4,532 results match your criteria: "VA Center for Practice Management & Outcomes Research[Affiliation]"

Background: Permanent supportive housing (PSH) is an evidence-based practice for reducing homelessness that subsidizes permanent, independent housing and provides case management-including linkages to health services. Substance use disorders (SUDs) are common contributing factors towards premature, unwanted ("negative") PSH exits; little is known about racial/ethnic differences in negative PSH exits among residents with SUDs. Within the nation's largest PSH program at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), we examined relationships among SUDs and negative PSH exits (for up to five years post-PSH move-in) across racial/ethnic subgroups.

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Background: Patients receiving chiropractic spinal manipulation (CSM) for spinal pain are less likely to be prescribed opioids, and some evidence suggests that these patients have a lower risk of any type of adverse drug event. We hypothesize that adults receiving CSM for sciatica will have a reduced risk of opioid-related adverse drug events (ORADEs) over a one-year follow-up compared to matched controls not receiving CSM.

Methods: We searched a United States (US) claims-based data resource (Diamond Network, TriNetX, Inc.

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Patients after thoracic surgery experience significant pain that can disrupt normal respiratory mechanics, increase the risk of respiratory complications, and impair recovery. Poorly controlled postoperative pain can develop into persistent postoperative pain. In addition, using opioids for pain control in the thoracic surgical population makes them more susceptible to opioid-related side effects due to their pre-existing comorbidities.

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Moderate to severe pain after cardiac surgery is relatively common, which increases the risk of postoperative cardiopulmonary complications and delays hospital discharge. Opioids have been useful agents for postoperative pain control after cardiac surgery, but are associated with serious adverse effects. As a result, multimodal analgesia has been adopted widely to decrease reliance on opioids for treating postoperative pain, reduce opioid-related adverse effects, and promote early recovery.

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Patient and family engagement in culturally-tailored diabetes self-management education in a Hispanic community.

Patient Educ Couns

January 2025

Department of Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Caring for Complex Chronic Conditions Research Center, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, VA Pittsburgh Health Care System, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Electronic address:

Objectives: Diabetes self-management education (DSME) is effective in improving outcomes among adults with diabetes (AWD); but engagement in DSME has been lower among Hispanic AWD. We examined factors predicting engagement of Hispanic AWD in culturally tailored DSME that included a family/friend 'support person'.

Methods: 222 predominantly Hispanic AWD enrolled in DSME with a support person (SP), half of the AWD-SP pairs participated in pair-focused ('FAM-ACT') DSME and the others in patient-focused DSME.

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Delirium Management Quality Improvement Project to Improve Awareness and Screening in a Medical ICU.

Nurs Rep

December 2024

Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, UC San Diego Health, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.

Article Synopsis
  • Delirium is common in critical illness, but inconsistent detection and prevention in ICUs exist due to inadequate provider education and practice gaps.
  • A quality improvement project involved distributing CAM-ICU pocket cards to nurses, conducting educational lectures, and demonstrating delirium detection to enhance awareness and application of evidence-based prevention strategies.
  • The initiative resulted in a significant increase in CAM-ICU documentation and a reduction in benzodiazepine use among mechanically ventilated patients, showcasing the effectiveness of interdisciplinary education in improving delirium care standards in ICUs.
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Risk of bias assessment tools often addressed items not related to risk of bias and used numerical scores.

J Clin Epidemiol

January 2025

Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Centre, 3901 Rainbow Blvd, MS3002, Kansas City, KS, USA. Electronic address:

Objective: We aimed to determine whether the existing risk of bias assessment tools addressed constructs other than risk of bias or internal validity, and whether they used numerical scores to express quality, which is discouraged and may be a misleading approach.

Methods: We searched Ovid MEDLINE and Embase to identify quality appraisal tools across all disciplines in human health research. Tools designed specifically to evaluate reporting quality were excluded.

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Purpose: The Hematology Oncology Pharmacist Association Oral Chemotherapy Collaborative (HOPA OCC) developed practice-based tools to use in program development and improvement for the management of patients receiving oral anticancer agents (OAAs).

Methods: These tools include a baseline OAA program assessment, clinical OAA adherence tool, and OAA dashboard. HOPA OCC distributed these tools to teams participating in the 6-month HOPA ASCO Quality Training Programs (QTPs).

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Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries.

Nat Hum Behav

January 2025

Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Science is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in scientists can help decision makers act on the basis of the best available evidence, especially during crises. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists.

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Changes in weight and physical function for older African American women in Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS): Study protocol for a randomized clinical trial.

Contemp Clin Trials

January 2025

Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; ADAPT Center of Innovation, Durham VA Health Care System, Durham, NC, USA. Electronic address:

Background: Obesity and frailty are positively linked. Compared to other groups, older African American women have the highest rates of both obesity and frailty. Several academic weight loss interventions have shown that older adults can lose weight and improve physical function through diet and exercise.

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Description: In July 2024, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.

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"They Make It So Hard on You": How Rurality Shapes Veterans' Health Experiences When Managing Gulf War Illness.

J Gen Intern Med

January 2025

VA Portland Health Care System, Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, 3710 SW U.S. Veterans Hospital Road, Portland, OR, 97239, USA.

Background: Gulf War illness (GWI) is characterized by multiple, persistent symptoms (e.g., fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, concentration problems, and gastrointestinal disorders) across more than one body system that are severe enough to interfere with daily functioning.

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Background: In Nigeria, trauma care faces challenges due to high injury and death rates from road traffic accidents and violence. Improvements are underway, but gaps in service availability, training, and coordination persist, necessitating evidence-based interventions.

