By Connie Chitwood-Vu – Many Americans fail to realize that diabetes is the seventh deadliest disease with 29.1 million Americans currently living with this condition. Despite the severity of diabetes, the general population has a striking knowledge gap when it comes to understanding the causes, impacts, costs and treatment options for this all-to-common disease.
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By Paula Braun – All information captured on death certificates – such as race, gender, and marital status – matters. In my previous blog post, I wrote about the importance of the cause-of-death fields; however, every element of the certificate is important. Capturing the information timely and accurately is more than just an administrative requirement with public health benefits.
By Taha A. Kass-Hout, M.D., M.S., & David Litwack, Ph.D. – FDA plays an integral role in President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, which foresees the day when an individual’s medical care will be tailored in part based on their unique characteristics and genetic make-up. Yet while more than 80 million genetic variants have been found in the human genome, we don’t understand the role that most of these variants play in health or disease.
By Richard Kronick PhD – As part of AHRQ’s mission to help the public understand and use health care data, I’m excited to announce the launch of a new Web tool that allows analysis of the latest State-by-State information on hospital discharges.
By John Halamka MD – At the moment in our society, there tends to be a general proclivity to be a criticizer rather than a doer, to tear down rather than build up, and to have hearings instead of taking individual action. Everyone talks about what has not been done instead of examining the progress made.
By William Hersh MD – I am increasingly asked to describe the difference between data science and biomedical informatics. Distinguishing these disciplines takes on added importance with the recent publication of the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director, National Library of Medicine (NLM) Working Group, report on the future of the NLM, which calls for NLM to become a leader in data science at NIH.
By Justin Barnes – The transition to value-based care is not an easy one. Organizations will face numerous challenges on their journey towards population health management. We believe there are five key elements and best practices to consider when transitioning from volume to value-based care:
In these Connected Health infographics, see the top 10 trends for 2015, how Americans manage health & communication with providers, what a virtual coach is, and the benefits and challanges of a connected health environment. See other infographics we have featured.
By Sarianne Gruber – Having once been a graduate student in Epidemiology and Public Health, certain books still remain my bookshelf as iconic references for studying disease and our healthcare system. There is the bright orange, soft covered, Foundations of Epidemiology by the father and son team Abraham M. Lilienfeld and David E. Lilienfeld, a relic from the required reading list.