All Articles on Chronic Illness Management

• Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute announces two awards to Group Health

  Group Health has been approved for two research awards from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study ways to improve care for back pain and to connect patients with community resources. The projects are part of a portfolio of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research that addresses PCORI’s National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda. Authorized by the Affordable Care Act, PCORI is an independent nonprofit dedicated to funding comparative clinical effectiveness research.
• Team care of chronic diseases seems cost-effective

  The collaborative TEAMcare program for people with depression and either diabetes, heart disease, or both appears at least to pay for itself, according to a UW Medicine and Group Health Research Institute report in the May 7 Archives of General Psychiatry. Over two years, after accounting for the $1,224 per patient that the program cost, it may save as much as $594 per patient in outpatient costs.
• Yoga eases back pain in largest U.S. yoga study to date

  Yoga classes were linked to better back-related function and diminished symptoms from chronic low back pain in the largest U.S. randomized controlled trial of yoga to date.
• Massage eases low back pain in randomized controlled trial

  Massage therapy helps ease chronic low back pain and improve function, according to a randomized controlled trial in the July 5 Annals of Internal Medicine. The first study to compare structural and relaxation (Swedish) massage, the trial found that both types of massage worked well, with few side effects.
• Now’s the time: Award and endowment hail Dr. Wagner’s lifework

  Deliberations over health care’s future continue to be divisive. The U.S. Senate “super committee”—deadlocked over deficits linked largely to health care spending—has thrown in the towel. The Affordable Care Act is headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Is combined treatment key?

  Most U.S. health care costs go to caring for the 133 million Americans with chronic conditions. Almost half have at least two chronic illnesses. One of those chronic illnesses is often depression, which can hinder a person’s ability to manage everything.
• Higher opioid dose linked to overdose risk in chronic pain patients

  More and more Americans with chronic pain not caused by cancer are taking medically prescribed opioids like Oxycontin (oxycodone) and Vicodin (hydrocodone). The January 19 Annals of Internal Medicine features the first study to explore the risk of overdose in patients prescribed opioids for chronic non-cancer pain in general health care. The study, published with an accompanying editorial, links risk of fatal and nonfatal opioid overdose to prescription use—strongly associating the risk with the prescribed dose.