News and Updates for Healthcare Professionals

Community organizations are incorporating health literacy strategies to contribute to the well-being of their community. Check out our website for more resources community organizations offer for your communication needs.

Also, check out the Clear Communication Index! A research-based tool that helps you develop and assess communication materials for your intended audience.

Safety data analyzed from five NIH inpatient clinical trials
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The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has released its “Ninth Annual Report to Congress on High-Priority Evidence Gaps for Clinical Preventive Services.”

In this annual report, the USPSTF highlights research gaps from its recent recommendations related to primary care prevention of mental illness, substance use, and violence. These important topics affect the health and well-being of many Americans. The report calls for more high-quality research to understand these complex health issues and how clinicians can meaningfully assist their patients in preventing them.

Topics highlighted in the report include:

Mental Health and Substance Use

• Perinatal Depression: Preventive Interventions
• Unhealthy Alcohol Use in Adolescents and Adults: Screening and Behavioral Counseling Interventions
• Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation in Children and Adolescents: Primary Care Interventions
• Illicit Drug Use, Including Nonmedical Use of Prescription Drug Use in Adolescents and Adults: Screening by Asking About Drug Use

Violence Prevention

• Intimate Partner Violence, Elder Abuse, and Abuse of Vulnerable Adults: Screening
• Child Maltreatment: Interventions

Future research can help fill gaps in these areas and may result in important new recommendations that will help to improve the health of Americans. By identifying evidence gaps and highlighting them as research priorities, the USPSTF aims to inspire public and private researchers to collaborate and target their efforts to generate new knowledge and address these important health issues.

Read the complete report on the USPSTF website.

Treatment for Acute Pain: An Evidence Map
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Recently, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued new guidance on appropriate tapering or discontinuation of long-term opioid use. The new guide, the HHS Guide for Clinicians on the Appropriate Dosage Reduction or Discontinuation of Long-Term Opioid Analgesics, serves as advice to clinicians who are contemplating or initiating a change in opioid dosage for a patient.
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The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) has a rich portfolio of public health efforts to reduce the risks of developing chronic disease and to improve the health and quality of life for those living with chronic disease. This collection from Preventing Chronic Disease features 10 articles that offer insights into the development, implementation, and evaluation of population-based interventions to prevent chronic diseases and to control their effects on quality of life, morbidity, and mortality.

The NCCDPHP Program Evaluation collection shares important evaluation findings and lessons learned from public health and clinical interventions implemented by NCCDPHP, its partners, and its awardees.

Table of Contents

• Teacher Physical Education Practices and Student Outcomes in a Sample of Middle Schools Participating in the Presidential Youth Fitness Program
  Lucas IR, Harris C, Lee S, Wargo J, Barnes SP, Kauh TJ, et al

• A Faith-Based Intervention to Reduce Blood Pressure in Underserved Metropolitan New York Immigrant Communities
  Yi SS, Wyatt LC, Patel S, Choy C, Dhar R, Zanowiak JM, et al

• A Change-Management Approach to Closing Care Gaps in a Federally Qualified Health Center: A Rural Kentucky Case Study
  Carman AL, Vanderpool RC, Stradtman LR, Edmiston EA

• Putting the National Diabetes Prevention Program to Work: Predictors of Achieving Weight-Loss Goals in an Employee Population
  Chakkalakal RJ, Connor LR, Rolando LA, Huang Y, Byrne DW, Awalt BM, et al

• Implementation of Liver Cancer Education Among Health Care Providers and Community Coalitions in the Cherokee Nation
  Momin B, Mera J, Essex W, Gahn D, Burkhart M, Nielsen D, et al

• A Media Campaign to Increase Health Care Provider Assistance for Patients Who Smoke Cigarettes
  Juster HR, Ortega-Peluso CA, Brown EM, Hayes KA, Sneegas K, Gopez G, et al

• Single Cigar Price and Availability in Communities With and Without a Cigar Packaging and Pricing Regulation
  Kephart L, Song G, Henley P, Ursprung WS

• Estimating the Relative Impact of Clinical and Preventive Community-Based Interventions: An Example Based on the Community Transformation Grant Program
  Yarnoff B, Bradley C, Honeycutt AA, Soler RE, Orenstein D

• A Cohort Review Approach Evaluating Community Health Worker Programs in New York City, 2015–2017
  Feinberg A, Seidl L, Dannefer R, Wyka K, Drackett E, Brown-Dudley L, et al

• Advancing Tobacco Control Through Point of Sale Policies, Providence, Rhode Island
  Pearlman DN, Arnold JA, Guardino GA, Welsh EB

In this issue of JAMA, Shrank and colleagues report a thorough review of studies published over the past decade to provide updated estimates on the proportion of US health care spending that is wasteful, defined in 6 broad categories: ...
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Risk factors for chronic disease are multiple and interrelated, having roots in individuals, families, and communities and requiring coordinated strategies across multiple levels and sectors to create conditions that promote and sustain optimal health.

This collection places emphasis on the fact that public health cannot reduce chronic disease rates alone, and neither can health care. Instead, this collection features 16 articles that explore a wide array of new approaches for improving systems and addressing upstream causes, sharing early outcomes and identifying changes in workflows to ease implementation and promote sustainability of improvements.

AHRQ’s Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (MAT for OUD) Playbook serves as a comprehensive guide for implementing MAT in primary care and other ambulatory care settings. The online, interactive playbook contains the latest guidance, tools and resources to address MAT implementation.
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After 20 Years of Improving America’s Healthcare, AHRQ Makes Bold Plans for Future Successes
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