Research Review - Final – Dec. 9, 2015
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Research Review - Final – Dec. 8, 2015
Formats
View PDF (PDF) 5.8 MB
This report is available in PDF (5.8 MB) only. People using assistive technology may not be able to fully access information in this file. For additional assistance, please contact us.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF or Task Force) has released its “Fifth Annual Report to Congress on High-Priority Evidence Gaps for Clinical Preventive Services.”
In 2015, the USPSTF continued to fulfill its mission of improving the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screening tests, counseling about healthy behaviors, and preventive medications. These recommendations help primary care clinicians and patients to decide together whether a preventive service is right for each patient’s needs.
In this annual report, the USPSTF has prioritized evidence gaps related to women’s health. Research in these areas would generate much needed evidence for important new recommendations to improve the health and health care of women in the United States.
Please click here to read the complete USPSTF report.
Nearing the one year anniversary of the Administration’s announcement for the future of the Medicare program, including clear goals and a timeline for shifting Medicare payments from volume to value, CMS is actively working to turn the vision into reality. In a blog post posted today, CMS Acting Principal Deputy Administrator, Chief Medical Officer, and Director of the CMS Innovation Center, Dr. Patrick Conway, reflects on the progress towards transforming our healthcare system into one that is better, smarter, and results in healthier people. Additionally, Dr. Conway reflects on the five year anniversary of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and the Center’s (CMS Innovation Center) continued contributions to encourage paying for healthcare quality over quantity of services provided.
To learn more about these efforts to continuing the shift from volume to results in American healthcare, visit the CMS Blog.
This Effective Treatment chartbook is part of a family of documents and tools that support the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report (QDR). The QDR includes annual reports to Congress mandated in the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-129). This chartbook includes a summary of trends across measures of effective treatment from the QDR and figures illustrating select measures of effective treatment. A PowerPoint version is also available that users can download for presentations.
Access here: http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/2014chartbooks/effectivetx/index.html
October 29, 2015
Variation in the BDNF gene may affect brain’s regulation of appetite, study suggests.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released today a final recommendation statement on screening for abnormal blood glucose and type 2 diabetes mellitus. To view the recommendation and the evidence on which it is based, please go to http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/RecommendationStatementFinal/screening-for-abnormal-blood-glucose-and-type-2-diabetes. A fact sheet that explains the final recommendation in plain language is also available. The final recommendation statement can also be found in the October 27, 2015 online issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.
October 27, 2015
NIH-funded study examines medical, care costs in last five years of life.
October 21, 2015
By: Jamie Roberts, Gaithersburg, Maryland
I’m a nurse and a patient—and I’m tired of hearing from my doctors that although they know what’s wrong with me, they don’t have many ideas for how to fix it. I was having continuing problems with a gastrointestinal (GI) bleed, and when my doctors suggested a risky procedure as a Hail Mary, I finally asked: “What’s the evidence for it?”
That’s why I’m excited about the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI), announced by President Obama earlier this year. The core of the initiative is a plan to recruit a 1 million national research group of people, known as a cohort, to provide genetic, environmental and lifestyle data. Researchers will be able to use the data collected to make diagnoses and develop treatments that target individuals’ personal conditions.
Whether or not a treatment for my condition is found, I’m excited about this journey.
Read more: Precision Medicine: A Personal Journey for Answers
The recommendations and opinions of health care professionals play an important role in motivating and encouraging behavior change by their patients. Behavioral counseling interventions (BCIs) to promote healthy behaviors can significantly reduce leading causes of disease and death in the United States such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and lung disease. Recommendations for delivery of these interventions in primary care have been and continue to be an important part of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) portfolio of clinical preventive services recommendations. However, research on effective BCIs can be more challenging to understand and integrate into recommendations for primary care than other clinical preventive services such as screening or use of preventive medications. Researching and evaluating the effectiveness of behavioral counseling interventions can also be challenging. AHRQ recently sponsored a special supplement to the September 2015 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM), titled Evidence-Based Behavioral Counseling Interventions as Clinical Preventive Services: Perspectives of Researchers, Funders, and Guideline Developers. The supplement addresses research design and reporting characteristics needed by BCI researchers, and present other perspectives on the evidence needed for integration of BCIs into primary care to include the feasibility dissemination and implementation.
For more information about AHRQ's Practice Improvement efforts visit the National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research at http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/primary-care/index.html.