Monthly Archive for December 2008
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December 31, 2008
links for 2008-12-31
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"Communities are no longer interested in simply being a subject of a study," said Austin. "They want to engage in a process with the researcher that helps them address some of the pressing issues they confront."
Posted by: Staff on December 31, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
December 30, 2008
links for 2008-12-30
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Fifty-eight percent of children had a documented autism spectrum disorder. In adjusted analyses, children who were Black, Hispanic, or of other race/ethnicity were less likely than were White children to have a documented ASD. This disparity persisted for Black children, regardless of IQ, and was concentrated for children of other ethnicities when IQ was lower than 70.
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Community health centers throughout the state are seeing a dramatic increase in patients requesting service, leaving many patients to wait weeks for follow-up care.
Posted by: Staff on December 30, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
December 29, 2008
links for 2008-12-29
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Partners HealthCare, the umbrella organization over Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals in Boston, tends to get substantially heftier fees from insurers than other hospitals in the area.
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A majority of Maryland's hospitals have received surpluses from free and unpaid care in recent years, though they are supposed to break even in the long run.
Posted by: Staff on December 29, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Earl Pike - Works in Progress Lecture Series
The Case Center for Reducing Health Disparities and the CSU Center for Health Equity present the next in our Works in Progress Series:
Earl Pike, Director, AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland will present on January 9, 2009 from 3 - 4 pm.
Location is the MetroHealth Medical Center's Rammelkamp Building, R240
2500 MetroHealth Drive, Cleveland, OH.
Please RSVP your attendance to Michele Abraham at mep2@case.edu or by phone 216-778-3858. We look forward to seeing you there!
Posted by: Staff on December 29, 2008
Category: Works in Progress
December 23, 2008
links for 2008-12-23
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...calls for the Grady Health System to require Fulton and DeKalb County patients who earn between 126 and 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines to pay for 40 percent of their care, up to 25% of their annual income.
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The University of South Florida tracked new clients of various Medicaid programs for three years. A report issued in 2007 illustrated managed care's little secret: When time came for the nursing home, most people disenroll from managed care and fell back on regular Medicaid.
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In England and Wales, the admission rate to paediatric intensive care is higher in children from more deprived areas and 36% higher for children from the south Asian population. Risked-adjusted mortality increases in south Asian children as deprivation decreases.
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The median cost of attending a year of medical school, including all fees, is now $62,243 at private schools and $44,390 for state residents at public schools.
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This holiday season reminds me of 12-year-old Deamonte Driver, a young African American who died in the shadows of our nation’s capital last February from a toothache that progressed to a brain abscess.
Posted by: Staff on December 23, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
December 22, 2008
links for 2008-12-22
Posted by: Staff on December 22, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Racial disparities in hospice use
An upcoming issue of the journal Cancer has an article that reports on racial disparities in hospice use and how eligibility criteria might lead to those disparities.
From EurekaAlert:
"These findings suggest that the hospice eligibility criteria of Medicare and other insurers requiring patients to give up cancer treatment contribute to racial disparities in hospice use," the authors wrote. "Moreover, these criteria do not select those patients with the greatest needs for hospice services," they added.
The article adds that allowing cancer patients to select particular hospice services, like pain management, may increase hospice use.
EXTRA: YogaBear is an amazing community of cancer survivors, friends, and care providers.
Posted by: Staff on December 22, 2008
Category: Cancer; Disparities; Health Disparities; Health Inequities; Pain Management; hospice; racial differences
December 19, 2008
links for 2008-12-19
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Hospital executives in the Dayton area are saying that rising unemployment and a worsening economy over the past year have led to a drop in the percentage of patients who are privately insured.
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Not everyone in Ontario has the same access to specialty care.
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How much is Medicare’s unfunded liability? Adding up Medicare Part A, Part B, and Part D ... $85 trillion
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American College of Physicians President Jeffrey Harris sent a letter yesterday to HHS nominee Tom Daschle (pictured) asking that the Obama administration’s economic-stimulus package include a 10% pay bonus for all services provided by primary care docs under Medicare for a period of 18 months.
Posted by: Staff on December 19, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Disparities in care between Northern and Southern Ontario
Residents in Northern Ontario have less access to specialty services than those in Southern Ontario writes Elaine Della-Mattia in the Sault Star:
Sault Ste. Marie residents can access 70 specialists within the city and the same number within a two-hour drive.
Peterborough, a city of similar size, has 128 specialists and more than 7,000 specialists at its disposal within a two hours drive.
Peterborough is about 400 miles southeast of Sault.
An earlier edition of the Star reported on comments by Mayor Roswell on the disparities.
We don't have an ear, nose and throat specialist: It doesn't make sense to have a kid, who is crying and in pain, put in a car to drive to Sudbury so that you can actually get service.
Sudbury is nearly 200 miles away.
Posted by: Staff on December 19, 2008
Category: Access to Care; Access to Health Care; Canada; Disparities; Health Disparities; Health Inequities
December 17, 2008
links for 2008-12-17
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When supporters of President-elect Barack Obama hold house parties to discuss ways of fixing the health care system over the next two weeks, they may find some unexpected guests. The health insurance industry is encouraging its employees and satisfied customers to attend.
