New Book Connects Health Care Finance with Nursing Practice

Congratulations to Professor of Nursing Betty Rambur, RN, PhD, who just published a book on  “Health Care Finance, Economics, and Policy for Nurses: A Foundational Guide.”  Read the review here:

New Book Connects Health Care Finance with Nursing Practice

Kairn Kelley gets manuscript accepted

We are proud to announce that Kairn Kelley, PhD student in CTS has received acceptance of a manuscript in the International Journal of Audiology.

 

Inter-rater reliability for scoring children’s Dichotic Words Test responses
MS#: TIJA-2014-06-0163.R2

Background data galore!

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Release: Health, United States, 2014 05/08/2015 The National Center for Health Statistics announces the release of Health, United States, 2014. Health, United States is the annual report on the health status of the nation, compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics and submitted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to the President and Congress. Each year, Health, United States examines an important health topic and this year's special feature explores the health of the 55–64 age group. This group was born during the height of the Baby Boom and will become Medicare eligible over the next 10 years. The feature compares their health to those who were 55-64 years old a decade ago. Adults aged 55-64 are entering a period of life increasingly influenced by chronic conditions, which are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. Among the highlights:  Current 55-64 year olds are more racially diverse than a decade earlier with non-Hispanic white persons comprising almost 75%, non-Hispanic black persons about 11% and Hispanic persons almost 10%.  In 2009-2012 the prevalence of diabetes was close to 19%, the prevalence of obesity was about 40% and the prevalence of hypertension was just over 51% among 55-64 year olds, unchanged from a decade earlier.  In 2012–2013, adults aged 55–64 living below 100% of poverty were nearly three times as likely to be current smokers as those at 400% or more of poverty (32.4% vs 11.2%).  In 2009–2012, nearly half (45%) of adults aged 55-64 took a prescription cardiovascular drug, and 15% used a prescription analgesic, similar to levels a decade earlier. The report also features detailed tables and charts displaying health statistics trends over time on: birth and death rates, infant mortality, life expectancy, morbidity and health status, risk factors, use of ambulatory and inpatient care, health personnel and facilities, financing of health care, health insurance and managed care, and other health topics. A variety of resources can be found on the Health, United States webpage, including the full report featuring a chartbook and trend tables. A special abridged edition, Health, United States, 2014: In Brief is also available as a companion to the full report.

Emily Tarleton awarded grant

The national Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi has announced that PhD Candidate Emily Tarleton has been awarded a Love of Learning Award. Emily will use the funds to support her thesis project on The Effect of Magnesium Supplementation on Depression.

Congratulations, Emily!

Nancy Gell is featured in UVM News

Check out this nice review of Assistant Professor Nancy Gell's recent research from the National Health and Aging Trends study.

Friend or Foe? Study Examines Seniors' Increasing Use of Walking Aids

Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: May 8, 2015

Present:  Marianne Burke, Nancy Gell, Kairn Kelley (by phone), Ben Littenberg, Connie van Eeghen

Start Up: Celebration of a beautiful day and an interesting picture that looks (maybe?) like Charlie in the Home Town section of this week’s BFP.

1.                  Discussion: Nancy Gell lead a discussion on research design options to study new technology vs. traditional methods of home exercise prescription in physical therapy and related outcomes.

a.       Alternative forms of instructions and support for home therapy interventions for exercise for PT patients exist as an option to photocopied exercise sheets or hand-drawn instructions.

b.      One electronic intervention works as a self-video that can be reviewed with the PT, or as a log with reminder, but hasn’t been tested rigorously.  Key measures: PT therapist perceptions, Patient perceptions, Adherence, Outcomes

c.       Questions:

                                                  i.      Does the alternative improve exercise adherence for usual care?

1.      Measure for both control and intervention groups: Reminder message with response

a.       Intervention app: has a set of 3 questions with each exercise

b.      Depends on app for measurement – a difficult tool, if the app is also the thing being measured as the intervention

2.      Other measures

a.       Call patient – but this stimulates exercise

b.      Drones?  (Ben’s idea)

                                                ii.      Is there a difference in function, pain, number of visits – this is the key from a patient perspective

1.      Pick one group of diagnoses with exercises and outcome measures are in common

2.      Measure with a different mechanism than is the app itself

3.      Common pain measures exist

                                              iii.      Population considered

1.      50-70 year old people with osteoarthritis (not asymptomatic radiographic osteoarthritis) in hip and knee, mild to severe, and not yet operated on.  Patients may be taking medications for pain. 

d.      Design

                                                  i.      Thinking of it as a controlled, comparative effectiveness study

                                                ii.      One patient population?  One clinic?

1.      May be a subset of clinicians in a clinic

                                              iii.      Design process: development, testing, field testing, and eventually a prospective, randomized, controlled trial

1.      Initial test with a small group of patients

2.      Enroll in CTS302 for the fall

3.      Plan the prospective study during the fall

4.      Consider using the “Patient Advisory Group” for support in design (see Sylvie or Connie)

2.                  Next Workshop Meeting(s): Fridays, 10:45 a.m. – 11:45 p.m., at Given Courtyard South Level 4.   Remember: the first 15 minutes are for checking in with each other.  The schedule for future meetings will be re-evaluated in May.

a.       May 15: Kairn on lit review (Connie absent)

b.      May 22: Marianne on topic update

c.       May 29: TBD

Recorder: Connie van Eeghen