November 2009, No. 351
Contents
About Research Activities
Feature Story
Report finds that medications effectively
reduce risk of breast cancer, but can cause other problems
Women's Health
Older black women with breast cancer
do not receive beneficial chemotherapy as often as white women
Child/Adolescent Health
Children are commonly harmed by adverse
events in intensive care units
Infants are at the highest risk for
errors involving cardiovascular drugs
Beta-lactams may be appropriate first-line
treatment for pediatric skin infections in areas where MRSA is prevalent
Intervention leads to reduction in
central venous catheter-associated blood stream infections for pediatric patients
Patient Safety and Quality
Quality of care may be more important
than volume when it comes to heart bypass surgery
Safety awareness and technological
adoption are keys to managing test results in family medicine offices
Input from clinical staff helps when
evaluating the purchase of equipment
Evaluating team member perceptions
can help guide future failure mode and effects analysis activities
Instituting patient safety rounds
can boost adverse event reporting in outpatient cancer clinics
Elderly/Long-Term Care
Inappropriate medications raise the
risk of adverse drug events among older adults
Use of restorative care improves nursing
home resident functioning and nursing assistants' job satisfaction
Chronic Disease
Chronic disease self-management program
improves illness management for up to 6 months, then effectiveness wanes
Medicare coverage gap may prompt some
patients with diabetes to cut back on their medicines
Mental Health
Nearly half of patients with depression
drop out of treatment in a public clinic within 12 months
Public Health Preparedness
Physicians respond differently when
recruited for public health and bioterrorism surveillance projects
Health Care Workforce
Doctors and nurses in teaching hospitals
report widespread job stress and sleep deprivation
Subtask training is superior to total
task training for medical students learning prostate surgery
Health Information Technology
Certain patients are more likely
to e-mail their physicians
Agency News and Notes
Heart conditions, cancer, trauma-related disorders, mental disorders, and asthma were the five most costly conditions in 1996 and 2006
Treating aging baby boomers costs
hospitals $56 billion
Hospitalizations for coronary artery
disease, heart attack, and stroke are down significantly
Blood transfusions have more than
doubled
Particle beam radiation therapy is
promising, but unproven for treating cancer
Task force finds insufficient evidence
to screen for newborn jaundice to prevent a more serious chronic condition
Task force finds insufficient evidence
for using nontraditional risk factors to screen for coronary heart disease
Childbirth and deliveries are becoming
more complicated
Falls send more than 2 million seniors
to emergency departments
Announcements
New tools help emergency planners
select alternate care facilities and transfer patients during disasters
Free tool helps calculate return on
investment from better asthma care
Free toolkit helps researchers obtain
informed consent
Research Briefs
Research Briefs
Healthcare 411
Subscribe to AHRQ's Electronic
Newsletter
Visit the AHRQ Patient Safety Network
Web Site
AHRQ Publication No. 10-RA002
Current as of November 2009
Internet Citation:
Research Activities Newsletter, No.
351. AHRQ Publication No. 10-RA001, November 2009. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,
Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/nov09/