“Screening colonoscopy has been shown to reduce colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality by enabling detection and removal of precancerous lesions. However, the available evidence about the optimal screening interval is limited. [..] More targeted screening offers would potentially reduce the burden of testing and demand of capacities and costs associated with colonoscopy, thereby also counteracting the frequently reported overuse and underuse of screening examinations in considerable proportions of the population. [..] Anonymized registration of screening colonoscopy findings and the use of the anonymized data for program evaluation by the Central Research Institute of Ambulatory Health Care in Germany is … Read More
All posts in Epidemiology
“By the 1990s, worsening patterns of population health began to raise concerns about their association with these changes in the global political economy. The sharp rise in non-communicable diseases, now accounting for 74% of deaths worldwide, were difficult to explain solely as related to individual behavioural choices. The links between population health outcomes, the strategies and products of corporations, and the political contexts that facilitate such practices began to receive closer scrutiny. Over the next two decades, detailed analyses of an increasingly globalised tobacco industry, enabled by a flood of internal documents into the public domain, were followed by similar … Read More
“During the diagnostic process, it is not unusual, or incorrect, for working diagnostic labels to change as new information is acquired and as the patient’s condition evolves both naturally and in response to interventions. The language used to communicate risk of disease and uncertainty about diagnosis is not uniform and may be overly ambiguous (eg, “cannot rule out,” “consider the possibility”). Thus, attempts to standardize and measure diagnostic processes should avoid unrealistic expectations or overzealous judgments to be both accurate and fair in judgment (eg, driving performance not feasible under the conditions at the time, or expecting actions predicated on … Read More
“US data from the period 1996–2016 are now available on health care spending by cause from the Disease Expenditure Project (DEX) and on DALYs [disability-adjusted life-years] by cause from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2017. DALYs are the sum of years of life lost due to premature mortality, as well as years lived with disability among people living with a given cause. Intuitively, DALYs are a measure of burden, and therefore the goal of health systems is to avert DALYs. A decrease in DALYs is a measure of health gain referred to as DALYs averted. [..] We estimated … 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
[Introduction] “Rehabilitation might be needed by anyone with a health condition who experiences difficulties in, for example, mobility, vision, or cognition. Therefore, its scope is very broad and people with diverse underlying health conditions or impairments might require rehabilitation at some stage of the course of their disease. There is evidence showing that many rehabilitative interventions are cost-effective. Low-cost rehabilitation interventions requiring minimal resources have been effective in improving functional outcomes in different health conditions in low-income and lower-middle-income countries and can be used in these settings as successful models of care. Rehabilitation can improve functioning outcomes in adults and … Read More
“[Introduction] Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fastest rising cause of cancer-related mortality in the US. The incidence of HCC has increased over the last 2 decades owing to the hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemic. Most HCC cases are diagnosed in advanced stages, with a median survival less than 1 year. Regular surveillance for HCC may help improve early cancer detection rates when curative treatment can be applied and is recommended in patients with HCV-associated cirrhosis. The availability of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) for HCV treatment has substantially altered the landscape of HCV. Though new DAA regimens can result in a … Read More
Summary of findings: U.S. hospitals charge on average $417 for every $100 of their total costs, in statistical terms a 417 percent charge-to-cost ratio. Over the last 20 years, hospital expenditures have grown faster than overall health care expenditures. Hospital expenditures as a percentage of national health expenditures have increased from 30.8 percent in 1999 to 32.7 percent in 2018. In 2018 hospital expenditures alone comprised close to 6 percent of the national GDP. Of the 100 hospitals with the highest charges relative to their costs, for-profit corporations own or operate 95 of them. All of the top 100 hospitals … Read More
“[Introduction] [..] In one study of a large Accountable Care Organization, PCP relocation, retirement, or death was the dominant factor associated with the reassignment of approximately one-third of Medicare beneficiaries to a new Accountable Care Organization every year. [Methods] This cohort study used Medicare administrative claims data for a 20% random sample of continuously enrolled, fee-for-service beneficiaries. For the main study sample as well as subgroup analyses, we included beneficiaries visiting a PCP for at least 1 evaluation and management visit from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2017. We then limited the study sample to PCPs who treated 30 … Read More