Health systems across the country are grappling with how to recruit and retain health care professionals. Student loan repayment programs and sign-on bonuses are now commonplace incentives to attract top talent, especially for high-need specialties and locations. Addressing these challenges is critical to the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) mission to provide care to our nation’s Veterans. VHA leverages its extensive health education and training program to prepare physicians to enter the field in service of this mission. Interestingly, a recent evaluation by the Partnered Evidence-base ..read more

Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center in Rhode Island are not doing well but their proposed sale to The Centurion Foundation is less than straight forward. The Attorney General and Department of Health recently approved the sale, but not without dozens of stipulations. Time will tell if the sale goes through and, if it does, if it’s good for Rhode Islanders. I wrote about this in The Providence Journal earlier this week. But the sale of Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center doesn’t fit into the nice, clean “mergers and acquisitions are bad” box ..read more

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA), operating within the constraints of a congressionally allocated budget, must focus on improving clinic efficiency as a way to meet the growing Veteran demand for care. Clinic efficiency, defined as the productivity or work rate of providers, is an important predictor of clinic operations and outcomes. Thus, optimizing aspects of VHA clinic operations can help ensure that Veterans receive consistent access to both preventative care and treatment. Recognizing the need, the Partnered Evidence-based Policy Resource Center (PEPReC) published a policy brief ..read more

With the 2024 presidential elections in full swing, and a debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump scheduled for next week, we need to talk about voter health. Politics can be stressful, and research shows it can actually also harm your health. Some of us consume political content everyday, and terms like post-election stress disorder have been coined to describe common experiences of mental, emotional, and physical discomfort after a critical election. I wrote more about this in Teen Vogue with some tips on how to mitigate election-related health consequences, incl ..read more

Cross-posted from the Health Services Research website. Sponsored by: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia School of Medicine Submission deadline for abstracts: Monday 17 July 2024 Health Services Research (HSR) and the Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia School of Medicine are partnering to publish a Special Issue on The Role of Health Services Research in Cancer Prevention and Control. The special issue will be edited by Kevin Schulman, MD, Roger Anderson, PhD, Xin Hu, PhD, and Asal Pilehvari, PhD. Paradigm shifts in cancer screening ..read more

Navigating health insurance options can be difficult, and Medicare is no exception. The State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) was created under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 to help Medicare beneficiaries understand their coverage, but it’s been unclear who the program actually helps. SHIP is a federal program that provides funding to states to counsel Medicare beneficiaries on coverage choices, eligibility, and costs. It’s overseen by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), which provides grants to states that are then often distributed to local organizations ..read more

For some women, a simple shot during pregnancy and then right after labor can prevent a huge amount of suffering for both parents and future children. So what happens when there’s a shortage that prevents that shot from happening?    The post The Drug Shortage Putting Newborns at Risk first appeared on The Incidental Economist ..read more

Recent headlines have highlighted the Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated approval program for new drugs, sowing doubt that treatments approved this way actually work. While the program has expedited many life-saving treatments for terminal and rare diseases, there are serious challenges ensuring the mandatory confirmatory clinical trials are completed after approval. What can we do to get these trials back on track? I wrote about this in The Boston Globe today: “When drugs receive accelerated approval, they go to market and companies immediately start profiting. The Office of the Insp ..read more

Medical scribes are nonclinical support staff dedicated to clinical documentation during medical visits, allowing the provider to focus on the patient. Existing research shows that scribes can improve provider productivity and satisfaction and minimize the time they spend on documentation. When the MISSION Act passed in 2018, one section of the law required the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to conduct a two-year medical scribes pilot. The goal was to determine how medical scribes impact VHA clinic function. The pilot was implemented in emergency departments and cardiology and orthopedic ..read more

We already know exercise is good for us, including our mental health, but we still have some questions. Like, what kind of exercise is best? And at what intensity?    The post What Kind of Exercise Is Best for Depression? first appeared on The Incidental Economist ..read more