Research Activities

November 2009, No. 351

---

Contents

About Research Activities

Feature Story

Report finds that medications effectively reduce risk of breast cancer, but can cause other problems

Women's Health

Older black women with breast cancer do not receive beneficial chemotherapy as often as white women

Child/Adolescent Health

Children are commonly harmed by adverse events in intensive care units
Infants are at the highest risk for errors involving cardiovascular drugs
Beta-lactams may be appropriate first-line treatment for pediatric skin infections in areas where MRSA is prevalent
Intervention leads to reduction in central venous catheter-associated blood stream infections for pediatric patients

Patient Safety and Quality

Quality of care may be more important than volume when it comes to heart bypass surgery
Safety awareness and technological adoption are keys to managing test results in family medicine offices
Input from clinical staff helps when evaluating the purchase of equipment
Evaluating team member perceptions can help guide future failure mode and effects analysis activities
Instituting patient safety rounds can boost adverse event reporting in outpatient cancer clinics

Elderly/Long-Term Care

Inappropriate medications raise the risk of adverse drug events among older adults
Use of restorative care improves nursing home resident functioning and nursing assistants' job satisfaction

Chronic Disease

Chronic disease self-management program improves illness management for up to 6 months, then effectiveness wanes
Medicare coverage gap may prompt some patients with diabetes to cut back on their medicines

Mental Health

Nearly half of patients with depression drop out of treatment in a public clinic within 12 months

Public Health Preparedness

Physicians respond differently when recruited for public health and bioterrorism surveillance projects

Health Care Workforce

Doctors and nurses in teaching hospitals report widespread job stress and sleep deprivation
Subtask training is superior to total task training for medical students learning prostate surgery

Health Information Technology

Certain patients are more likely to e-mail their physicians

Agency News and Notes

Heart conditions, cancer, trauma-related disorders, mental disorders, and asthma were the five most costly conditions in 1996 and 2006
Treating aging baby boomers costs hospitals $56 billion
Hospitalizations for coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke are down significantly
Blood transfusions have more than doubled
Particle beam radiation therapy is promising, but unproven for treating cancer
Task force finds insufficient evidence to screen for newborn jaundice to prevent a more serious chronic condition
Task force finds insufficient evidence for using nontraditional risk factors to screen for coronary heart disease
Childbirth and deliveries are becoming more complicated
Falls send more than 2 million seniors to emergency departments

Announcements

New tools help emergency planners select alternate care facilities and transfer patients during disasters
Free tool helps calculate return on investment from better asthma care
Free toolkit helps researchers obtain informed consent

Research Briefs

Research Briefs
Healthcare 411
Subscribe to AHRQ's Electronic Newsletter
Visit the AHRQ Patient Safety Network Web Site

AHRQ Publication No. 10-RA002
Current as of November 2009

---

Internet Citation:

Research Activities Newsletter, No. 351. AHRQ Publication No. 10-RA001, November 2009. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/nov09/

---