Purpose: To evaluate trauma care practices in Nigeria, focusing on practitioners' perceptions of training, resources, and care quality to inform policy and practice enhancements.

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Enhancing representation of special populations: An approach to the inclusion of women veterans in VA clinical trials.

Contemp Clin Trials

January 2025

VA HSR Center for Innovation to Implementation (Ci2i), VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA; Division of Primary Care and Population Health, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.

Article Synopsis
  • The under-recruitment of marginalized groups, particularly women veterans, in clinical trials limits healthcare advancements and the applicability of research results.
  • The Veterans Health Administration faces unique challenges in recruiting women due to demographic factors and experiences of mistreatment, such as military sexual trauma.
  • The VA Women's Enhanced Recruitment Program (WERP) aims to improve participation of women veterans in clinical trials, offering insights for researchers striving for more equitable representation in their studies.
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Introduction: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of hospitalization among US infants. Characterizing service utilization during infant RSV hospitalizations may provide important information for prioritizing resources and interventions.

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the procedures and services received by infants hospitalized during their first RSV episode in their first RSV season, in addition to what proportion of infants died during this hospitalization.

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Objective: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) recently piloted the implementation of the TeleWound Practice Program (TWP), which provides interprofessional wound care to Veterans remotely. We assessed the perceptions of Veterans and healthcare team members (HCTMs), and their experiences with the TWP.

Method: We surveyed Veterans from four VHA medical centres who had received at least one TWP visit between 1 May 2020 and 31 May 2021, and HCTMs associated with any TWP encounter between 1 September 2019 and 31 March 2021.

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Nutrition Knowledge and Perceived Dietary Requirements of Adolescent Student-Athletes: A Pilot Study.

Nutrients

December 2024

Patriot Performance Laboratory, Frank Pettrone Center for Sports Performance, Intercollegiate Athletics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA.

Background/objectives: Adherence to sports-specific nutritional guidelines can help optimize athlete performance and health. However, adolescent athletes may not have adequate nutrition knowledge and understanding of specific nutritional requirements. The objective of the current study was to examine the nutrition knowledge and perceived dietary requirements of adolescent athletes.

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How and why funders support engaged research.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

January 2025

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, MO 64110.

Research that better aligns policy, practice, and research communities is gaining momentum around the world. This includes engaged research strategies that bring partners, and their diverse perspectives and kinds of knowledge, together to shape research agendas with on-the-ground-needs and to create dynamic problem-solving processes. These approaches aim to generate more equitable and effective solutions to societal challenges.

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Objective: To investigate inequities in time to physical therapy (PT) for patients with low back pain (LBP).

Design: Retrospective observational study using data from the Department of Defense and Veterans Health Administration clinical and administrative data repositories derived from medical records, claims, and enrolment data.

Setting: Military Health System, Veterans Health Administration, and civilian health care facilities.

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Global consensus on optimal exercise recommendations for enhancing healthy longevity in older adults (ICFSR).

J Nutr Health Aging

January 2025

Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Health Sciences and Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Roslindale, MA, United States.

Article Synopsis
  • Aging leads to physiological changes and increased disease vulnerability, culminating in higher mortality rates as individuals get older.
  • Regular physical activity (PA) and exercise can counteract aging effects, improve health span, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.
  • Personalized exercise plans, including various forms of training like aerobic and resistance exercises, are essential for maintaining health and functionality in older adults, particularly those with age-related issues.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted endoscopy practice. Recommendations were to postpone elective cases, including procedures for removal of luminal neoplasia. This provided a natural experiment to evaluate outcomes related to these decisions and the impact of time to procedure on change in histology.

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Yoga has been recommended as a complementary management strategy for women with chronic pelvic pain (CPP), but many women lack access to specialized yoga instruction for this indication, and few data are available to evaluate changes in CPP with yoga. This feasibility trial evaluated the acceptability and tolerability of a remotely delivered yoga program for CPP in women and examined data quality and interpretability for measures of pelvic pain intensity and impact with yoga instruction. Ambulatory women with CPP were recruited from northern California in 2020-2022 and randomly assigned to a 2-month program involving twice weekly group classes delivered by videoconference supplemented by individual practice of pelvic yoga techniques versus a control program involving equivalent-time instruction and practice of nonspecific skeletal muscle stretching-strengthening exercises.

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Background And Aims: Amiodarone is frequently prescribed alongside direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in atrial fibrillation (AF). There are concerns regarding drug-drug interactions (DDIs) between amiodarone and DOACs. The literature is conflicting on the clinical implications of this DDI, hence we conducted a meta-analysis to compare bleeding risk among patients receiving DOACs, with and without concurrent amiodarone.

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Respiratory diseases pose a major public health challenge globally, necessitating collaborative efforts between basic researchers and clinicians for effective solutions. China, which is heavily impacted by a broad spectrum of respiratory disorders, has made notable strides in both research and clinical management of these diseases. The International Respiratory Medicine (IRM) meeting was organized with the primary goal of facilitating the exchange of recent research developments and promoting collaboration between Chinese and American scientists in both basic and clinical research fields.

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Background: Contingency management (CM), an incentive-based intervention to encourage target behaviors, effectively promotes medication adherence. However, efforts to extend CM to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) have been lacking. As part of a randomized clinical trial to promote HIV Prevention among people who inject drugs (PWID), we examined the readiness of staff in community-based organizations serving PWID to implement CM for PrEP uptake and adherence in this population.

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