Culture

Primary care practices in a large California Medicaid managed care plan offering teledermatology had an increased fraction of patients who visited a dermatologist compared with other practices, according to an article published online by JAMA Dermatology.

For prostate cancer patients who had their prostates surgically removed, patient-physician communication was key for helping them cope with their disease and for improving their health-related quality of life.

The authors of the 1772-patient study note that patient-physician communication is not only a question of patients' wellbeing or feeling accepted, but an issue of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning when living with localized prostate cancer and dealing with the side effects of treatments.

Research suggests people are momentarily happier when drinking alcohol -- but that over longer periods, drinking more does not make them more satisfied with life.

The research, led by a social policy expert at the University of Kent, also found that people who developed drinking problems were less satisfied with life.

To make a good framework for filling in missing bone, mix at least 30 percent pulverized natural bone with some special man-made plastic and create the needed shape with a 3-D printer. That's the recipe for success reported by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University in a paper published April 18 online in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.

Eating together, providing social support and interaction during meals could help people with dementia avoid dehydration and malnutrition - according to new NIHR-funded research from the University of East Anglia.

Findings published today reveal that while no interventions were unequivocally successful, promising approaches focused on a holistic approach to mealtimes.

Sophia Antipolis, May 4, 2016: The first recommendations on multimodality imaging assessment of prosthetic heart valves are published today in European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging.1

The novel document was produced by the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). They are endorsed by the Chinese Society of Echocardiography, the Inter-American Society of Echocardiography, and the Brazilian Department of Cardiovascular Imaging.

QUT has developed a new blackspot identification method that offers an unbiased prediction of crash counts and allows a more accurate way to identify high-risk crash sites.

Amir Pooyan Afghari, from QUT's Science and Engineering Faculty, said the blackspot program aimed to reduce crashes by targeting high-risk locations and funding remedial works such as re-aligning the geometry or widening the shoulder of the road.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (MAY 3, 2016). Researchers at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital report the results of a double-blinded randomized controlled trial of the "Xiao procedure" in children with spina bifida.

The A.J. Drexel Autism Institute's latest National Autism Indicators Report found that 60 percent of people with autism who received services from Vocational Rehabilitation left the program with jobs, but a majority earned wages below the federal poverty line.

An estimated 30 percent of outpatient oral antibiotic prescriptions in the U.S. in 2010-2011 may have been inappropriate, findings that support the need for establishing a goal for outpatient antibiotic stewardship, according to a study appearing in the May 3 issue of JAMA.

Offering a health care services price transparency tool to employees at 2 large companies was not associated with lower outpatient spending, according to a study appearing in the May 3 issue of JAMA.

Among patients experiencing some symptoms of depression, the use of a web-based guided self-help intervention reduced the incidence of major depressive disorder over 12 months compared with enhanced usual care, according to a study appearing in the May 3 issue of JAMA.

If patients knew the price of different health care options, they could make better decisions about their medical care and help cut health care costs by shopping for lower-priced care--at least that's the hope.

With that in mind, more than half of U.S. states have passed laws establishing price transparency websites, and many employers have offered price transparency tools to their employees.

But does it work?

LOS ANGELES - The University of Southern California (USC) Roski Eye Institute researchers and clinicians published results of the largest population-based study of adult Latinos and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in the National Eye Institute-funded "Los Angeles Latino Eye Study (LALES)." The study, published in JAMA Ophthalmology, is the first to analyze the risk and prevalence of early and late stage AMD and its impact on quality of life for older Latinos.

Both a high-intensity functional exercise programme and a non-exercise group activity, conducted among older care facility residents with dementia, reduced high levels of depressive symptoms. However, exercise had no superior effect on depression, according to a dissertation from Umeå University.