In 2015, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) launched EvidenceNOW: Advancing Heart Health. This three-year initiative, AHRQ’s largest-ever investment in primary care research, was designed to provide external quality improvement support to help small and medium-size primary care practices implement the latest evidence and improve their delivery of cardiovascular care.  AHRQ awarded grants to primary care practices in seven regions across the U.S. to implement this initiative and to evaluate their own experiences with it, thereby accounting for regional differences in needs and existing resources. Additionally, ...

Collaboration Between Medical Department Staff and Their IT Colleagues on an EHR Optimization Project Leads to Improved Productivity Between June and October 2021, members of Marshall University’s Department of Family and Community Health collaborated with their school’s Information Technology (IT) team to conduct a four-month, department-wide optimization project to improve their usage of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) software. The software was implemented across their institution ...

Providence, R.I. -- A new study from Annals of Family Medicine reveals that a father's understanding of his son's readiness for sexual relationships plays a crucial role in the timing and effectiveness of discussions regarding condom use guidance. The findings offer valuable insights for family-focused health care providers, guiding them to encourage fathers to initiate conversations about sexual readiness and the importance of correct and consistent condom use with their adolescent sons. In 2021, 47% of adolescent males in the 12th grade reported engaging in sexual activity, yet condom use has declined. These trends contribute to negative sexual health outcomes among ...

In recent years, the U.S. government has invested substantially in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which have become synonymous in policy discussions with primary care for the socially vulnerable. Conversely, no such investment has been made in independent practices serving socially vulnerable patients. As independent practices become less financially viable, this disparity could severely limit primary care options for socially vulnerable patients. This mixed-methods study considers the extent to which independent family physicians ...

Diabetes affects more than 1 in 10 — or more than 38 million — Americans. People with diabetes who keep their blood sugar levels in the near-normal range generally have a much lower risk of developing diabetes complications such as heart, kidney, and eye diseases. The challenge is that most people with diabetes require more than one medication to control blood sugar levels over time.  The Glycemia Reduction Approaches in Diabetes: A Comparative Effectiveness, or GRADE, Study was designed to compare ...

As cities around the world continue to draw young people for work, education, and social opportunities, a new study identifies characteristics that would support young urban dwellers’ mental health. The findings, based on survey responses from a global panel that included adolescents and young adults, provide a set of priorities that city planners can adopt to build urban environments that are safe, equitable, and inclusive.  To determine city characteristics that could bolster youth mental health, researchers administered an initial survey to a panel of more than 400, including young people ...

TUCSON, Ariz., March 25, 2024 — Critical Path Institute (C-Path) today announced the formation of a new task force under its Rare Disease Cures Accelerator-Data and Analytics Platform (RDCA-DAP®), dedicated to advancing therapeutic development for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). This initiative brings together leading organizations and experts in a concerted effort to tackle the challenges associated with PSP drug development. PSP is a brain disorder that affects movement, control of walking and balance, speech, swallowing, vision, mood, behavior and thought. The confirmed members of the task force ...

A Simon Fraser University professor is helping make strides towards a “sustainable, intelligent world” by propelling printable sensor technologies. Vincenzo Pecunia, from SFU’s School of Sustainable Energy Engineering, led a team of more than 100 experts from 57 research institutions worldwide in developing a comprehensive roadmap for next-generation printable sensor technologies. By paving the way for everyday objects and environments to acquire sensing capabilities, these technologies could be a game changer in advancing sustainability and enhancing our quality ...

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is providing national leadership in a new collaboration among five national laboratories to accelerate U.S. production of clean hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers.   Hydrogen fuel cells provide power to electric vehicles and buildings using an electrochemical reaction that converts hydrogen and oxygen into heat, water and electricity. The Roll-to-Roll, or R2R, Consortium aims to scale up, speed up and reduce the cost of producing key components ...

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) presents a roundup of five research articles recently published across its six esteemed journals. Widely recognized for fostering innovation and advancing ecological knowledge, ESA’s journals consistently feature innovative and impactful studies. This compilation of papers explores invasive possum management in New Zealand, afforestation on global rangelands, population regulation in large herbivores and more, showcasing the Society’s commitment to promoting cutting-edge research that furthers ...

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of Regents Professor Petra Fromme, director of the Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery at Arizona State University, to its College of Fellows. Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers, an honor reserved only for the top 2% of researchers in these fields. "We welcome Petra's well-earned induction into ...

Each year, bacterial infections claim several million lives worldwide. That is why detecting harmful microorganisms is crucial – not only in the diagnosis of diseases but also, for example, in food production. However, the methods available so far are often time-consuming, require expensive equipment or can only be used by specialists. Moreover, they are often unable to distinguish between active bacteria and their decay products. By contrast, the newly developed method detects only intact bacteria. It makes use of the fact that ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL MARCH 25, 2024 AT 3:00 PM US EST What could cancer teach us about tuberculosis? That’s a question Meenal Datta has been chasing since she was a graduate student. Once the body’s immune system is infected with tuberculosis, it forms granulomas — tight clusters of white blood cells — in an attempt to wall off the infection-causing bacteria in the lungs. But more often than not, granulomas do more harm than good.  Charged with analyzing the similarities between granulomas and tumors, Datta discovered that both are structurally and functionally abnormal. ...

