News Across the Professions
Terms Related To Complementary And Alternative Medicine [September 1, 2010]
Young Children Of Immigrants: The Leading Edge Of America’s Future [August 31, 2010]
The Value Of Genetic And Genomic Technologies [August 30, 2010]
Human Subject Protection In Community-Engaged Research [August 20, 2010]
U.S. Colleges With the Biggest, Smallest Gaps In Minority Graduation Rates [August 19, 2010]
Health Care Spending: 1998, 2003, And 2008 [August 18, 2010]
Socioeconomic Indicators That Matter For Population Health [August 17, 2010]
Food Insecurity Among Children In The U.S. [August 16, 2010]
Perspective on National Health Care Reform and Its Implications for Both Health Care Delivery and Clinical Research [August 13, 2010]
Baccalaureate Degrees Offered By Community Colleges [August 12, 2010]
Kinesiology: A Quickly Growing Major [August 11, 2010]
Medicaid Long-Term Care: The Ticking Time Bomb [August 10, 2010]
New Realities Of An Older America: Challenges, Changes, And Questions [August 9, 2010]
NIH To Break New Ground In Reducing Health Disparities [August 6, 2010]
Aging And The Health Care Workforce [August 5, 2010]
Assessing Health Reform's Impact On Four Key American Groups [August 4, 2010]
Department Of Education Rule On Program Integrity [August 3, 2010]
Measuring Population Health Outcomes [August 2, 2010]
Terms Related To Complementary And Alternative Medicine
Many Americans use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in pursuit of health and well-being. The 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), which included a comprehensive survey of CAM use by Americans, showed that approximately 38 percent of adults use CAM. Defining it is difficult because the field is broad and constantly changing. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) defines CAM as a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine. Conventional medicine (also called Western or allopathic medicine) is medicine as practiced by holders of M.D. (medical doctor) and D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) degrees and by allied health professionals. The boundaries between CAM and conventional medicine are not absolute and specific CAM practices may, over time, become widely accepted.
A fact sheet from the NCCAM that describes various CAM modalites can be accessed by clicking http://nccam.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2010_september/CAMterms.htm.
Young Children Of Immigrants: The Leading Edge Of America’s Future
According to a report from The Urban Institute, children of immigrants have nearly doubled as a share of pre-K to 3rd grade students since 1990. The share of children under age 8 with immigrant parents stood at 24 percent in 2008, up from 13 percent in 1990. Young children of immigrants account for more than 30 percent of children in seven states, with California leading the nation at 50 percent. The majority (93 percent) of children of immigrants are U.S. citizens. This fact sheet also includes state-by-state data on the number of children of immigrants and the number of children whose parents come from more than 130 countries.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412203-young-children.pdf.
The Value Of Genetic And Genomic Technologies
Knowing one's genetic disposition to a variety of diseases, including common chronic diseases, can benefit both the individual and society at large. The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Roundtable on Translating Genomic-Based Research for Health held a workshop on March 22, 2010 to bring together diverse perspectives on the value of genetic testing and to discuss its use in clinical practice.
The workshop report can be accessed by clicking http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2010/The-Value-of-Genetic-and-Genomic-Technologies.aspx.
Human Subject Protection In Community-Engaged Research
The August 18, 2010 issue of Science Translational Medicine indicates that with the introduction of the new National Institutes of Health Roadmap in 2003, there has been a growing emphasis on translational research. This form of investigation challenges current human subjects protections guidelines that were written in the 1970s and were focused on the protection of the individual participant in a clinical drug trial. Community engagement requires a critical examination of the range of risks that may arise when communities are both participants and partners in research, in order to promote appropriate and effective protection of human subjects as individuals and members of communities. Given that the principal investigator has ultimate responsibility for ensuring the ethical integrity of the research, researchers should be aware of the human subjects protections delineated in the federal regulations that must be fulfilled and other entities that can help ensure human subjects protections.
The article can be accessed by clicking http://stm.sciencemag.org/.
U.S. Colleges With the Biggest, Smallest Gaps In Minority Graduation Rates
Two reports released by The Education Trust—“Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating African-American Students” and “Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating Hispanic Students”—dig beneath national college-graduation averages and examine disaggregated six-year graduation rates at hundreds of the nation’s public and private institutions.
The reports can be accessed by clicking http://www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/publications/files/CRO%20Brief-AfricanAmerican.pdf and http://www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/publications/files/CRO%20Brief-Hispanic.pdf.
Health Care Spending: 1998, 2003, And 2008
How have rising health care costs affected household budgets? That question was raised many times before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, whose goal-as the act's name implies-is to make health care more affordable for American families. An analysis of Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) data from the 1998, 2003, and 2008 Interview Surveys provides a picture of nominal out-of-pocket health care spending among households categorized by the age of the reference person. The expenses analyzed were total health care and its components: health insurance, medical services, prescription drugs, and medical supplies.
The findings can be accessed by clicking http://stats.bls.gov/opub/focus/volume1_number8/cex_1_8.htm.
Socioeconomic Indicators That Matter for Population Health
Increasing research and policy attention is being given to how the socioeconomic environment influences health. An article in Preventing Chronic Disease discusses potential indicators or metrics regarding the socioeconomic environment that could play a role in an incentive-based system for population health.
The article can be accessed by clicking http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2901572/pdf/PCD74A74.pdf.
Food Insecurity Among Children In The U.S.
Twenty-one percent of American households with children are “food insecure”—a situation that adversely affects children, causing poor cognitive development, socio-emotional, and health outcomes—according to a new report by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP. Food insecurity is a term used by the Food and Drug Administration to describe the situation when food intake of one or more members of a household is reduced and eating patterns are disrupted because the household lacks money and other resources for food. NCCP reports the incidence of food insecurity has markedly increased in recent years, due largely to the worsening economy.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_958.pdf.
