Healthcare News

Barriers to immigration into the United States are a common topic of political debates. Less frequently publicized are the numerous barriers to healthcare that undocumented immigrants (UIs) face even after their arrival. These obstacles can have profoundly negative effects: not just on the individual immigrants’ health, but on their local communities as a whole. Medical… Read More » Author information Joshua Beggs Joshua Beggs is a first-year medical student at Kansas University Medical Center and a graduate from Hendrix College, where he majored in Health Sciences and Spanish. When he is not studying, he can often be found in his native habitat of his couch, writing short pieces for his very creatively-named website, joshuabeggs.com, or novel manuscripts that will probably only ever amount to cyberghosts on his hard drive. | The post Reorienting Care for Undocumented Immigrants appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

The Medicare Part D program, which was launched in 2006, is in the middle of its second decade of providing prescription drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. The Part D program has improved beneficiaries’ access to prescription drugs but at increasing cost. Federal spending for Part D has more than doubled from $44.3 billion in 2006… Read More » Author information Fang He Fang He is a Research Economist at RTI International. His work focuses on Medicare alternative payment models, including helping Medicare implement the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Initiative and the Primary Care First model. | The post The Second Decade of Medicare Part D: Time to Modernize? appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

In military medicine, exercises, such as a mass vaccination points-of-dispensing (POD) scenario, test preparedness capacity, and drill for potential real-world public health emergency scenarios. Exercises are designed to challenge medical teams to work under pressure and problem solve according to conditions presented in the exercise scenario. A benefit of medical exercises in the military is… Read More » Author information Benjamin Eovaldi Benjamin Eovaldi, DO is a preventive medicine resident and master’s in public health student at the University of Massachusetts. I am also a student member of the APHA and Medical Care Section. Following medical school and internship, I served four years in the Air Force as a flight surgeon and became interested in public health and preventive medicine. In the Air Force, I gained a variety of public health experiences which I hope will serve me well in my future career in public health and preventive medicine. | The post Vaccine Points-of-Dispensing Medical Exercise appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

What is telehealth? Telehealth involves using technology to facilitate healthcare interactions but has not been used extensively in Medicare in the past. The use of telehealth may be particularly relevant where there are geographic barriers such as a lack of local providers or a public health emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic. There are a… Read More » Author information Erin Mallonee Research Public Health Analyst at RTI International Erin Mallonee is a research public health analyst in RTI International’s Data Interoperability and Clinical Informatics Program. Ms. Mallonee's experience includes national and local experience evaluating the impacts of policy changes, including Medicaid expansion, the use of telehealth for medication-assisted treatment, and use of electronic referrals. | The post Telehealth and Medicare: What Happens After the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Ends? appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines social determinants of health (SDOH) as the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the “conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age.” Currently, SDOH is a hot topic as stakeholders try new ways to improve individual and population health, achieve health equity, and reduce… Read More » Author information Amy Chepaitis Amy Chepaitis is a public health systems researcher at RTI. She has more than 20 years of diverse and complementary experience in health care management, policy, research, consulting, and technical assistance/capacity building. Her training and experience provides a unique perspective on and understanding of varied aspects of health and social care. Her research and evaluation projects have focused primarily on health care reform, community health care, and the integration of health, social and supportive care for the underserved. She is an organizational theorist and qualitative methodologist. Her current project roles, all for large-scale federal evaluations, include leading major tasks of an evaluation of state-level demonstrations for the dually eligible population, and co-leading three awardee teams for an evaluation of a nationwide initiative focusing on social determinants of health. | The post Social determinants of health: Language nuance matters appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

Spring has finally hit here in Toronto, but with another COVID-19 lockdown in place, we can only spend time in our gardens and walking in the neighborhood for exercise. I’m not a gardener, as my brown lawn would attest to, so I’ve decided to spend this spring decluttering my home. We’ve accumulated quite a lot

Blog post by Joe Babaian A barrier. A path. Who among us doesn’t immediately recognize access denied, forbidden, or discouraged? Who doesn’t feel relief when a path forward appears or is built? This is but one metaphor for an external barrier to healthcare that many face. Some definitions for this chat. External barriers can be

As some of you know, I’m a fan of NBC’s New Amsterdam TV Show. I love the characters. I love the stories. What I find most amazing is the way the showrunners incorporate real-life healthcare challenges into the plot. They have covered everything from the opioid crisis to denied claims from insurance companies. This season

Blog post by Joe Babaian The pharma pricing system was not built on the idea of consumer engagement. It was built… on market efficiencies. It was not built on the premise of consumerism. ~ Heather Bresch, CEO Mylan Heather’s comment is striking and it’s emblematic of the entire healthcare system as we now know it.

How could health and healthcare literacy be taught in K-12? What topics should be covered? Join #hcldr tweetchat April 6th at 8:30pm ET.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today listed the Comirnaty, COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for emergency use, making the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine the first to receive emergency validation from WHO since the outbreak began a year ago.

In his end of year message for 2020, WHO Director-General says there is light at the end of the tunnel in the fight against COVID-19. But going into 2021, he urges countries and communities to work together, in solidarity, to overcome this and future health challenges.

Since the global youth movement, 1+1 youth Initiative was launched on World TB Day 2019, followed by the  adoption of the Youth Declaration to End TB at the first-ever Global Youth Townhall on ending TB, there has been significant progress over the past year. The 1+1 Initiative has expanded to include thousands of youth across the world in countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Indonesia, Philippines,  and Vietnam.The social media platforms set up as part of the 1+1 youth initiative are joined and followed by more than 15000 young people including WHO End TB forum. Similarly, Global TB Programme has established #Youth2EndTB Global Youth Network where more than 1800 youths from 95+ countries have already joined.  Besides, in order to recognise the youth efforts and encourage youth engagement on ending TB, youth story series was conducted.Moreover, 50 and more different youth-led activities and virtual events on ending TB have been conducted worldwide. This includes  sensitizing young people, peer education trainings in schools and universities,and encouraging them to become TB advocates, and supporting TB patients in the community with resources, advice, and encouragement. In addition, we are enthusiastic about cross country youth dialogue series that have been started where youths from different countries can participate and learn from each other.For instance, one of the inspiring examples is that of Nepal, young people in this country have established national and provincial youth networks to help young people, through capacity building and in ensuring their participation in policy making and community level awareness building programmes. Likewise, in March 2020, Vietnam National Tuberculosis program launched National Youth Movement against TB which aims on reaching 10 million young people as well as educating all primary school students with TB knowledge and good practices on combating TB and lung diseases.Another exciting example is from Indonesia. Their national youth movement against TB has been conducting Art exhibitions as well as creating TB awareness through social media campaign.Furthermore, WHO Global TB Program is currently developing training manual targeting End TB youth leaders, young survivors, and young health professionals. It will be available at End TB channel of Open WHO platform after completing it's six regional youth consultations.

The Behavioural Insights Unit of the WHO released a meeting report of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on the special session on acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, held on 15 October 2020. The meeting report outlines the factors that drive people’s behaviour in relation to vaccine acceptance and uptake: an enabling environment, social influences and motivation. The image above is a visual narration that captures highlights of the meeting on 15 October 2020, during which the TAG on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health discussed behavioural considerations in relation to COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake. The discussion was structured around three key questions. Download the graphic   

Global partners that are committed to ending paediatric AIDS have come together to call on countries to rapidly scale up access to optimal, child-friendly HIV treatment for infants and children.