Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Second National Reports on Quality and Disparities Find Improvements in Health Care Quality, Although Disparities Remain AHRQ press release - "HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) today released its second annual reports on the quality of and disparities in health care in America. The 2004 National Healthcare Quality Report finds both evidence of improving quality as well as specific areas in which major improvements can be made. The 2004 National Healthcare Disparities Report indicates that there are disparities related to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in the American health care system. Both reports extend the baseline data on quality and disparities within health care delivery provided in AHRQ's 2003 reports." See also the full 2004 National Healthcare Quality Report and the 2004 National Healthcare Disparities Report.  
  

NIH Clears Most Researchers In Conflict-of-Interest Probe Washington Post story - "Most of the 100 or so National Institutes of Health researchers who the agency has said are under investigation for allegedly engaging in secret deals with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have been cleared by NIH investigators, according to agency officials. The unexpected finding that as much as 80 percent of the seeming improprieties were actually the result of errors by government investigators has undermined the rationale behind NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni's recent decision to impose severe restrictions on the personal activities and finances of all of the agency's more than 5,000 employees, said scientists and NIH officials upset about the new rules. " [Viewing Washington Post stories requires registration, which is free.]  
  

Ongoing Depression Management Cost Effective Reuters Health story at Medscape - "Taking a disease management approach to depression leads to improved outcomes and is cost effective, according to a report in the January/February issue of the Annals of Family Medicine. In fact, Dr. Kathryn Rost from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Aurora told Reuters Health that 'health plans interested in improving the treatment they provide for depression... need to adopt models that provide care management on an ongoing basis, rather than an acute basis.' " [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Doctors fail to diagnose bipolar disorder in studyUS News &World Report story - "bout 5 percent of people are thought to experience the cycles of mania and depression that characterize bipolar disorder. But it's not clear that primary-care doctors know how to catch the disorder during routine checkups. Researchers at a clinic for low-income patients in New York City looked at how likely primary-care doctors were to diagnose the disorder..."