Should you run to the bathroom now? Or can you hold it until you get home? A new implant and associated smartphone app may someday remove the guess work from the equation. Northwestern University researchers have developed a new soft, flexible, battery-free implant that attaches to the bladder wall to sense filling. Then, it wirelessly — and simultaneously — transmits data to a smartphone app, so users can monitor their bladder fullness in real time. The study will be published next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It ...

When scientists and policymakers make tough calls on which areas to prioritize for conservation, biodiversity is often their top consideration. Environments with more diversity support a greater number of species and provide more ecosystem services, making them the obvious choice. There’s just one problem. There are several ways to measure diversity, and each reveals a slightly different, and sometimes conflicting, view of how life interacts in a forest or other ecosystem. In a new study published ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Pairing cryptocurrency mining – notable for its outsize consumption of carbon-based fuel – with green hydrogen could provide the foundation for wider deployment of renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, according to a new Cornell University study. “Since current cryptocurrency operations now contribute heavily to worldwide carbon emissions, it becomes vital to explore opportunities for harnessing the widespread enthusiasm for cryptocurrency as we move toward a sustainable and a climate-friendly future,” said Fengqi You, professor of energy systems engineering at Cornell. You and doctoral ...

Granular materials, those made up of individual pieces, whether grains of sand or coffee beans or pebbles, are the most abundant form of solid matter on Earth. The way these materials move and react to external forces can determine when landslides or earthquakes happen, as well as more mundane events such as how cereal gets clogged coming out of the box. Yet, analyzing the way these flow events take place and what determines their outcomes has been a real challenge, and most research has been confined to two-dimensional experiments that don’t ...

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of MinJun Kim, Robert C. Womack Endowed Chair Professor in Engineering at Southern Methodist University to its College of Fellows. Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers, comprised of the top two percent of engineers in these fields. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional ...

A ground-breaking study – the largest of its kind globally – has found children with multiple sclerosis (MS) have better outcomes if treated early and with the same high-efficacy therapies as adults. There are a limited number of therapies approved for children with MS, with only one considered to be of high-efficacy – meaning highly effective. However, a Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) observational study has determined that paediatric patients should be treated with the same high-efficacy ...

WASHINGTON  –  U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists published the Cascaded Variational Quantum Eigensolver (CVQE) algorithm in a recent Physical Review Research article, expected to become a powerful tool to investigate the physical properties in electronic systems. The CVQE algorithm is a variant of the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) algorithm that only requires the execution of a set of quantum circuits once rather than at every iteration during the parameter optimization process, thereby increasing the computational throughput.  “Both algorithms ...

Bengal cats are prized for their appearance; the exotically marbled and spotted coats of these domestic pets make them look like small, sleek jungle cats. But the origin of those coats — assumed to come from the genes of Asian leopard cats that were bred with house cats — turns out to be less exotic. Stanford Medicine researchers, in collaboration with Bengal cat breeders, have discovered that the Bengal cats’ iridescent sheen and leopard-like patterns can be traced to domestic cat genes that were aggressively selected for after the cats were bred with wild cats. “Most ...

More than 1 million people in the United States identify as transgender; however, there is limited research on nutrition-related health outcomes for transgender people. To narrow the research gap, Mason MS, Nutrition student Eli Kalman-Rome investigated common motivations of dietary supplement use in transmasculine people. The study defined transmasculine as people on the transgender and gender-nonbinary spectrum who were assigned female at birth.  Transmasculine people reported a higher use of dietary supplements (65%) compared to the total U.S. population (22.5%), according to the study. 90% of transmasculine participants reported using supplements ...

Research that involves implanting devices into the brains of human volunteers creates a special moral obligation that extends beyond the trial period—an obligation that researchers, device manufacturers, and funders owe to the volunteers. This is the conclusion of two new essays in the Hastings Center Report that launch a series on the ethical and social issues raised by brain research.   The “Neuroscience and Society” series is supported by the Dana Foundation and will be published in open-access format online over the next three years. The series seeks to promote deliberative public engagement about neuroscience, writes Hastings Center senior ...

PHILADELPHIA -- For years, it was harder for Black patients to secure a coveted spot on the national kidney transplant waitlist because a clinical algorithm was making Black patients appear healthier than they were. After a Penn Medicine researcher exposed the problem in 2019—and showed how it exacerbated racial disparities in kidney disease—a national taskforce recommended removing race from the algorithm’s scoring, a move that has quickly been adopted throughout the country in an effort to reduce ...

“[...] the combination of ABT199/venetoclax and Thio enhances the cytotoxicity of (Flu+Clad+Bu) in AML cell lines and leukemia patient-derived cell samples.” BUFFALO, NY- March 25, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on March 14, 2024, entitled, “ABT199/venetoclax synergism with thiotepa enhances the cytotoxicity of fludarabine, cladribine and busulfan in AML cells.” ABT199/venetoclax, an inhibitor of the pro-survival BCL-2 protein, has improved AML treatment. Its efficacy in hematopoietic ...