Gender Differences in the Diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease after Spirometry.

Background: Women are more likely than men to report delays in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), though the etiology of these delays is unknown. We sought to test whether delays in COPD diagnosis persist after the performance of spirometry.

Methods: We used the Optum Labs Data Warehouse to identify patients 18 years of age and older without a prior diagnosis of COPD, with a post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio of less than 0.

Trapped in Violence: A Life Table Analysis of Firearm Injury and Death Among Adolescent Black Males.

Purpose: We report the chances of 14-year-old males becoming victims of firearm injury or death before age 25 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Methods: Using life table methods, we followed 4,501 Black males aged 14 years, and a comparison group of 1,751 White males, over 11 years.

Results: Among 14-year-old Black males, the risk of a nonfatal firearm injury before age 25 was 10.

What Do We Mean by Sharing of Patient Data? DaSH: A Data Sharing Hierarchy of Privacy and Ethical Challenges.

Background:  Clinical data sharing is common and necessary for patient care, research, public health, and innovation. However, the term "data sharing" is often ambiguous in its many facets and complexities-each of which involves ethical, legal, and social issues. To our knowledge, there is no extant hierarchy of data sharing that assesses these issues.

Association Between State Medicaid Policies and Accrual of Black or Hispanic Patients to Cancer Clinical Trials.

Purpose: It is unknown whether Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or state-level policies mandating Medicaid coverage of the routine costs of clinical trial participation have ameliorated longstanding racial and ethnic disparities in cancer clinical trial enrollment.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional difference-in-differences analysis examining the effect of Medicaid expansion on rates of enrollment for Black or Hispanic nonelderly adults in nonobservational, US cancer clinical trials using data from Medidata's Rave platform for 2012-2019. We examined heterogeneity in this effect on the basis of whether states had pre-existing mandates requiring Medicaid coverage of the routine costs of clinical trial participation.

Postdischarge needs identified by an automated text messaging program: A mixed-methods study.

Background: Text messaging has emerged as a popular strategy to engage patients after hospital discharge. Little is known about how patients use these programs and what types of needs are addressed through this approach.

Objective: The goal of this study was to describe the types and timing of postdischarge needs identified during a 30-day automated texting program.

Quality, Spending, Utilization, and Outcomes Among Dual-Eligible Medicare-Medicaid Beneficiaries in Integrated Care Programs: A Systematic Review.

Importance: Most dual-eligible Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries are enrolled in bifurcated insurance programs that pay for different components of care. Therefore, policymakers are prioritizing expansion of integrated care plans (ICPs) that manage both Medicare and Medicaid benefits and spending.

Objective: To review evidence of the association between ICPs and health care spending, quality, utilization, and patient outcomes among dual-eligible beneficiaries.

Teamwork and implementation of innovations in healthcare and human service settings: a systematic review.

Background: Implementation of new practices in team-based settings requires teams to work together to respond to new demands and changing expectations. However, team constructs and team-based implementation approaches have received little attention in the implementation science literature. This systematic review summarizes empirical research examining associations between teamwork and implementation outcomes when evidence-based practices and other innovations are implemented in healthcare and human service settings.

Disparities in glaucoma and macular degeneration healthcare utilization among persons living with dementia in the United States.

Purpose: Dementia is common among patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). This study compares visit frequency, diagnostic test utilization, and treatment patterns for POAG and nAMD among persons with vs. without dementia.

Prevalence of Independence at Home-Qualifying Beneficiaries in Traditional Medicare, 2014-2021.

Importance: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center Independence at Home (IAH) demonstration, a test of home-based primary care operating in a value-based shared-savings payment model, ended December 2023 after a decade of consistently showing savings to Medicare. It is important to assess whether high-need, IAH-qualified beneficiaries continue to pose a growing challenge to traditional Medicare (TM) or if Medicare Advantage (MA), with programmatic features favorable to caring for this subset of the general Medicare population, can disproportionately provide such care.

Objective: To examine the size and share of IAH-qualified beneficiaries in TM and MA.

Patient-Portal Compared with Supplemental In-Office Tablet Screening for Health-Related Social Needs in Primary Care.

Background: Screening for health-related social needs (HRSN) has become more widespread but the best method of delivering the screening tool is not yet known.

Objective: Describe HRSN screening completion rate, specifically portal-based and in-person tablet-based screening.

Design: Cross-sectional retrospective observational study.