The care of patients with complex medical needs is widely regarded as one of the key factors driving increased U.S. health costs, and it is generally accepted that 10 to 15 percent of Medicare patients account for 65 to 75 percent of all Medicare spending. Many of the country's leading health care organizations have been adopting the strategy of complex care management – assembling multidisciplinary teams of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, mental health professionals and others, with services being coordinated by care managers who work closely with patients and their family members.
Culture
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Wellness coaching has become an increasingly prevalent strategy to help individuals improve their health and well-being. Recently, wellness coaching was found to improve quality of life, mood and perceived stress, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Matthew Clark, Ph.D., L.P., lead author of the study and resiliency expert at the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program, answers some common questions about wellness coaching.
MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video and audio are available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A disproportionate number of Hispanics are housed in private prisons across the United States, a pattern that could leave such prisons vulnerable to legal challenges, new research from Oregon State University shows.
The percentage of adult Hispanic inmates in private prisons was two points higher than those in public facilities, while the percentage of white inmates in private prisons was eight points lower than in public facilities, said Brett Burkhardt, an assistant professor of sociology in the School of Public Policy at OSU's College of Liberal Arts.
Screening for prostate cancer could reduce deaths from the disease by about a fifth, according to the long-term results of a major European study involving over 162 000 men published in The Lancet.
Despite this new evidence for the effectiveness of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing to reduce mortality, doubts as to whether the benefits of screening outweigh the harms remain, and routine PSA screening programmes should not be introduced at this time, conclude the authors.
Pay-for-performance schemes – which reward hospitals financially for improving the quality of care provided to patients – only reduce patient death rates in the short term, according to new research by The University of Manchester
A variety of programmes have been introduced in the UK over the past decade, with mixed results. Advancing Quality, a programme imported from the United States, was the first of these schemes to demonstrate a significant reduction in patient deaths.
Married women who live in communities in which a higher proportion of the population belongs to conservative religious traditions — such as evangelical or Mormon — are more likely to choose not to work outside the home, even if the women are not members of those faith groups, according to a Baylor University study.
The study — "Work-Family Conflict: The Effects of Religious Context on Married Women's Participation in the Labor Force" — appears in the journal Religions in a special issue, "Religion, Spirituality, and Family Life."
URBANA, Ill. – With all the effort it takes to grow a food crop from seed to sale, it may be surprising that some farms in Brazil lose 10 to 12 percent of their yield at various points along the postharvest route. According to a University of Illinois agricultural economist, when it comes to meeting the needs of the world's growing population that's a lot of food falling through the cracks. Interestingly, farm managers who are aware of the factors that contribute to postharvest grain loss actually lose less grain.
WASHINGTON – Pelvic x-rays ordered as a matter of course for children who have suffered blunt force trauma do not accurately identify all cases of pelvic fractures or dislocations and are usually unnecessary for patients for whom abdominal/pelvic CT scanning is otherwise planned.
PRINCETON, N.J. -- A sudden closing of a major airline hub such as the main Atlanta airport would undoubtedly leave thousands of travelers stranded. Because of Atlanta's hub status, such a blow would be felt nationally, altering the travel plans of millions while impacting the travel industry, tourism and other segments of the economy.
Female candidates for elected office do as well as male candidates in terms of raising money and winning votes, so why do women only occupy 19 percent of congressional seats and approximately 25 percent of statewide offices and hold fewer governorships and mayorships? The traditional wisdom has been family obligations and responsibilities prevent women from running for office.
Informing the public about African Americans' disproportionate incarceration rate may actually bolster support for punitive policies that perpetuate inequality, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
In the corporate world, meritocracies are the norm. Personalities that don't like competition and having to produce results may default to academia, but they may not find it the psychological safe haven they think it is. America is producing more PhDs than ever and only one sixth of them will be able to stay in school after their degree - since universities have the choice of the best and brightest, the "rainmakers" who will aggressively bring in big NIH grants - everyone else can be an adjunct professor or a blogger at Scientific American and never get a chance at tenure.
Bethesda, MD (August 6, 2014) – Immunosuppressive drugs called thiopurines have been found to increase the risk of myeloid disorders, such as acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare bone marrow disorder, seven-fold among inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. These data were reported in a new study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA). Thiopurines are an established treatment for IBD patients, used to reduce inflammation and provide symptom relief.
HUNTVILLE (8/6/14) -- According to a 2010 survey by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 1.4 million women in Texas experience stalking during their lifetimes. Despite recent laws adopted in the state to protect stalking victims, little information is available about the crime or policies and procedures to aid the criminal justice system, according to a report from the Crime Victims' Institute (CVI).
Centralising acute stroke services can reduce mortality and length of hospital stay, according to a study published on thebmj.com today.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Each year in England an estimated 125,000 people have a stroke and 40,000 of them die.
Centralising means hospitals of differing capability work together to create a centralised system of stroke care, in which patients are taken to a small number of high volume specialist units rather than to the nearest hospital.