Diabetes

Pharmacist-provided telephonic medication therapy management consultations can lead to decreases in total all-cause healthcare expenditures in a Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan population.

Predictive models for hospital admissions and readmissions in persons aged >65 years have been developed through a combination of comorbidity and previous healthcare use.

Physician use of EHRs with CDS is associated with increased blood pressure control and lower mean systolic blood pressure across US primary care visits.

This drug-utilization study in a prescription database of more than 50,000 patients analyzed compliance, persistence, and switching behavior for ACE inhibitors and ARBs.

Atrial fibrillation patients with mental illness are less likely to receive warfarin anticoagulation; those who do receive warfarin have excess risk of over-anticoagulation.

Cluster analysis can aid in identifying subgroups of patients with similar patterns of comorbid conditions for targeted care management.

A review of evidence about what works in 3 areas of value-based purchasing emphasized under healthcare reform: service delivery integration, payment, and value-based insurance design.

This study examines variation among health plans in resource use and quality of care for patients with diabetes mellitus or cardiovascular disease.

Diabetes itself affected working and wages more than control of blood sugar levels in a Mexican American population.

Efficacy of switching statin therapy from generic simvastatin was examined in a VA population. Ezetimibe/simvastatin was more potent than atorvastatin or rosuvastatin in lowering LDL.

Electronic kiosks were used to survey patients on their experience with care at the time of care delivery in an urban primary care practice.

In this prospective cohort study, eliminating prescription drug copayments improved blood pressure and LDL cholesterol concentration for low-income patients; glycemic control did not improve.

Systolic blood pressure control was not maintained in a large proportion of patients after the end of participation in a hypertension intervention study.

An integrated, clinician-focused telehealth monitoring system significantly reduced hospitalizations in Medicare home healthcare patients.

This article evaluates and compares the effectiveness of shared medical appointments versus regular office visits among Hispanic patients with diabetes.

Health improvements are usually expensive. If healthcare does not encourage high-value care and discourage low-value care, insurance premiums will continue to outpace inflation.

This longitudinal analysis of diabetes patients found that better continuity of care was associated with reduced healthcare utilization and decreased pharmaceutical and total healthcare expenses.

Disease management programs for diabetes can improve some processes of care, but they do not improve intermediate outcomes beyond doubt.

Three approaches to prospective patient identification for care management programs were compared: predictive modeling, selection by primary care physician, and a combination of both.

Providers expect that patients with chronic conditions will complete necessary laboratory tests; 1 in 7 patients with diabetes did not do so within 6 months.

Anticoagulation clinics in an integrated healthcare system differed widely in their organization and management, but these differences were not consistently related to their performance.

This qualitative study assesses patient, PCP, and oncologist views on primary care roles in shared cancer care, as well as patterns of communication between physicians.

A multisite multimodal intervention of patient education, home monitoring, measurement reporting to an IVR system, and pharmacist follow-up achieved greater BP reductions vs usual care.

Dr. William Shrank, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, discusses his paper and answers questions at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Enrollment in high-deductible health plans is associated with reduced spending on healthcare and with moderate reductions in the use of preventive care.

Longer primary care wait times were associated with small increases in glycated hemoglobin levels. Diabetes care quality improvement strategies should consider timely access to care.