In Houston, Housing Affordability Helps Reduce Homelessness
Vanessa Brown Calder and Jordan GygiRecent Cato research finds that “Housing First” policies have been unable to reduce or mitigate a rise in the chronically homeless population inUtah andCalifornia. Home prices have risen dramatically in both states, and providing permanent housing to the homeless population has proven increasingly difficult. Given Utah and California ’s disappointing results, Houston, Texas, poses somewhat of a mystery: it appears to have substantially and successfully reduced homeless numbers since adopting the philosophy in 2011.Houston is part of a  Continuum of Care (CoC) known asThe Way Hom...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 15, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Vanessa Brown Calder, Jordan Gygi Source Type: blogs

Senators Bennet and Collins Have Their Hearts in the Right Place, But Their Eyes on the Wrong Target
Jeffrey A. SingerSenator Susan Collins (R ‑ME) wrote anop ‐​ed for Seacoastonline this week expressing her concerns about skyrocketing drug overdose deaths. According to the most recentdata from the National Center for Health Statistics, 90 percent of opioid ‐​related overdose deaths involve illicit fentanyl, and 15 percent involve diverted prescription pain pills. In her column, Senator Collins expressed pride in a proposal aimed at reducing overdoses that she co‐​sponsored with Senator Michael Bennet (D‑CO). Unfortunately, while the legisla tion was well‐​intended, it placed too much emphasis on educ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 9, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs

What's new in midwifery - 26th January 2023
Catching up with the backlog, so some more things you might like to know about, some of which may be behind a paywall.Firstly, two things relating to stillbirth.  First,an NIHR summary of research carried out in East Africa, relating to the role of healthcare workers in helping parents to grieve. There is a link to the original research.    Then,another NIHR summary on research into errors on death certificates for stillborn babies.  Here is NHS information on stillbirth.Then,research into the preparedness of British and Australian midwives and nurses about domestic abuse.  ...
Source: Browsing - January 26, 2023 Category: Databases & Libraries Tags: midwifery Source Type: blogs

Evidence Calls “Housing First” Homelessness Strategy into Question
Vanessa Brown Calder and Jordan GygiLast month, the Biden administration unveileda  new federal plan to address homelessness, with the goal of reducing homelessness 25 percent by 2025. The plan ’s foundation rests on an approach known as Housing First, a philosophy for addressing the issue of homelessness that emphasizes the need for permanent housing before tackling other issues, such as mental health problems or substance use disorder.[1] Proponents of this method advocate providing the homeless with housing whether or not they have a  job or overcome other obstacles to stability. Once the need for housing is addres...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 19, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Vanessa Brown Calder, Jordan Gygi Source Type: blogs

Drug Diversion – Can AI Monitoring Solve This Growing Issue?
The following is a guest article by Claire Reilly, Director of Clinical Operations at Imprivata and former Emergency Room Charge Nurse. Although often overshadowed by major news and events, drug diversion – the rerouting of medications intended for patients by healthcare staff and is actually theft – has been a persistent problem in all healthcare settings. Pharmacies, doctors’ offices, hospitals, and care homes are all places drug diversion can occur if prescribing is not carefully monitored and managed.    In recent years, multiple factors have combined to create a perfect storm for drug diversion. Healthcar...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - January 19, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: AI/Machine Learning Analytics/Big Data Clinical Healthcare IT Regulations Adderall Alcohol Abuse Artificial Intelligence Big Data Technologies Claire Reilly COVID-19 Drug Abuse Drug Diversion Drug Overdoses EHR Electronic Hea Source Type: blogs

If SAMHSA Seriously Wants to Destigmatize People with Substance Use Disorder, It Can Start by Destigmatizing How They Receive Treatment
Jeffrey A. SingerIn 2001, the Food and Drug Administration transferred regulation of methadone treatment programs for opioid use disorder (nowadays called Opioid Treatment Programs or OTPs) to the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. DEA and SAMHSA work together to establish and enforce criteria for treating people with substance use disorder and the regulations that govern how health care practitioners prescribe and administer opioids as medication assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder. The rules govern the dose and number of drugs clinicians prescri...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 3, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs

Congress Made it Easier to Treat Addiction but Harder to Treat Pain
Jeffrey A. SingerLate on the afternoon of December 23, the U.S. House of Representativespassed the approximately 1.7 trillion ‐​dollar omnibus spending package, which now awaits President Biden’s signature. As is usually the case with such legislative monstrosities, the bill contains a few positive features and many negative ones. One positive part is that it repeals the so ‐​called “X‑waiver” (an X is added to the DEA narcotics prescribing license), which the Drug Enforcement Administration has long required health care practitioners to apply for to prescribe the Schedule III opioid buprenorphine...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 23, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs

Roleplaying in Addiction Rehab Treatment
For individuals seeking recovery from substance use disorder (SUD), there are a plethora of treatment options... The post Roleplaying in Addiction Rehab Treatment appeared first on Cliffside Malibu. (Source: Cliffside Malibu)
Source: Cliffside Malibu - December 14, 2022 Category: Addiction Authors: ebarbour Tags: Substance Abuse roleplaying triggers Source Type: blogs

