A study in The BMJ showed that 9.7% of US adults were diagnosed with any form of diabetes in 2016 and 2017, 0.5% of whom had type 1 diabetes and 8.5% had type 2 diabetes. Researchers analyzed data from the 2016 and 2017 versions of the National Health Interview Survey involving 58,186 adults ages at least 20 and found those with type 1 diabetes had lower body mass index and higher levels of education, and were generally younger than those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Individuals who developed diabetes had significantly higher mean fasting plasma glucose levels and body mass index and lower single point insulin sensitivity estimator 10 years before diagnosis, compared with those who didn't develop diabetes, according to a study in the Journal of the Endocrine Society. Japanese researchers evaluated 27,392 health examinees without diabetes and found that 10 years before diagnosis, those who developed prediabetes also had higher mean FPG and BMI and lower SPISE than those who didn't develop prediabetes.
A study in JAMA Network Open showed that elite performers, or individuals ages older than 70 who had aerobic fitness in the top 2.5%, had an almost 30% reduced mortality risk, compared with high performers. Researchers recruited more than 122,000 patients and found that not exercising at all appears to be worse for health than diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cholesterol and smoking.
A study in the Journal of the American College of Radiology showed that nuclear medicine call centers failed to explain FDG-PET/CT exam guidelines and preferred examination times to patients with diabetes 47% and 91% of the time, respectively, and only 29% of phone calls contained discussions about glucose thresholds. The findings should prompt more studies to provide the best recommendations, as well as increased advocacy from national organizations to ensure proper communication with patients with diabetes, researchers said.
In response to the ONC's request for information on its EHR Reporting Program, HIMSS suggested giving information on EHR functionality differences between health IT products offered by different vendors, allowing underserved and rural health care practices to use low- to no-cost comparison tools and providing data about the technology's health data exchange and interoperability capabilities. The American Medical Informatics Association recommended using live patient data to measure the performance of certified EHR technology, developing interoperability reporting criteria and lining up the program with other areas of the CEHRT Conditions of Certification.
There's no one-size-fits-all approach to developing a telehealth strategy. A smart strategy entails a comprehensive set of solutions and here are five important points to consider as you make a value case for a smart telehealth strategy.
The Departments of Treasury, Labor and HHS are poised to announce a policy that would allow small- and medium-sized companies that don't provide health insurance coverage to offer tax-free health reimbursement arrangements to cover employees' premiums in the individual market, administration officials said. The proposal would also permit employers that do provide traditional health insurance coverage to use HRAs to reimburse employees up to $1,800 annually for certain health care expenses, including dental benefits and short-term insurance plan premiums.
A report published by the HHS Office of Inspector General found that US hospitals have improved their preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks in the wake of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, with only 14% saying they were not ready to handle an outbreak of that type in 2017, down from 71% in 2014. However, 95% of hospital administrators said competing priorities limited their ability to focus on outbreak preparation.
Individuals who ate the most organic food had a 25% lower overall cancer risk, with 73% reduced odds of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 21% reduced odds of developing postmenopausal breast cancer, compared with those who ate the least organic foods, researchers reported in JAMA Internal Medicine. The findings, based on data involving 68,946 French adults, showed reduced cancer risk even among those who had low- to medium-quality diets accompanied by organic food consumption.
The medical imaging-based Subtype and Stage Inference machine learning algorithm developed by University College London researchers was able to distinguish several frontotemporal dementia subtypes and three different Alzheimer's disease subtypes that matched those found in brain tissue post-mortems. The approach, described in Nature Communications, may improve dementia diagnosis and prediction of disease progression, as well as prompt better dementia treatments, researchers said.