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The incidence of colorectal cancer is declining in the United States, but blacks are developing the disease and dying of it at higher rates than whites, and the racial gap is widening, the American Cancer Society has reported.
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According to researchers discussing the issue during a session on emergency department crowding at the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Scientific Assembly held here in October, the current system of offering hospital beds on a first-come, first-served basis favors patients undergoing elective procedures that are scheduled sometimes days or weeks in advance. These patients also are more profitable to a hospital than patients admitted through the emergency department.
Posted by: Staff on December 17, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
December 16, 2008
links for 2008-12-16
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Researchers report that low-income men have more advanced prostate cancer when first diagnosed.
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Today, thousands of scientists, health care workers and policymakers, among others, are convening at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, just outside Washington, D.C., for the first government-sponsored scientific summit on minority health and health disparities.
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American health care cannot be compared to other countries because of our cultural diversity.
Posted by: Staff on December 16, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Are Health Disparities Back on the National Agenda?
Last week the Kaiser Family Foundation held a roundtable discussion on how the new administration might address health disparities via policy initiatives.
You can watch, listen, or read the transcripts of that discussion over at KaiserNetwork.org.
One of the highlights of the show was this idea put forth by Brian Smedley, Ph.D:
[The NIH has] an important conference coming up next week, a very, very exciting event that I think will help us to further the field but when we look at NIH, there are several problems.
One is the culture of orientation toward bench science. We cannot solve health disparities by looking through a microscope. We’ve got to turn that microscope around, focus on structures in society, and conditions in communities that are the fundamental drivers of health disparities.
Posted by: Staff on December 16, 2008
Category: Health Disparities; Health Disparities Podcast; Health Inequities
December 15, 2008
links for 2008-12-15
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...physicians and other health-care providers are facing language and other barriers arising from fast growth in Nashville's immigrant population. As a result, they're hiring interpreters and front-desk staff who speak languages from Arabic to Somali, signing up for services that offer telephone-based translators or send in-person interpreters, or adding satellite clinics in diverse areas of Nashville.
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Relatively low earnings, rising overhead and overwhelming patient loads are sending veteran primary care physicians into early retirement and driving medical students into better-paying specialties, creating what the New England Journal of Medicine recently called a crisis.
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Colorectal cancer diagnoses and deaths have fallen in the United States this decade, but the gap in progress between whites and blacks is widening, the American Cancer Society said on Monday.
Posted by: Staff on December 15, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Language, culture pose health-care challenges
Today's Tennessean has an article that speaks to the issue of how language and culture can affect healthcare.
Physicians often encounter patients who speak little or no English. Challenges arise on how to obtain consent for treatment and provide information on follow-up care. In one example the article shows how the lack of language resources can lead to a confused patient:
[Dr.] McKay recalls once having to treat a patient from Cambodia who suffered from an aggressive form of lymphoma that required chemotherapy. McKay tried to get "informed consent," but it was clear the patient — who spoke a dialect that couldn't be translated, and apparently had no family in Middle Tennessee — didn't understand the situation.
He treated the patient anyway because the tumor was growing so rapidly. On a subsequent visit, the patient was a bit upset and kept pointing to his freshly bald scalp, McKay said, adding that the cancer eventually went into remission.
Aside from the language issue culture also comes into play. In another example the article talks about how Dr. McKay will ask female patients from certain religious backgrounds if they would like their husband present during a breast exam.
Like Nashville, Cleveland, Ohio is an ethnically diverse area. Our own Center for Reducing Health Disparities is currently involved in a research project that is focused on improving the communication between healthcare providers and Spanish speaking patients with hypertension.
Posted by: Staff on December 15, 2008
Category: Access to Care; Cancer Screening; Health Care; Health Disparities; Health Inequities; Heath Inequities; Immigrant Health; Linguistic Competency
December 12, 2008
links for 2008-12-12
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“Three strikes, and the game is over.”
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California's low-income teenagers are three times more likely to be fat than their better heeled counterparts, a new study shows.
Posted by: Staff on December 12, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
December 11, 2008
links for 2008-12-11
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Childhood social conditions predict stroke risk in black and White American adults. Additional adjustment for adult SES, in particular wealth, nearly eliminated the disparity in stroke risk between black and white subjects.
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This study explored Arizona CHW involvement in advocacy beyond the individual patient level into the realm of advocating for community level change as a mechanism to reduce the structural underpinnings of health disparities.
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Nearly 50,000 more Ohio children could be eligible for Medicaid health insurance, but state budget woes could stop the expansion.
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Low-income teenagers are almost three times more likely to be obese than teens from more affluent households, according to new research from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Posted by: Staff on December 11, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
December 10, 2008
links for 2008-12-10
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Better coordination and care, along with improved training for health care providers, are among the reforms needed to improve the fragmented and poorly designed health services currently available for American teens.
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Adolescents rely on hospital emergency rooms for routine treatment more than any other age group, according to a report that found the U.S. health-care system often fails those ages 10 to 19.
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In Ontario, only one in six children who need mental health services gets treatment.
