“The United States reported more deaths from COVID-19 last Friday than deaths from Hurricane Katrina, more on any two recent weekdays than deaths during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, more last month than deaths from flu in a bad season, and more in two years than deaths from HIV during the four decades of the AIDS epidemic. At least 953,000 Americans have died from COVID, and the true toll is likely even higher because many deaths went uncounted. COVID is now the third leading cause of death in the U.S., after only heart disease and cancer, which are both catchall terms … Read More
All posts by Anupam
“Routine use of home-based symptom monitoring and management using electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePRO) to improve care delivery is on the horizon. Randomized clinical trials demonstrate that use of patient-reported symptoms can have marked impact on patient outcomes, including minimizing symptom burden, enhancing quality of life, reducing hospitalizations, increasing time receiving cancer treatments, and, in some studies, improving survival. [..] few health systems have successfully, fully integrated ePRO. [..] In the study by Daly and colleagues, the authors begin to tackle an important question of frequency of assessment administration in ePRO. This study used daily symptom assessment in contrast to the … Read More
“The insurance companies [Cigna and Kaiser Permanente] provided Ginger with access to millions of potential users. After its financial investments in Ginger, Cigna began offering no-cost access to Ginger’s behavioral health services in order to improve customers’ overall health and well-being, according to leadership from both organizations. Yes, it is possible that those customers will benefit from the platform. But given that Ginger’s valuation grew in multiples around the same time—at least in part because of the massive influx of customers from Cigna and Kaiser—it’s reasonable to suggest that the insurance company was double dipping. By sending its customers to … Read More
“Coronavirus case numbers are in free fall; vaccines and, to a lesser degree, viral infections have built up a wall of immunity that can blunt the virus’s impact overall. Several experts stressed that certain aspects of the CDC’s new guidelines are genuinely improving on the framework the country was using before. “The timing feels right to make some kind of change,” Whitney Robinson, an epidemiologist at Duke University, told me. But protection against SARS-CoV-2 isn’t spread equally. Millions of kids under 5 are still ineligible for shots. Vaccine effectiveness declines faster in older individuals and is patchy to begin with … Read More
“The USA TODAY Network in New England and the Documenting COVID-19 project partnered to investigate how New England became a positive data anomaly in terms of COVID death reporting accuracy. Across the region, excess deaths during the pandemic are almost completely accounted for by official COVID deaths, according to our analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mortality data and expected death models developed by demographers at Boston University. In other parts of the country, these COVID deaths were missed or certified incorrectly as other causes. [..] Hospitals are a dominant and central data source to capture the pandemic’s … Read More
“For most of its existence, the data economy was structured around a “digital curtain” designed to obscure the industry’s practices from lawmakers and the public. Data was considered company property and a proprietary secret, even though the data originated from customers’ private behavior. That curtain has since been lifted and a convergence of consumer, government, and market forces are now giving users more control over the data they generate. Instead of serving as a resource that can be freely harvested, countries in every region of the world have begun to treat personal data as an asset owned by individuals and … Read More
“[Introduction] Shared decision-making is a strategy to improve communication and health care delivery by reducing unwarranted variation and improving quality of treatment decisions, particularly for conditions where evidence supports multiple treatment choices without a single superior option. In such “preference-sensitive” treatment scenarios, shared decision-making promotes a collaborative decision that is consistent with evidence-based practices and patient preferences and values. Obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (OSDB) is a common condition in children for which decisions for surgery with tonsillectomy are often dependent on family preferences. The treatment decisions are considered preference sensitive because of a lack of definitive evidence for a single best … Read More
“β-Blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (ACE-I/ARBs) are beneficial after AMI [acute myocardial infarction], and adjustment of these medications to moderate to high doses is recommended in the setting of reduced LV ejection fraction (LVEF) or heart failure. Initiation and adjustment of these medications can be challenging during hospitalization, particularly among patients with borderline or low systemic blood pressure because of an emphasis on shortening length of stay and the challenges in organizing frequent face-to-face visits early after discharge. Telemedicine has enabled the transition from face-to-face care and is set to play a key role in the post–coronavirus disease-19 … Read More
“Digital health is a broad spectrum of measurement technologies that include personal wearable devices and internal devices as well as sensors in people, homes, cars, and communities. Digital health can help identify health risks and assist with diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of health and disease conditions and offers novel ways to capture continuous data on individuals and populations that complement the episodic data on individuals that are captured by current health care approaches. [..] Digital health technologies may enhance capabilities for improving health through 3 modalities: improved data communications, miniaturization, and decentralization of devices. Electronic medical records, mobile health apps, … Read More
“[Introduction] [..] Privileged US citizens—including thought and physician leaders—may tolerate this underperformance as applying to “others,” dismissing comparisons as mean values that do not reflect the quality of their own personal care. Privileged US citizens believe that their social connections and financial resources allow them to choose the best physicians and hospitals for their own care, thereby ensuring excellent health outcomes. One study showed that the wealthiest quintile receive 43% more health care than the poorest quintile and 23% more than middle-income US citizens. Privileged US citizens may believe that their resources ensure that they receive the world’s best health … Read More