April 2019

Uncoordinated multisystem use is problematic for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients with dementia. The Partners in Dementia Care intervention is successful in changing the pattern of VHA versus non-VHA use.

Deprescribing could reduce the risk of harm from inappropriate medications. Understanding patient attitudes regarding which clinicians can make deprescribing recommendations can facilitate effective design and implementation of interventions.

Higher continuity of care was statistically significant and was associated with fewer ambulatory care–sensitive condition hospitalizations.

Changing patients from an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)/long-acting β agonist (LABA) inhaler and long-acting muscarinic agonist (LAMA) inhaler to a LAMA/LABA inhaler and a separate ICS inhaler did not appear to affect patient-reported chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) symptom scores.

Among HealthPartners plan members, musculoskeletal, psychosocial, and neurologic conditions create the greatest burden to current health; diet offers the greatest opportunity to improve future health scores; and 42% report a high level of well-being.

Targeted interventions by patient characteristics to improve fecal immunochemical test completion could reduce disparities in colorectal cancer screening and improve overall compliance with screening recommendations.

Previous research overstated the generalizability of the Exenatide Study of Cardiovascular Event Lowering trial results by omitting the restriction on the percentage of patients without a prior cardiovascular event.

The authors of the manuscript “Generalizability of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonist Cardiovascular Outcome Trials Enrollment Criteria to the US Type 2 Diabetes Population” respond to a letter to the editor.

A business case is made for medical centers to offer high-quality clinical training experiences to recruit graduating health professionals.

The authors determined whether Minnesota health systems responded to competitors’ publicly reported performance. Low performers fell further behind high performers, suggesting that reporting was not associated with quality competition.

Inappropriate prescribing practices of opioids are a major risk factor for mortality among opioid users in the Georgia Medicaid population, although risk is lower in managed Medicaid.