Healthcare News

Last week, we detailed the findings of virtual convenings we held in North Carolina to improve care for children with complex health needs (CCHN). Here, we share our takeaways about the process of planning, holding and following-up on the convenings. We also outline the specific steps other leaders, innovators, and advocates can take to engage… Read More » Author information Sophie Hurewitz Sophie Hurewitz is graduating from Duke University in May 2022 with a degree in Neuroscience, a minor in Global Health, and a certificate in Child Policy Research. At Duke, she is an Alice M. Baldwin Scholar, a researcher at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, a member of an interdisciplinary research team working to fulfill the goals of the North Carolina Early Childhood Action Plan, a researcher for the Path for Children's Complex Care Coalition of North Carolina (Path-4CNC) team, and NC-LEND's first undergraduate trainee. Sophie is also a member of the Society for Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics and the 2021-2023 Student Representative for AcademyHealth's Child Health Services Research Interest Group. She plans to become a developmental-behavioral pediatrician to combine her interests in clinical medicine, health policy, education policy, family advocacy, and child and adolescent development. | Twitter | LinkedIn | The post Lessons From Conducting the Path-4CNC Virtual Convenings appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

Children with complex health needs (CCHN) are a unique pediatric patient population. They have chronic medical and/or behavioral conditions that need ongoing health care. They use a disproportionate share of hospital resources. And they face greater social challenges when compared to other children. In North Carolina (where we work) and across the country, CCHN fail… Read More » Author information Sophie Hurewitz Sophie Hurewitz is graduating from Duke University in May 2022 with a degree in Neuroscience, a minor in Global Health, and a certificate in Child Policy Research. At Duke, she is an Alice M. Baldwin Scholar, a researcher at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, a member of an interdisciplinary research team working to fulfill the goals of the North Carolina Early Childhood Action Plan, a researcher for the Path for Children's Complex Care Coalition of North Carolina (Path-4CNC) team, and NC-LEND's first undergraduate trainee. Sophie is also a member of the Society for Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics and the 2021-2023 Student Representative for AcademyHealth's Child Health Services Research Interest Group. She plans to become a developmental-behavioral pediatrician to combine her interests in clinical medicine, health policy, education policy, family advocacy, and child and adolescent development. | Twitter | LinkedIn | The post Engaging Communities to Improve Systems of Care for Children with Complex Health Needs appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

In this episode of our podcast series, Greg Stevens, co-editor, recaps the blog posts we published on The Medical Care Blog in November and previews the January issue of Medical Care. Greg also interviews Dr. Ben King from the University of Houston School of Medicine about their shared interest in health care for people experiencing homeless.… Read More » Author information Gregory Stevens Professor at California State University, Los Angeles Gregory D. Stevens, PhD, MHS is a health policy researcher, writer, teacher and advocate. He is a professor of public health at California State University, Los Angeles. He received both his masters and PhD from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a focus on health care policy. He has focused his research on primary health care, children’s health, health disparities and vulnerable populations. He is a co-author of the book Vulnerable Populations in the United States. | Twitter | The post January 2022 Podcast appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

To help determine which health policy changes to the Medicare or Medicaid programs are desirable, the CMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) relies on formal evaluations, performed by outside contractors, of how smaller scale, typically voluntary, demonstrations and other initiatives impact outcomes of interest. However, determining causal impacts often relies on the key… Read More » Author information Brett Lissenden Research Economist at RTI International Brett Lissenden is a Research Health Economist in the Health Care Financing and Payment program at RTI International. His current work focuses on risk adjustment for health plans and payment models for cancer patients on behalf of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Virginia. He is also a credentialed actuary. | LinkedIn | The post How are CMMI health policy evaluations addressing non-parallel trends? appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

More than 150,000 avoidable deaths occur each year due to mental, emotional, and behavioral health problems. This includes nearly 50,000 suicide deaths and 100,000 overdose deaths. People with chronic persistent mental illness suffer a 20-year shorter life expectancy. This country urgently needs to address how we pay for mental health services. Medicaid is a major… Read More » Author information Jack Westfall Director - Robert Graham Center at AAFP Jack Westfall is a family doctor in Washington, DC and Director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care. He completed his MD and MPH at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, an internship in hospital medicine in Wichita, Kansas, and his Family Medicine Residency at the University of Colorado Rose Family Medicine Program. After joining the faculty at the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine, Dr Westfall started the High Plains Research Network, a geographic community and practice-based research network in rural and frontier Colorado. He practiced family medicine in several rural communities including Limon, Ft Morgan, and his home town of Yuma, Colorado. Dr Westfall was on the faculty of the University of Colorado for over 20 years, including serving as Associate Dean for Rural Health, Director of Community Engagement for the Colorado Clinical Translational Science Institute, AHEC Director, and Sr Scholar at the Farley Health Policy Center. He just completed two years as the Medical Director for Whole Person Care and Health Communities at the Santa Clara County Health and Hospital and Public Health Department. His research interests include rural health, linking primary care and community health, and policies aimed at assuring a robust primary care workforce for rural, urban, and vulnerable communities. | LinkedIn | The post “Carve In” Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment appeared first on The Medical Care Blog.

Blog by Dan Levitt, MSc, CHE On the next #hcldr tweetchat we welcome special guest host Dan Levitt, CEO of Kin Village in BC. He will be leading us in a discussion on a very important topic – the state of long-term care. Levitt believes that we need to transform not only the facilities themselves,

Introduction by Joe Babaian. Blog by Britta Bloomquist, Pamela Ressler MS, RN, and Brian Stork, MD Starting 2022, Colin and I are so excited for what comes next to healthcare and #hcldr this year. So much positive energy wrapped up in hope plus the ongoing very real ongoing pandemic saga, we might wonder where to

Happy New Year to the HCLDR Community! Hopefully you were all able to take a few days to rest and recuperate from the year we just finished. We managed to have a couple of small family gather over the holidays before we went back into lockdown due to the Omicron variant. It was subdued, but

This week’s HCLDR tweetchat will be the last one for 2021. We’ve decided to take a short 3 week break over the holidays. We’ll be back with new HCLDR chats on Tuesday January 11, 2022 Joe and I wanted to give everyone back their Tuesday evenings to enjoy the holidays. Time with family and away

Blog By Joe Babaian Welcome to the home stretch of 2021! We’re all been through so much and have seen more than we ever imagined this year, there is no denying that. Let’s take a moment to look at where we are and what we share for hopes in 2022. I can’t forget today is

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.