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CDC Publication Available: Health, United States, 2006 [November 22, 2006] NIH Call For Applications For Council Of Public Representatives [November 21, 2006] NIH Bridges To The Doctorate For Underrepresented Students [November 20, 2006] NIH Bridges To The Baccalaureate For Underrepresented Students [November 17, 2006] Nurses Endorse DNP Essentials [November 16, 2006] Advancing Leadership Skills To Build A Safer Health System [November 15, 2006] The State Of Health Care Quality 2006 [November 14, 2006] Annual Status Report Of Minorities In Higher Education [November 13, 2006] CMS Releases Outpatient Therapy Studies [October 26, 2006] Tuition Increases At Public Colleges [October 25, 2006] Medical School Enrollment Increases [October 24, 2006] Understanding The American Public's Health Priorities [October 23, 2006] Strengthening Medicare's Role In Reducing Racial And Ethnic Health Disparities [October 13, 2006] Survey Of Hospital Language Services For Patients With Limited English Proficiency [October 12, 2006] How Common Are Electronic Health Records In The U.S. [October 11, 2006] Caregiving In America [October 10, 2006] Health Behaviors Of Adults: United States, 2002-2004 [October 9, 2006] Health Care Spending Stays High In 2005 [October 6, 2006] State Of The Presidency In American Higher Education [October 5, 2006] Reauthorization Of The Higher Education Act [October 4, 2006] Responding To An Influenza In The Americas [October 3, 2006] The State Of Health Care Quality 2006 [October 2, 2006] CDC Publication Available: Health, United States, 2006 Health, United States is an annual report on trends in health statistics. The report consists of two main sections: A chartbook containing text and figures that illustrates major trends in the health of Americans; and a trend tables section that contains 147 detailed data tables. The two main components are supplemented by an executive summary, a highlights section, an extensive appendix and reference section, and an index. This 559-page document may be accessed by clicking http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus06.pdf . Downloading requires Acrobat 7. NIH Call For Applications For Council Of Public Representatives The Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking applicants to fill appointments to the Director's Council of Public Representatives (COPR). Applications are due December 15, 2006. New members will be notified of their conditional appointments in time for the April 20, 2007 COPR Meeting. Applicants will be notified regarding the final appointees in the summer of 2007. The COPR advises the NIH Director on cross-cutting issues related to medical research and health issues of public interest that ultimately promote individual, family, and community health. Examples of such broad issues that the Council has been involved with include the role of the public in the research enterprise, public trust in the research process, public input and participation at the NIH, enhancing public awareness and education about the NIH, clinical trials recruitment issues, and aspects of the NIH Roadmap, such as reengineering the clinical research enterprise. Applications may be obtained by clicking http://copr.nih.gov/application.asp . NIH Bridges To The Doctorate For Underrepresented Students The purpose of this funding opportunity is to establish partnerships between institutions granting a terminal Master s degree and PhD degree granting institutions to develop programs for Masters degree students with academic potential from groups underrepresented in the biomedical research arena of the country (underrepresented groups) and/or from populations disproportionately affected by health disparities (health disparity populations) to prepare them for successful completion of doctoral degree programs in the sciences relevant of biomedicine. The total amount awarded for new, renewal, and continuation awards for the two Bridges to the Future Programs (Bridges to the Doctorate and Bridges to the Baccalaureate) through this announcement is about $14 million per year and it is anticipated that a total of six to nine new awards for the Bridges to the Doctorate will be made each year. For additional information, click http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=11464 . NIH Bridges To The Baccalaureate For Underrepresented Students The purpose of this NIH funding opportunity is to establish partnerships between community colleges or other two-year post secondary educational institutions granting associate degrees and colleges or universities that offer baccalaureate degrees to develop programs that prepare associate degree students with academic potential for admission and successful completion of undergraduate degree program in biomedical and/or behavioral science related subjects. Students eligible to participate in this program are those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical science research arena of the nation and/or populations disproportionately affected by health disparities. For additional information, click http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=11462 . After a two-year, consensus-building process, members of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) voted to endorse the “Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice” or “Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Essentials.” Schools developing a DNP are encouraged to use this document which defines the curricular elements and competencies that must be present in a practice doctorate in nursing. For more information, click http://www.aacn.nche.edu/DNP/pdf/Essentials.pdf . A new DNP Roadmap report and tool kit have also been posted online to assist schools in navigating the approval process and launching a DNP program. These items may be accessed by clicking http://www.aacn.nche.edu/DNP/pdf/DNProadmapreport.pdf and http://www.aacn.nche.edu/DNP/toolkit.htm Advancing Leadership Skills To Build A Safer Health System The Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco, focuses its efforts on understanding and addressing the challenges faced by healthcare workers. In response, it