Perspective on National Health Care Reform and Its Implications for Both Health Care Delivery and Clinical Research
As part of a videocast series at the National Institutes of Health, a presentation was made on the topic of a progress report on health reform and its implications for both health care delivery and clinical research.
The videocast can be accessed by clicking http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=9405.
Baccalaureate Degrees Offered By Community Colleges
While community colleges often are perceived as solely offering two-year associate degrees, in Florida where the community college baccalaureate movement is strongest, community colleges now offer more than 100 four-year degrees. Primarily, these programs are offered in nursing and education.
Additional information about this trend can be accessed by clicking http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/12/baccalaureate.
Kinesiology: A Quickly Growing Major
By 2018, the number of physical therapists in the United States is projected to grow by 30.3 percent, but the number of students majoring in kinesiology – a field in which many physical therapists hold a degree -- is growing at an even faster rate. According to the American Kinesiology Association, the number of undergraduate kinesiology majors grew 50 percent from 2003 to 2008 to more than 26,000 students, making it one of the fastest-growing majors in the country. Kinesiology, or the study of physical movement, has seen a surge in popularity over the last 20 years that experts attribute to its social relevance, its relation to the obesity epidemic, and the growing societal importance of sports and athletics. The lack of resources to train new professors is one of the biggest challenges facing the field: currently there are only 60 Ph.D. programs in the country for kinesiology -- a sharp decline from two decades ago.
Additional information can be accessed by clicking http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/11/kinesiology.
Medicaid Long-Term Care: The Ticking Time Bomb
The convergence of an aging population, growing fiscal pressures, and health care reform's mandate for increased access to care will have far-reaching consequences for state-administered Medicaid long-term care (LTC) programs. Left unattended, states' obligation to their Medicaid LTC enrollees has the potential to debilitate government effectiveness. In addition, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) provides little near-term relief: States must innovate with a sense of urgency to address this priority issue. "Medicaid Long-term Care: The Ticking Time Bomb," a new Issue Brief by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, part of Deloitte LLP, examines the situation.
The Issue Brief can be accessed by clicking http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/US_CHS_2010LTCinMedicaid_062910.pdf.
New Realities Of An Older America: Challenges, Changes, And Questions
A report from the Stanford Center on Longevity is entitled New Realities of an Older America: Challenges, Changes, and Questions. It highlights five important changes shaping the new demographic reality: population aging, increased racial and ethnic diversity, changes in living arrangements, evolving health care needs, and challenges to financial well-being.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://longevity.stanford.edu/files/New%20Realities%20of%20an%20Older%20America.pdf.
NIH To Break New Ground In Reducing Health Disparities
Yesterday, the National Institutes of Health launched a multidisciplinary network of experts who will explore new approaches to understanding the origins of health disparities or differences in the burden of disease among population groups. Using state-of-the-science conceptual and computational models, the network's goal is to identify important areas where interventions or policy changes could have the greatest impact in eliminating health disparities. The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), part of NIH, is contracting with the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, to establish the Network on Inequality, Complexity, and Health (NICH).
More information about the NICH can be accessed by clicking http://obssr.od.nih.gov/scientific_areas/social_culture_factors_in_health/health_disparities/index.aspx#NICH
Aging And The Health Care Workforce
A report from the Population Reference Bureau examines the effects of an aging population on the health care workforce. Since the population is demanding more healthcare services, health care also involves a workforce that is aging and retiring in greater numbers.
The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.prb.org/pdf10/TodaysResearchAging19.pdf.
Assessing Health Reform's Impact On Four Key American Groups
According to a recent article in the journal Health Affairs, health reform can be assessed from the perspective of four groups that collectively include most Americans. For those who are now in Medicaid or who are uninsured, reform will be a major gain. For those who obtain health insurance in the individual and small-group markets, reform should bring improvements. For those who have health insurance from midsize- and large-group insurers, reform will bring little change. Finally, for Medicare beneficiaries, reform promises to bring positive change. However, financing future health spending overall, and Medicare spending in particular, poses a formidable challenge. Although not a panacea, all-payer rate setting, in which a federal or state agency establishes standard payment rates for each class of payer, may be the only feasible alternative, at least in the short run.
The article can be accessed by clicking http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.2010.0595?ijkey=Fz7cAKs3lxugY&keytype=ref&siteid=healthaff.
Department Of Education Rule On Program Integrity
On June 18, 2010 the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) published a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” (NPRM) in the Federal Register, addressing “Program Integrity” issues. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) filed comments with USDE on July 29. CHEA’s comments focus on the impact of the proposed rules in three areas: credit hour, state authorization and misrepresentation. USDE will review comments received on the NPRM and will issue final regulations by November 1, 2010. The new regulations will become effective on July 1, 2011.
CHEA’s comments can be accessed by clicking http://www.chea.org/pdf/CHEA%20Comments%20to%20USDE%207-29-10.pdf.
Measuring Population Health Outcomes
An article in the July 2010 issue of the CDC publication, Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice, and Policy, states that an ideal population health outcome metric should reflect a population's dynamic state of physical, mental, and social well-being. Diseases and injuries are intermediate factors that influence the likelihood of achieving a state of health. On the basis of a review of outcomes metrics currently in use and the availability of data for at least some US counties, the following metrics for population health outcomes are recommended: 1) life expectancy from birth, or age-adjusted mortality rate; 2) condition-specific changes in life expectancy, or condition-specific or age-specific mortality rates; and 3) self-reported level of health, functional status, and experiential status. When reported, outcome metrics should present both the overall level of health of a population and the distribution of health among different geographic, economic, and demographic groups in the population.
The article can be accessed by clicking http://cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2010/jul/10_0005.htm.