Research Activities

August 1998, No. 218

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Contents

About Research Activities

Feature Story

Racial differences in nicotine metabolism mean that blacks take in more nicotine per cigarette than whites

Departments

Clinical Decisionmaking
   Women with chronic disease are less likely than other women to undergo screening for breast and cervical cancer
   More checkpoints are needed to prevent overdosing errors in administering high-dose chemotherapy
   Treating acute asthma attacks in special ER observation units is more effective and costs less than inpatient care
   Carotid endarterectomy is being performed more often on asymptomatic patients to prevent stroke
   Missed detection of depression in the elderly might be reduced by screening with a simple questionnaire
   Pilot program leads to a healthier lifestyle for Mexican-American children at risk for type 2 diabetes

Outcomes/Effectiveness Research
   Prostatitis is a common problem that is often treated unnecessarily with antibiotics
   High rates of sexual, urinary, and bowel dysfunction follow treatment for early prostate cancer

Health Care Organization and Delivery
   Employer-sponsored coverage for chiropractic care is now commonplace
   Certain factors increase the likelihood that Medicaid HMO enrollees will visit the ER for nonurgent care
   Model outpatient program helps keep high-risk elderly people out of the hospital at a reasonable cost
   Most physicians are satisfied with their practices and income

Quality of Care
   Hospitalization within 10 days of outpatient treatment for pneumonia may indicate less than optimal care
   Clinical guidelines must be implemented with other approaches to substantially improve quality of care

Primary Care
   Today's primary care physicians are being asked to approach their practices with a community perspective
   Probable practice location and patient mix should inform medical students' primary care residency decisions

Managed Care
   Workshop highlights pros and cons of carve-out contracts for specialty care

Health Care Costs and Financing
   More than 4.5 million children lack insurance despite Medicaid eligibility
   Organizational strategies, not physician incentives, may be the key to HMO outpatient cost savings
   Some health care providers respond to reduced Medicare payments by changing the volume of procedures they perform

HIV/AIDS Research
   Women with AIDS can cut their risk of death in half by seeking care from more experienced clinics
   Largest study to date profiles HIV seropositive compared with high-risk seronegative women
   Community-based programs for HIV-infected people need flexibility to respond to changes in functional status

Announcements
   AHCPR funds new studies
   New publications available from AHCPR
   AHSR awards honor current and former AHCPR grantees

Research Briefs
   The comparative effects of postoperative analgesic therapies on pulmonary outcome: Cumulative meta-analyses of randomized, controlled trials
   Sample design of the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Medical Provider Component
   A healthy health sector is crucial for community economic development
   Skepticism toward medical care and health care use
   A new twist in U.S. health care data standards development: Adoption of electronic health care transactions standards for administrative simplification
   Decision and cost-utility analyses of surgical versus transcatheter closure of patent ductus arteriosus: Should you let a smile be your umbrella?
   Establishing the nurse-family relationship in the intensive care unit
   Predicting the cost of illness: A comparison of alternative models applied to stroke
   Use of medical informatics to implement and develop clinical practice guidelines
   A Monte Carlo simulation of advanced HIV disease: Application to prevention of CMV infection
   An international comparison of physicians' judgments of outcome rates of cardiac procedures and attitudes toward risk, uncertainty, justifiability, and regret
   The demand for post-acute and chronic care in nursing homes
   Nursing homes—Structure and selected characteristics, 1987 and 1996
   Developing community partnerships to enhance care for rural families with low birth weight children
   Predicting mortality after coronary artery bypass surgery: What do artificial neural network learn?

AHCPR Publication No. 98-0050
Current as of August 1998

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Internet Citation:

Research Activities newsletter. August 1998, No. 218. AHCPR Publication No. 98-0050. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/aug98/

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