develops programs and resources that benefit evolving health care systems. A recent case study explores the Center's health care leadership programs and their use of the leadership assessments designed by CPP, Inc to advance broad improvement in the nation's health care system. The case study may be accessed by clicking The State Of Health Care Quality 2006 The National Committee for Quality Assurance's 2006 report on the performance of U.S. health plans found overall improvement in HEDIS clinical quality measures for those plans that collect and publicly report performance data. Improvements, moreover, were broad-based. There are several lessons for those pursuing high performance of the U.S. health system as a whole. Most importantly, the results show there is hope; performance on some HEDIS measures is now approaching 100 percent. Diffusion of measurement has been slow, but steady. The nation needs more and better measures of performance, mechanisms for setting standards of performance, and tools, such as performance-based contracts, for ensuring that improvement occurs. The report may be accessed by clicking Annual Status Report Of Minorities In Higher Education Although students of color have made significant gains in college enrollment, African-American and Hispanic students still lag behind their white peers in the rate at which they enroll in college. This finding is one of many in the most recent edition of Minorities in Higher Education , a publication of the American Council on Education. The 2006 edition features more than 50 charts, tables, and graphs documenting patterns in high school completion, college participation, college enrollment, and the awarding of degrees by race/ethnicity, gender, and field of study, as well as employment trends in higher education. Copies of the Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-second Annual Status Report (Item # 311293) are available for $39.95 (plus $8.95 shipping and handling) from the ACE Fulfillment Service, Department 191, Washington, DC 20055-0191 or by calling (301) 632-6757. CMS Releases Outpatient Therapy Studies The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released three studies on Medicare outpatient therapy services as the agency and Congress continue to explore alternative payment systems to replace the therapy cap. The studies include a pay-for-performance study conducted by Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes Inc (FOTO) and two reports from Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). These items may be accessed by clicking Tuition Increases At Public Colleges The College Board yesterday announced that at four-year public colleges the increase in average tuition and fees slowed for the third year in a row, but prices are still up 35 percent from five years ago, after adjusting for inflation. The increase in average tuition and fees for two-year public colleges in 2006-07 was just slightly above the inflation rate. At all institutions, the net price—the average price students pay after grants and tax benefits are considered—is significantly lower than the published price. Total student aid increased by 3.7 percent to $134.8 billion in 2005-06, but total federal grant aid failed to keep pace with inflation. Even without factoring in inflation, the average Pell Grant per recipient fell by $120. Evidence of these trends, along with average 2006-07 college prices and 2005-06 student aid data, is documented in the reports, Trends in College Pricing 2006 and Trends in Student Aid 2006 . The reports may be accessed by clicking Medical School Enrollment Increases Understanding The American Public's Health Priorities The article may be obtained by clicking Strengthening Medicare's Role In Reducing Racial And Ethnic Health Disparities A new brief from the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) provides a handy, four-page summary of the report of NASI's Study Panel on Medicare and Disparities. Disparities in health care for racial and ethnic minorities and low-income persons pose a pressing national problem. The study panel concludes that Medicare is obligated to take the lead in reducing disparities—both for its beneficiaries and throughout the health system—and makes 17 recommendations to those who set policy for and administer the Medicare program. The brief may be accessed by clicking http://www.nasi.org/usr_doc/Medicare_Brief_No_016.pdf . Survey Of Hospital Language Services For Patients With Limited English Proficiency Although 80% of hospitals frequently treat patients with limited English proficiency, only 3% receive reimbursement for providing translation and interpretation services, according to a national survey released on October 11, 2006 by the Health Research & Educational Trust. About one in five U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home. Hospitals reported encountering a wide variety of languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean. At least 20% of respondents frequently encountered 15 of the 32 languages surveyed. The results of the survey may be accessed by clicking How Common Are Electronic Health Records In The U.S. The best available evidence suggests that about one-quarter of physicians were using an electronic health record as of 2005, but fewer than one in ten physicians were using EHRs with functionalities such as electronic prescribing, researchers say in an article published today on the Health Affairs Web site. Data on hospitals' use of information technology are more limited, but best estimates suggest that 5-10 percent of hospitals had electronic prescribing -- or computerized physician order entry (CPOE) -- systems in 2005. However, whether hospitals had stand-alone CPOE systems or comprehensive EHR systems with a CPOE component is unknown, the researchers say. The article offers these and other key findings from the first report of the Health Information Technology Adoption Initiative (hitadoption.org), a partnership between the federal government, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and several academic research institutions. The initiative's mission is to track the adoption of EHRs by both physicians and hospitals. The article