Implications of Managing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Cardiovascular Diseases.

Globally, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are the leading causes of the noncommunicable disease burden. Overlapping symptoms such as breathing difficulty and fatigue, with a lack of awareness about COPD among physicians, are key reasons for under-diagnosis and resulting sub-optimal care relative to COPD. Much has been published in the past on the pathogenesis and implications of cardiovascular comorbidities in COPD.

Social media recruitment for mental health research: A systematic review.

Background: Social media holds exciting promise for advancing mental health research recruitment, however, the extent and efficacy to which these platforms are currently in use are underexplored.

Objective: A systematic review was conducted to characterize the current use and efficacy of social media in recruiting participants for mental health research.

Method: A literature review was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsychINFO.

Meal skipping and cognition along a spectrum of restrictive eating.

Objective: Inadequate nutrition adversely impacts brain development and cognitive functioning (Pollitt et al., 1983). Studies examining the acute impact of eating regular meals on cognition have reported inconsistent findings, necessitating the exploration of individual differences in samples contributing to equivocal results.

Multidisciplinary Application of an External Tissue Expander Device to Improve Patient Outcomes: A Critical Review.

Continuous external tissue expansion (CETE) is a versatile tool in soft tissue injury management, and could be an addition to the traditional reconstructive ladder. This critical review discusses the principles and application of CETE, covering a company-sponsored consensus meeting on this emerging technology and highlighting the DermaClose (Synovis Micro Companies Alliance, Inc., Birmingham, AL) device's unique approach to soft tissue injury management.

Evaluation of ML-Based Clinical Decision Support Tool to Replace an Existing Tool in an Academic Health System: Lessons Learned.

There is increasing application of machine learning tools to problems in healthcare, with an ultimate goal to improve patient safety and health outcomes. When applied appropriately, machine learning tools can augment clinical care provided to patients. However, even if a model has impressive performance characteristics, prospectively evaluating and effectively implementing models into clinical care remains difficult.

Gain-loss framing and patients' decisions: a linguistic examination of information framing in physician-patient conversations.

When discussing risks and benefits with cancer patients, physicians could focus on losses such as mortality rates and cancer recurrence or, alternatively, gains such as survival rates and curing cancer. Previous research has shown that the way health information is framed influences individuals' preferences and choices. We operationalized gain-loss framing as physicians' choice of words related to gains (cancer survival), or losses (cancer mortality).

The Psychological Appeal of Fake-News Attributions.

The term is increasingly used to discredit information from reputable news organizations. We tested the possibility that fake-news claims are appealing because they satisfy the need to see the world as structured. Believing that news organizations are involved in an orchestrated disinformation campaign implies a more orderly world than believing that the news is prone to random errors.

Associations of Patient Characteristics and Care Setting with Complexity of Specialty Palliative Care Visits.

Information routinely collected during a palliative care consultation request may help predict the level of complexity of that patient encounter. We examined whether patient and consultation characteristics, as captured in consultation requests, are associated with the number of unmet palliative care needs that emerge during consultation, as an indicator of complexity. We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of palliative care consultations.

Racial differences in veterans' response to a standard vs. patient-centered decision aid for prostate cancer: Implications for decision making in African American and White men.

Objective: To determine whether racial differences exist in patient preferences for prostate cancer treatment after being informed about options using a patient-centered vs. a standard decision aid (DA).

Methods: This article reports secondary analyses of a large study of men diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer.

Withdrawal of Life-supporting Treatment in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

Importance: There are limited data on which factors affect the critical and complex decision to withdraw life-supporting treatment (LST) in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI).

Objective: To determine demographic and clinical factors associated with the decision to withdraw LST in patients with sTBI.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective analysis of inpatient data from more than 825 trauma centers across the US in the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program database from January 2013 to December 2015 included adult patients with sTBI and documentation of a decision regarding withdrawal of LST (WLST).

It's how you say it: Systematic A/B testing of digital messaging cut hospital no-show rates.

