Wednesday, June 30, 2004

HHS Conference Seeks to Jump-Start IT Adoption in Healthcare
Medscape Medical News story - "To jump-start the adoption of electronic health records and other major elements of health information technology (IT) among physicians and hospitals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will host a conference on July 21 in Washington, D.C., to discuss how the private and public sectors can address long-standing cost and standardization barriers." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Prevalence Studies of Substance-Related Disorders: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Article in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry - " Studies using rigorous and comparable methodologies report significant variability in rates of alcohol and other substance use disorders. These data suggest that different policies and regional practices are associated with variability in rates of disorders. Policy-makers and health planners require regular, regionally sensitive estimates of prevalence rates to respond effectively to unique patterns of need in their constituencies."  
  

End-of-Life Care and Mental Illness: A Model for Community Psychiatry and Beyond
Article in Adobe Acrobat format (click on the "PDF" link) in Community Mental Health Journal - "End-of-life care is often influenced by the stereotyping of patients by age, diagnosis, or cultural identity. Two common stereotypes arise from the presumed incompetence of many patients to contribute to end-of-life decisions, and the fear that the discussions themselves will be de-stabilizing. We present a model for end-of-life discussions that combines competence assessment with healthcare preferences in a psychiatric population that faces identical stereotypes. The model, which draws on clinical research in competence and suicide risk assessment, has important implications for all patients in the community who are marginalized or stereotyped during discussions of end-of-life treatment."