Posted by: Staff on December 10, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Strategies for Engaging Partnerships
The Center for Health Equity is co-sponsoring with the Center for Reducing Health Disparities the next in the Works in Progress series:
“Strategies for Engaging Partnerships: Based on Lessons Learned using CBPR in an African-American Community” will be presented by Lena Grafton, MPH, CHES, Director of Community Outreach, St. Vincent Charity Hospital, Peter Whitt, MSW, LSW, Associate Director, Center for Health Equity, and Mildred Lowe, member, Central Community Healthy Group.
Location:
Cleveland State University. Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs – Sweet Seminar Room - UR 241
1717 Euclid Avenue
Parking:
17th Street Parking Garage (Between Chester & Euclid).
Please RSVP your attendance to receive a parking space to Kendra Daniel at k.daniel@csuohio.edu or by phone 216-687-4704.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Posted by: Staff on December 10, 2008
Category: Health Inequities; Heath Inequities; Works in Progress; community based participatory research
Access to healthy foods in Baltimore
In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers found that black and poor neighborhoods had less access to healthy foods than white or high income neighborhoods.
Researchers looked at participants in the MESA study. They matched neighborhood racial and income composition (based on 2000 Census data) with data on the food stores in the same census tract areas. Consideration was given to whether a store carried 'healthy foods' (skim milk and boneless chicken breast for example) and the amount of shelf space reserved for those foods.
The research group found that residents in poor and black neighborhoods had fewer stores that carried healthy foods and that stores coded as 'supermarkets' carried more healthy foods in predominantly white neighborhoods than predominantly black neighborhoods.
BONUS: The next presentation in the Works in Progress series will be this Friday, December 12th. Full details tomorrow.
Posted by: Staff on December 10, 2008
Category: Health Disparities; Healthy Foods; Nutrition; Socioeconomic Status; Urban Health; community health; economic differences; supermarkets
December 09, 2008
links for 2008-12-09
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The authors present three clinical scenarios highlighting challenges in providing equitable emergency care to minority populations.
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As increasing numbers of the unemployed and uninsured turn to the nation’s emergency rooms as a medical last resort, doctors warn that the centers — many already overburdened — could have even more trouble handling the heart attacks, broken bones and other traumas that define their core mission.
Posted by: Staff on December 09, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
December 06, 2008
links for 2008-12-06
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A new study says retail prescription prices appear to be higher in poorer ZIP codes of Florida.
Posted by: Staff on December 06, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
December 03, 2008
links for 2008-12-03
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“Our health-care system is fraught with waste,” Gary Kaplan, chairman of Seattle’s cutting-edge Virginia Mason Medical Center, tells the Washington Post. As much as half of the $2.3 trillion spent today does nothing to improve health, he said.
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Under a new federal rule, states now have greater authority to charge Medicaid beneficiaries premiums and increase co-payments for doctor’s services, hospital care and prescription drugs.
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More than 50 mentally disabled patients in the large state-run institutions of Texas died in the past year from preventable conditions often related to poor care, a federal investigation revealed Tuesday.
Posted by: Staff on December 03, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Fourth Annual Health Disparities Conference
The Teachers College at Columbia University will be holding The Fourth Annual Health Disparities Conference on March 6th & March 7th, 2009.
The topic, Achieving Cultural Competence: Acquiring Requisite Knowledge, Attitudes, and Skills for an Evidence-Based Revolution Bringing Equity in Health to All, will be addressed by noted speakers including William Miller, Ph.D.
You can see the current list of speakers at the conference's web page as well as register for the event.
Posted by: Staff on December 03, 2008
Category: Health Disparities; Health Inequities
December 02, 2008
links for 2008-12-02
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The European Union accused drug companies of adding billions of dollars to health care costs by delaying or blocking the sale of less-expensive generic medicines.
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1. America has the best health care in the world.
Posted by: Staff on December 02, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
December 01, 2008
links for 2008-12-01
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Older African Americans more likely to rate their health as poor compared with older white Americans, even though when the two groups "are functioning extremely well, new research suggests.
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The surprising news made headlines in December 2002. Generic pills for high blood pressure, which had been in use since the 1950s and cost only pennies a day, worked better than newer drugs that were up to 20 times as expensive.
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Look for legislation clearing a path for generic biotech drugs, direct negotiations of drug prices by Medicare and maybe even importation of prescription medicines. A consensus in support of health reform also appears strong, for now.
Posted by: Staff on December 01, 2008
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Community initiated research finds asthma rate higher in US born blacks
Boston residents who wanted to understand why asthma was so prevalent in their neighborhood decided to research the problem.
According to boston.com, residents approached Doug Brugge, a researcher at Tufts University's medical school with the issue.
This meeting led to Harvard Medical School students and parents interviewing community residents in the Dorchester neighborhood. They found that in their neighborhood 30% of U.S. born African-Americans had asthma while only 11% of blacks born outside the U.S. suffered from the condition.
The study appears in the November issue of the Journal of Asthma.
Cleveland area organizations who have research interests might find the Community Based Research Consult Service a worthwhile resource.
Posted by: Staff on December 01, 2008
Category: Research; asthma; community based participatory research; consult; cpbr