Research Activities

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Contents

About Research Activities

Feature Story

Patients prefer to receive care from doctors who see people from several health plans

Heart Disease

Elderly heart attack patients who have multiple health problems may not receive prompt clot-busting treatment
Outcomes have improved significantly for patients undergoing coronary angioplasty
Home-based monitoring program reduces hospitalizations and costs for elderly patients with heart failure
Nonclinical factors affect length of hospital stay after coronary artery bypass surgery

Clinical Decisionmaking

Therapy can be intensified for the majority of patients with inadequate glycemic control
Doctors and patients need to ask each other more questions about medications
Patients and doctors need to weigh the risks and benefits of simultaneous versus staged bilateral knee replacement
Back pain study examines pain intensity and functioning
Risk-aversion may lead internists to spend more than family physicians to confirm medical diagnoses
Side effects and effectiveness determine whether healthy adults will get a flu shot
Chlamydia screening of young women has health benefits and is cost effective

Children's Health

Two AHRQ-sponsored datasets—MEPS and HCUP—provide national data on children's health topics

Primary Care

Helping patients recover from depression should be a high priority in primary care practices
Primary care physicians should counsel parents of young children about drowning prevention

Health Care Quality

Nursing homes vary widely in meeting Federal quality-of-care standards
Substantial variations found in spending by U.S. hospitals on quality improvement activities
Informed consumers can play a vital role in improving health care quality

Managed Care

Access to second medical opinions is determined in part by sociocultural factors and type of insurance
Income for most physicians has declined substantially since the advent of HMOs
Strategic hospital alliances have yet to add financial value to individual member hospitals
Nation's move toward managed care challenges academic health centers to sustain research and training

Medical Informatics

Conference focuses on transforming health care through informatics

AHRQ News and Notes

AHRQ names Helen Burstin director of primary care research
AHRQ releases reports on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Highlights from AHRQ's Health Care Research Scholars Program

Announcements

AHRQ seeks proposals in response to three new RFAs
AHRQ announces new resource on prenatal care effectiveness
New MEPS products now available
AHRQ funds new projects

Research Briefs

Current as of January 2000
AHRQ Publication No. 00-0012

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Internet Citation:

Research Activities newsletter. January 2000, No. 233. AHRQ Publication No. 00-0012. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/jan00/

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