Traditional health policy approaches have focused on diseases of global public health significance such as tuberculosis, yellow fever, and cholera; however, new diseases and resistant organisms challenge existing approaches.

Identification of hospital-acquired catheter-associated urinary tract infections from Medicare claims: sensitivity and positive predictive value.

Background And Objective: Hospital-acquired catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is one of the first 6 conditions Medicare is targeting to reduce payment associated with hospital-acquired conditions under Congressional mandate. This study was to determine the positive predictive value (PPV) and sensitivity in identifying patients in Medicare claims who had urinary catheterization and who had hospital-acquired CAUTIs.

Research Design: CAUTIs identified by ICD-9-CM codes in Medicare claims were compared with those revealed by medical record abstraction in random samples of Medicare discharges in 2005 to 2006.

Projected cost-effectiveness of new vaccines for adolescents in the United States.

Background: Economic assessments that guide policy making on immunizations are becoming increasingly important in light of new and anticipated vaccines for adolescents. However, important considerations that limit the utility of these assessments, such as the diversity of approaches used, are often overlooked and should be better understood.

Objective: Our goal was to examine economic studies of adolescent vaccines and compare cost-effectiveness outcomes among studies on a particular vaccine, across adolescent vaccines, and between new adolescent vaccines versus vaccines that are recommended for young children.