Failure to attend hospital appointments has a detrimental impact on care quality. Documented efforts to address this challenge have only modestly decreased no-show rates. Behavioral economics theory has suggested that more effective messages may lead to increased responsiveness.

Paying For Value From Costly Medical Technologies: A Framework For Applying Value-Based Payment Reforms.

Innovative medical products offer significant and potentially transformative impacts on health, but they create concerns about rising spending and whether this rise is translating into higher value. The result is increasing pressure to pay for therapies in a way that is tied to their value to stakeholders through improving outcomes, reducing disease complications, and addressing concerns about affordability. Policy responses include the growing application of health technology assessments based on available evidence to determine unit prices, as well as alternatives to volume-based payment that adjust product payments based on predictors or measures of value.

Comparative implementation-effectiveness of three strategies to perform hearing screening among older adults in primary care clinics: study design and protocol.

Background: The burden of hearing loss among older adults could be mitigated with appropriate care. This study compares implementation of three hearing screening strategies in primary care, and examines the reliability and validity of patient self-assessment, primary care providers (PCP) and diagnostic audiologists in the identification of 'red flag' conditions (those conditions that may require medical consultation and/or intervention).

Methods: Six primary care practices will implement one of three screening strategies (2 practices per strategy) with 660 patients (220 per strategy) ages 65-75 years with no history of hearing aid use or diagnosis of hearing loss.

Perceptions of Facilitators and Barriers to Measuring and Improving Quality in Palliative Care Programs.

Objective: To examine perceptions of facilitators and barriers to quality measurement and improvement in palliative care programs and differences by professional and leadership roles.

Methods: We surveyed team members in diverse US and Canadian palliative care programs using a validated survey addressing teamwork and communication and constructs for educational support and training, leadership, infrastructure, and prioritization for quality measurement and improvement. We defined key facilitators as constructs rated ≥4 (agree) and key barriers as those ≤3 (disagree) on 1 to 5 scales.

Top Ten Things Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Caring for Hindus.

Hinduism is one of the five major world religions with >1 billion followers worldwide and encompasses a diversity of belief systems. As of 2010, an estimated 1.8 million Hindus lived in the United States, and this number is expected to increase to 4.

Signing at the beginning versus at the end does not decrease dishonesty.

Honest reporting is essential for society to function well. However, people frequently lie when asked to provide information, such as misrepresenting their income to save money on taxes. A landmark finding published in PNAS [L.

Surgical decision making in the setting of severe traumatic brain injury: A survey of neurosurgeons.

Background: Surgical decision-making in severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is complex. Neurosurgeons weigh risks and benefits of interventions that have the potential to both maximize the chance of recovery and prolong suffering. Inaccurate prognostication can lead to over- or under-estimation of outcomes and influence treatment recommendations.

Enhancing meaning in the face of advanced cancer and pain: Qualitative evaluation of a meaning-centered psychosocial pain management intervention.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to obtain patient evaluations of the content, structure, and delivery modality of Meaning-Centered Pain Coping Skills Training (MCPC), a novel psychosocial intervention for patients with advanced cancer and pain. MCPC aims to help patients connect with valued sources of meaning in their lives (e.g.

"Cure" Versus "Clinical Remission": The Impact of a Medication Description on the Willingness of People Living with HIV to Take a Medication.

Many people living with HIV (PLWHIV) state that they would be willing to take significant risks to be "cured" of the virus. However, how they interpret the word "cure" in this context is not clear. We used a randomized survey to examine whether PLWHIV had a different willingness to take a hypothetical HIV medication if it causes flu-like symptoms, but provides: (a) cure, (b) remission that was labeled "cure", or (c) remission.

Reaching Consensus in Polarized Moral Debates.

The group polarization phenomenon is a widespread human bias with no apparent geographical or cultural boundaries [1]. Although the conditions that breed extremism have been extensively studied [2-5], comparably little research has examined how to depolarize attitudes in people who already embrace extreme beliefs. Previous studies have shown that deliberating groups may shift toward more moderate opinions [6], but why deliberation is sometimes effective although other times it fails at eliciting consensus remains largely unknown.