Use of Telemedicine to Care for Older Veterans With Depression
August 2nd 2015Telemedicine could increase access to best-practice care for older adults with major depression who are facing barriers of mobility, stigma, and geographical isolation, and a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry compared treatment response delivered via telemedicine with same-room care.
Seniors Receive Less Consults But More Medication for Mental Health Disorders
July 31st 2015The study found that the geriatric population in the United States receives prescriptions for mental health drugs at more than twice the rate that younger adults do, but they present a lower rate of seeking psychiatric care.
Enrolling Consumers Not Enough-They Need to Be Engaged, Too
July 29th 2015Increasing health insurance enrollment is only one part of the goal of the Affordable Care Act-the law also aims to improve population health and lower healthcare costs, but less attention has been paid to these critical steps.
Training Linked to Costly Brand Name Prescribing
July 26th 2015There is a link between low-value prescribing and graduate medical training, according to a study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
ASCO Calls for Developing Oncology Trials for Geriatric Patients
July 20th 2015The American Society of Clinical Oncology has issued a position statement in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, calling for federal agencies and the cancer research community to broaden clinical trials to include older adults.
Annual Report on the Status of Cancer in the United States Released
July 16th 2015The Annual Report to the Nation on Status of Cancer, product of a collaboration between The American Cancer Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Cancer Institute, and North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, has been published.
Plans to Improve Interventions for Mental and Substance Abuse Disorders
July 15th 2015A report released by the National Academy of Medicine aims to ensure that evidence-based psychosocial interventions are routinely used in clinical practice and included in the clinical training of mental health professionals.
Screening Colonoscopy Can Reduce Mortality, Study Finds
July 14th 2015The retrospective study, conducted in centers across Germany, found that when colorectal cancer was detected during a screening colonoscopy, patients lived nearly 2 years longer than if it was detected during a diagnostic colonoscopy.
Dr Joseph Gifford Discusses the Challenges of Shifting to Value-Based Payment Models
July 10th 2015The challenges in transitioning to value-based payments are rooted in cultural and environmental issues at those institutions that have never truly paid attention to value-based care, explained Joseph Gifford, MD, chief executive officer of the Providence-Swedish Health Alliance.
Dr Christine K. Cassel Talks Evolution of Standardized Healthcare Quality Measures
July 9th 2015Since the National Quality Forum (NQF)'s birth in 1999, there have been 2 significant changes in the use of standardized healthcare quality measures, explains Christine K. Cassel, MD, president and chief executive officer of NQF.
Dr Crystal S. Denlinger Calls for Personalized Care in Cancer Survivorship
July 8th 2015As innovations in cancer care transform the disease into a chronic illness, the survivorship population encompasses more than early stage patients but survivors of long term metastatic disease as well, explains Crystal S. Denlinger, MD, Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.