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UK's Quality And Outcomes Framework A National Primary Care Pay-For-Performance Scheme Delivers Modest Improvements In Quality
Date: Sep-12-2012A systematic review of the growing body of evidence regarding the United Kingdom's Quality and Outcomes Framework, arguably the most comprehensive national primary care pay-for-performance scheme in the world, finds modest improvements in quality of care since its introduction in 2004. The review, which included 94 studies, found the QOF was associated with an increased rate of improvement of quality of care for incentivized conditions during the first year of implementation, returning to preintervention rates of improvement in subsequent years...
Fighting Alzheimer's Before Its Onset
Date: Sep-12-2012By the time older adults are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, the brain damage is irreparable. For now, modern medicine is able to slow the progression of the disease but is incapable of reversing it. What if there was a way to detect if someone is on the path to Alzheimer's before substantial and non-reversible brain damage sets in? This was the question Erin K...
Physician's Empathy Directly Associated With Positive Clinical Outcomes, Confirms Large Study
Date: Sep-12-2012Patients of doctors who are more empathic have better outcomes and fewer complications, concludes a large, empirical study by a team of Thomas Jefferson University and Italian researchers who evaluated relationships between physician empathy and clinical outcomes among 20,961 diabetic patients and 242 physicians in Italy. The study was published in the September 2012 issue of Academic Medicine, and serves as a follow up to a smaller study published in the same journal in March 2011 from Thomas Jefferson University investigating physician empathy and its impact on patient outcomes...
Hayfever Vaccine Study Raises Hopes For New Allergy Treatment As Clinical Trial Is Launched
Date: Sep-12-2012Researchers are developing a new vaccine for hayfever which could be more effective, less invasive for patients and less expensive than vaccines already available to patients within the NHS. Scientists at Imperial College London and King's College London have carried out a study which showed a significant reduction in skin sensitivity to grass pollen that was associated with an increase in 'blocking antibodies' in the bloodstream...
Researchers Iron Out The Link Between Serum Ferritin And Diabetes
Date: Sep-12-2012Iron overload increases the risk for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes; however, the exact mechanisms that link the two are unknown. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Donald McClain and colleagues at the University of Utah report that serum ferritin levels could predict the presence or absence of metabolic syndrome in humans and were inversely associated with the expression of adiponectin, a blood glucose-regulating protein produced by fat cells (adipocytes)...
MicroRNAs Regulate Insulin Production
Date: Sep-12-2012Obesity and pregnancy are associated with diminished insulin sensitivity, accompanied by an increase in the demand for insulin. To compensate the pancreas expands its population of insulin-producing beta islet cells. Researchers led by Romano Regazzi at the University of Lausanne have identified a microRNA that participates in beta islet expansion. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Regazzi and colleagues report that decreases in the microRNA miR-338-3p were correlated with increases in the number of beta islets during pregnancy in rats...
Complex Genetic Regulation Underlies GATA2-Linked Human Diseases
Date: Sep-12-2012GATA2 is a master regulator of the formation and development of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs), which form the various types of blood cells. Dysregulation of GATA2 has been linked to several different human disease states, including leukemia, and MonoMAC and Emberger syndromes. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation two research groups report on genetic regulatory elements that profoundly alter the expression and activity of GATA2...
Tracking Malaria Parasites In The Liver
Date: Sep-12-2012Plasmodium falciparum is the most deadly human malaria parasite, causing more than 800,000 deaths per year. After the parasite enters the blood stream, it travels to the liver where it serially invades liver cells (hepatocytes), until it settles down to form a parasitophorous vacuole (PV). Once ensconced in its PV, the parasite undergoes a process known as liver stage (LS) development during which it spawns tens of thousands of new parasites...
A Computer Program To Deal With Patients Who Fail To Keep Appointments
Date: Sep-12-2012A problem faced by patients seeking medical attention is often getting a clinic appointment at a time convenient to them. Conversely, cancellations and more crucially "no-shows" by patients can disrupt the day-to-day scheduling of a medical practice leading to frustration for patients and staff alike as well as affectively efficiency in a negative manner and leading to lost revenue...
Regulating Long-Term Memory Storage
Date: Sep-12-2012Memories are initially stored in a fragile form. A process known as memory consolidation converts these short-term memories into stable long-term memories. Memory consolidation requires changes in gene expression, which are regulated by molecules known as nuclear receptors. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Ted Abel at the University of Pennsylvania identified nuclear receptors that are important for memory formation in mice. In the hours after performing a memory-forming task, the mice had increased expression of the Nr4a nuclear receptor family...
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