Hi, My name is Dr. Ben King and I’m the new Chair of the Medical Care section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). I am beyond excited about what the next couple of years have in store for us as a professional organization. I also recognize that we are entering a time of immense… Read More »
Consolidation, broadly, and private equity, specifically, is threatening the survival of primary care. Because of its life-extending, quality-improving, cost-reducing, and equity-promoting benefits, primary care has been declared a common good, worthy of the public stewardship and investment provided to the justice system, highways, and public schools. Through its core functions – coordination, comprehensiveness, access, and… Read More »
For new readers, the editors and the majority of contributors to The Medical Care Blog recently authored and signed onto a special consensus statement about climate change, labeling it the “greatest threat” to global public health. As part of the plan to publish that statement, we also declared that the drivers and health risks of… Read More »
In January, the Medical Care Blog’s editors published a consensus statement on climate policy and health. This statement was co-signed by many of our authors, editors, and editorial board members of the Medical Care journal. As we look ahead to our focus theme for 2024, we want to begin with a look backward as well.… Read More »
As part of its partnership with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Medical Care has published its first PCORI-sponsored article collection, which provides specific information about the costs that healthcare systems can expect to incur in promoting the uptake of specific evidence-based programs. In September’s special issue, five project teams that received Implementation Award funding from PCORI… Read More »
The United States Preventive Services Task Force has recommended lung cancer screening for at-risk groups since 2013, and updated again in 2021. This is a simple procedure involving a low dose of radiation used to take a CT image of the chest. If utilized by most eligible Americans, screening could reduce lung cancer mortality by… Read More »
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has gone from a deadly infection to a manageable health condition in the last thirty years. Today, we have medications available that can treat those with HIV and prevent HIV in uninfected people. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, also known as PrEP, is a medication given to individuals without HIV to keep them from… Read More »
Ben King is joining our editorial team at The Medical Care Blog! Dr. King (he/him) is currently an Assistant Professor of Population Health at the new Tilman J Fertitta Family College of Medicine at the University of Houston. He has additional appointments in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, with the UH-Humana Integrated Health… Read More »
It is not too late to fix the US healthcare system. But every day spent in this folly, the problem gets worse. It is time to move this conversation forward. We are excited to share that in November 2021, the American Public Health Association (APHA) formally adopted a policy statement titled “Adopting a Single-Payer Health… Read More »
Homelessness persists in the US, and across the world, despite decades of recognition and longstanding efforts to end the condition. There have been major successes in our understanding of what policies and programs work to prevent and end homelessness. However, the work must and will find new ways to adapt and improve if we are… Read More »
Earlier this fall the American Public Health Association (APHA) released a remarkable report on the relationship between Housing Equity and Health, “Creating The Healthiest Nation: Health and Housing Equity.” APHA’s Caucus on Homelessness is deeply appreciative of the report’s focus on US housing inequalities and the shortcomings of our current affordable housing programs to address… Read More »
Successfully implementing an intervention within a complex service delivery system requires multiple, inter-related adoption strategies. The Veterans Administration’s (VA) renewed emphasis on Hepatitis C treatment offered a perfect opportunity to study which strategies worked. In this post, I will review those findings. Then, I will discuss the importance of accounting for the complexity of strategy… Read More »
In this post we reflect on the definition of success in a study measuring the value of peer support services administered through the HUD VASH program and discuss client-centered definitions of value. We propose designing and understanding programmatic success goals tailored to unique need categories within veteran participant groups. With stay-at-home orders lifting all across… Read More »
Our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness during this SARS-COV-2 pandemic are facing unique risks and extreme hardships. In the corner of American society almost defined by economic and racial disparities, COVID-19 has compounded and taken advantage of these long-standing vulnerabilities. An outsized burden of risk factors for COVID-19 compound the risks of crowded shelters and… Read More »
There is a lot of attention being paid to the proportions of severe and fatal cases in discussions of COVID-19. Unless you’ve been living under a rock since January, you know that there are groups who are more likely to get very sick or die during this pandemic. In this post, we explore the evidence… Read More »
This post summarizes what we know right now about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. The information contained in this post may change as the situation changes, or may become obsolete. We will attempt to update if any of this changes substantively. News and social media outlets have fallen short of useful… Read More »
Homelessness is both a public health issue and a deeply troubling sign of policy failures in a rich country such as the US. Yet what are the right ways to respond, both in the moment and on a larger scale? In early November, the American Public Health Association (APHA) gathered for our annual meeting at… Read More »
The codes of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) serve as the backbone for billing, payment, and surveillance programs across the entire healthcare system – nationally and globally. Recent research published in Medical Care by Alexander Mainor and colleagues from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice has shown that the transition of… Read More »
Homelessness and housing are issues of public health significance. This month, we published a Special Commentary about homelessness in Medical Care, informed by the 2017 policy statement we co-authored for the American Public Health Association (APHA) about homelessness and how federal, state, and local authorities can use evidence-based solutions to help bring an end to… Read More »
Hepatitis C treatment has gone through a revolution in the last 5 years. Treatment durations have dropped from 48 to 12 weeks, and success rates have improved dramatically. However, treatment costs have sky-rocketed accordingly, and access to care has become a significant issue, particularly for lower socioeconomic individuals and groups. Eligible veterans should have access… Read More »
Tailoring the primary care medical home model improves the care experience for US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients with homelessness experience, according to a recent study by Dr. Audrey Jones and colleagues in the journal Medical Care. Researchers from the VA’s Informatics, Decision-Enhancement, and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) Center and Center for Health Equity Research… Read More »
Individuals experiencing homelessness are among the most medically, socially, economically, and politically vulnerable in our society. Because of this, patterns of service use by these individuals can often serve as indicators of the safety net capacity and overall wellness of the systems of care we have in place – like “canaries in the coal mine.”… Read More »
This post is for the measurement methodologists in the house. Although, the study results have a real impact for anyone reading macro-level studies of health care services and economics. Sure, this is a bit of inside baseball, but it involves a fundamentally important issue at the center of healthcare research and policy that relies on… Read More »