The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended in 2009 that primary care clinicians should screen adolescents for depression. But a positive result or screen does not mean that every young person needs active treatment—including psychotherapy and medication—for depression, based on a new study in the November 19 Pediatrics led by Laura Richardson, MD, MPH, of Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
The Advanced Primary Care Demonstration Project is helping 500 federally qualified health centers across the U.S. become “level 3 patient-centered medical homes”—in preparation for the uninsured Americans who will seek care in these “safety net” clinics.
Lisa A. Jackson, MD, MPH, is leading a study of pneumococcal vaccine in older adults at six Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) across the nation, including at Group Health. Dr. Jackson, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute, leads the Seattle-area VTEU. Dr. Jackson and her colleagues plan to see if a higher dose of a pneumococcal vaccine will create a stronger immune response in older adults who received an earlier-generation vaccine against pneumonia and other pneumococcal diseases.
Patients with access to notes written by their doctors feel more in control of their care and report a better understanding of their medical issues, improved recall of their care plan, and being more likely to take their medications as prescribed, a study published in the Oct. 2 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine has found.
By providing care in a way that is more patient centered, Group Health is also demonstrating one way the nation might address an epidemic of overtreatment and medical harm—and its related suffering.
After Group Health Cooperative introduced video-based “decision aids” for people with knee and hip arthritis, rates of knee and hip replacement surgeries dropped sharply: by 38 and 26 percent, respectively, over six months. The cost of caring for those patients also declined: by 12 percent to 21 percent, according to an article in the September Health Affairs.
Obesity-related illnesses cost more than $190 billion annually. Interventions that introduce healthy behaviors in one family might have a ripple effect, spreading through networks and possibly reducing health care costs.
Land Acknowledgment
Our Seattle offices sit on the occupied land of the Duwamish and by the shared waters of the Coast Salish people, who have been here thousands of years and remain. Learn about practicing land acknowledgment.