Culture

With influenza and pneumococcal immunization rates below national targets, researchers review the evidence for the effectiveness of different quality improvement interventions aimed at increasing vaccination rates.

The analysis of 106 studies involving more than 470,000 patients revealed the best chance for improving vaccination rates may be achieved by

1) shifting vaccine administration from physicians to members of the primary care team with clear responsibilities for chronic and preventive care and

2) activating patients through personal contact.

In light of U.S. policymakers' efforts to lower the rapidly increasing primary cesarean delivery rate and recent national guidelines encouraging trial of labor after cesarean, researchers find encouraging outcomes at a Wisconsin Amish birthing center.

Many patients appear willing to undergo preventive care on the basis of overly optimistic expectations of the benefits of preventive interventions and screening.

Analyzing data from 354 patient questionnaires on the perceived benefit of screening for breast and bowel cancer, and medication to prevent hip fracture and cardiovascular disease, researchers in New Zealand found participants overestimated the degree of benefit conferred by all interventions.

Steven H. Woolf at Virginia Commonwealth University contends a major contributor to the alarming rise in health care costs is patients' unrealistic expectations about the benefits of health services.

Confronting these beliefs, he asserts, is a potentially more effective way to bend the cost curve than many current reforms. He writes, "If patients and clinicians widely hold that a procedure is life-saving and harmless, any reform is unlikely to curb demand until those misconceptions are addressed."

Using the example of prostate cancer screening, researchers tackle the question of whether overextended primary care clinicians should adopt guidelines developed primarily by specialists when there is limited direct evidence of benefit.

Researchers project the United States will need 52,000 additional primary care physicians by 2025 — a 25 percent increase in the current workforce — to address the expected increases in demand due to population growth, aging, and insurance expansion following passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Many baby boomers want to improve the way people view aging, but an Oregon State University researcher has found they often reinforce negative stereotypes of old age when interacting with their own parents, coloring the way those seniors experience their twilight years.

ANN ARBOR—At hospital shift changes, doctors and nurses exchange crucial information about the patients they're handing over—or at least they strive to. In reality, they might not spend enough time talking about the toughest cases, according to a study led by the University of Michigan.

ANN ARBOR—Reports indicate that Michigan faces a physician shortage much larger than the national average, and it will grow as millions of Americans qualify for insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Yet Michigan law prevents the medical professionals who could best mitigate this shortage from doing so, because it prohibits advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) from using the full scope of their training and education to treat patients.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 12, 2012 – Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have reported progress in fabricating advanced materials at the nanoscale. The spontaneous self-assembly of nanostructures composed of multiple elements paves the way toward materials that could improve a range of energy efficient technologies and data storage devices.

Scientists don't choose candidates based on science issues, it is said, modern academia instead adopts the issues of Democrats. If they voted on science issues, which primarily involve funding andf intellectual freedom, Republicans would get 80% of the vote instead of the other way around.

Recommendations and decisions to use "least toxic pesticides" and "pesticides as a last resort" have flourished in the last decade, but according to three scientific organizations – the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA), the American Phytopathological Society (APS) and the Plant-Insect Ecosystems Section of the Entomological Society of America (P-IE ESA) – these are not the correct approaches to the pesticide component of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program.

Patients with mental illness visiting emergency departments in Ontario have shorter waits to see a doctor during crowded periods and only slightly longer waits during less busy periods, found a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

The Schizophrenia Society of Ontario recommended in 2008 that the Ontario government add a psychiatric wait times measure to its Emergency Room Wait Times Strategy. The Kirby Report on mental illness and addiction in Canada also referred to differential emergency treatment for patients with mental illness.

Bethesda, MD – The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is rallying the biomedical research community to advocate against devastating funding cuts facing the nation's research agencies unless Congress acts before the end of the year. Under sequestration, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) could lose $2.8 billion and would fund 25 percent (2,300) fewer grants. The National Science Foundation (NSF) could be cut by nearly $600 million.

Philadelphia, Pa. (November 12, 2012) – For elderly patients receiving home healthcare after a hospital stay, "social environmental factors"—particularly care provided by a family member or other informal caregiver—have a significant impact on the risk of repeated hospital admissions, reports a study in the October-December issue of Advances in Nursing Science.