Reimagining Pain in the Wake of the Opioid Epidemic
The following is a guest article by Vijay Yanamadala, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Sword Health and System Medical Director of Spine Quality at Hartford Healthcare. In 2017, after years of over prescribing opioids to treat pain, leading to opioid addiction for millions of Americans, opioid dependency was declared a public health emergency. Since then, the opioid epidemic has only worsened. The COVID-19 pandemic, and its impact on people’s mental and physical health, has greatly contributed to a rise in opioid-related deaths. When I was a medical student in the early 2000s, pain was viewed as a vital sign, like heart rate...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 13, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Communication and Patient Experience Healthcare IT Chronic Pain Hartford HealthCare MSK Musculoskeletal Care opioid crisis Opioid Epidemic Pain Management Patient Care Patient Compliance Physical Therapy PT Reimagining Pain Swo Source Type: blogs

The Top 10 Digital Health Stories Of 2022
Edging towards the end of the year, it is time for a summary of how digital health progressed in 2022. It is easy to get lost in the noise – I myself shared well over a thousand articles, studies and news items between January and the end of November 2022. Thus, just like in 2021, 2020 (and so on), I picked the 10 topics I believe will have the most significance in the future of healthcare. 1. The Rise Of Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Unlike a number of unsubstantial hypes (NFTs, Metaverse to name a few), we see DTx as a meaningful trend that has the capacity to bring major short-term improvements in personalised ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - November 29, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andrea Koncz Tags: TMF digital health pharma drones digital health trends vocal biomarkers WHO DTx digital therapeutics Metaverse virtual ward summary AI healthcare worker Source Type: blogs

The Role of RCM in Health Equity
The following is a guest article by Leigh Poland RHIA, CCS, VP of Coding Services at AGS Health. A strong business case exists for addressing the financial impacts of social determinants of health (SDoH) and new reimbursement models designed to emphasize health equity. Involving revenue cycle management (RCM) is necessary for any comprehensive SDoH/health equity strategy. This is because health disparities contribute more than $93 billion in unnecessary medical care costs and more than $42 billion annually in lost productivity. Additional economic losses are a result of premature deaths. Further, according to the W.K. ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 25, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT HIM Hospital - Health System Revenue Cycle Management AGS Health AHIMA Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS Health Equity ICD-10 ICD-10-CM Z Code Leigh Poland RCM SDOH Social Determin Source Type: blogs

New LA Mayor, Old Problem: Homelessness
Michael D. Tanner and Sofia HamiltonIt wascloser than many expected, but Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass has been elected mayor of Los Angeles. She will be the first woman and only the second African American to be elected mayor of America ’s second largest city.Bass made solving the city ’s growing crisis of homelessness the centerpiece of her campaign—and for good reason. There are more than60,000 homeless Californians living in Los Angeles County. This represents not only a humanitarian tragedy for those living on the street, but a growing quality of life problem for the city ’s residents and visit...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 21, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Michael D. Tanner, Sofia Hamilton Source Type: blogs

EMS Response To Sexual Assault
The EMT Spot would like to welcome Jimmy Futrelle to our guest post roster. Jimmy s a Paramedic hailing from Scurry County Texas. Jimmy has been responding on calls long enough to remember the Lifepack 5 and using D50 as a diagnostic tool. His unique background working for private and public EMS as well as for local law enforcement makes him uniquely qualified to teach on the subject of sexual assault. This detailed guide to responding to these challenging calls is well worth reading. I sincerely thank him for this contribution.    Contents Responding To Sexual AssaultIntro...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 14, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, November 14th 2022
In this study, we show that TXNIP is vital for the cell fate choice when cells are challenged by various stress signals. Furthermore, prolonged IGF1 treatment leads to the establishment of a premature senescence phenotype characterized by a unique senescence network signature. Combined IGF1/TXNIP-induced premature senescence can be associated with a typical secretory inflammatory phenotype that is mediated by STAT3/IL-1A signaling. Finally, these mechanistic insights might help with the understanding of basic aspects of IGF1-related pathologies in the clinical setting. Investigating the Ability of Type 2 Diabetes...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 13, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Telehealth Visits Can Improve Revenue, But They ’ re No Cornucopia
This article focuses on revenue, because I and other writers frequently cover impacts of televisits on access and care plans. (Still, I haven’t been able to hold back from some other related observations.) What I found is that televisits don’t seem to make a big difference, either positive or negative, on the money clinicians are making. As usual, sites that are already flush with cash and well-endowed with resources can find more cost savings. How televisits improve clinical revenues Obviously, televisits saved the health care system from collapse when COVID-19 was first recognized as a major threat. But as we...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 9, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: AI/Machine Learning Ambulatory Analytics/Big Data Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Telemedicine and Remote Monitoring Behavior Health Behavioral Telehealth Costs Revenue Telehealth Reimbursement Source Type: blogs