may be accessed by clicking http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/hlthaff.25.w496v1 . This report from the International Longevity Center-USA is designed both to map the territory and introduce specific project initiatives and to offer a context for what has already been done and what still needs to be accomplished in the caregiving field. The document will be used as a background paper for a national conference and will be disseminated widely to all 50 states where various caregiving initiatives are proposed or already under way. The report may be accessed by clicking http://www.ilcusa.org/_lib/pdf/Caregiving%20in%20America-%20Final.pdf . Health Behaviors Of Adults: United States, 2002-2004 This report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides national prevalence estimates for five important health behaviors—alcohol use, cigarette smoking, leisure-time physical activity, body weight status, and sleep—for key population subgroups of U.S. adults 18 years and over. The report may be accessed by clicking http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_230.pdf . Health Care Spending Stays High In 2005 Health care spending per privately insured person increased 7.4 percent in 2005, marking the third year that the cost trend hovered between 7 and 8 percent following double-digit trends in 2001 and 2002. Data for the first quarter of 2006 suggest continued stability. The trend for 2005 reflected increased growth in spending for hospital and physician care, offsetting a sharp drop in spending growth for prescription drugs. Hospital utilization trends accelerated, while price trends decelerated in 2005. In contrast to stable spending trends in 2005, premium trends continued to decline in 2006, likely reflecting the lagged effects of earlier years' slowing in cost trends and perhaps signaling a turn in the insurance underwriting cycle. A free copy of the article may be accessed from the Health Affairs website by clicking http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/hlthaff.25.w486v1?ijkey=ZQn1.Ot6R3tHk&keytype=ref&siteid=healthaff State Of The Presidency In American Higher Education “The Leadership Imperative,” a 64-page report of a year-long, blue-ribbon task force convened by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), is a road map for strengthening the leadership of the men and women who take on the pressure-cooker jobs of presidents and chancellors of American colleges and universities. Chaired by former Virginia Governor Gerald L. Baliles, the AGB Task Force on the State of the Presidency in American Higher Education intends for the report to help governing boards, presidents, and policymakers pinpoint a new consensus on ways to bolster presidents buffeted by new accountability and fund-raising pressures, global competition, flat or shrinking government funds, 24/7 schedules, and harsh criticism from faculty internally and from business groups, policymakers, news media, and political activitivists externally. The report may be accessed by clicking Reauthorization Of The Higher Education Act On September 29, legislation was introduced to extend the Higher Education Act (HEA) until June 30, 2007 (H.R. 6138). On September 27, the bill passed the House by voice vote. On September 29, the Senate also passed the legislation. The passage of this extension seems to be an acknowledgement that Congress will not complete HEA reauthorization legislation before the end of the year. H.R. 6138 is different from earlier extension bills in that several additional provisions have been included, but they are not related to accreditation. Responding To An Influenza In The Americas In support of the goal of promoting greater regional preparedness against an influenza pandemic, the Americas Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and PAHO cosponsored a conference on May 24 in Washington, D.C., to analyze the impact of a potential pandemic and how best to respond to the threat. The conference featured presentations by leading experts from around the hemisphere and addresses by the Organization of American States (OAS) assistant secretary general, Albert Ramdin, and the U.S. undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, Paula J. Dobriansky. Presentations were divided into two panels, one dealing with the threat of a pandemic and the other the response to it. The audience for the event included government officials from the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, diplomats and public health officials, representatives from international financial organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and civil society, the private business sector, and the media. This report summarizes the work of each of the two panels and the presentations by Ambassador Ramdin and Undersecretary Dobriansky, and it outlines the conclusions reached during the proceedings, under the categories “the threat” and “the response.” The report may be accessed by clicking http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/ppa%5Fv17%5F1.influenza.pdf . The State Of Health Care Quality 2006 The quality of health care for millions of Americans improved in most areas of care in 2005, the seventh consecutive year of such gains, according to a newly released report by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). This year's report marks the tenth year that NCQA has reported on the state of health care quality. Persons enrolled in health plans that measure and publicly report performance data were more likely to receive preventive care and have their chronic conditions managed in accordance with clinical guidelines based upon medical evidence. Amidst this success story, however, were signs that the pace of improvement may be slowing: fewer quality measures showed statistically significant improvements in 2005 than in 2004, which may be an indication that there is less room for improvement and that new strategies and new measures need to be developed and implemented to take the next steps forward in continued improvement. The report may be accessed by clicking http://www.ncqa.org/Communications/SOHC2006/SOHC_2006.pdf
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