Other News Items

Study finds nutrition and physical activity regulations in most child care facilities inadequate

About three-quarters of US children aged 3-6 are cared for by someone other than a parent, and half attend center-based child care. Given rising childhood obesity rates, healthy nutrition and physical activity policies in child care centers may help play a role in childhood obesity prevention. A recent DACP Obesity Prevention Program study found that most states in the US do not have adequate nutrition and physical activity regulations to help prevent obesity in children in child care facilities. Click to read more

Patients in higher-deductible plans continue to get regular cancer screening

Patients who were transitioned by their employers to high deductible health plans continued to receive breast and cervical cancer screening at the same rates as patients who were enrolled in more traditional plans, according to a DACP study in the May Annals of Internal Medicine led by Frank Wharam. They also continued to receive colorectal cancer screening, but there was a substantial decrease in colonoscopy screening (colonoscopies were subject to a considerable co-payment) and a rise in fecal occult blood test rates (this service was completed covered). Click to read more

DACP Researchers Pilot Electronic System for Infectious Illness

Researchers at DACP, Atrius Health and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health have created a set of computer programs that use electronic medical records to help clinicians detect contagious illness and automatically report these illnesses to public health departments. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sponsored these efforts, e.g., funding the Boston-based Center for Excellence in Public Health Informatics that Dr. Richard Platt, Chairman of the DACP, leads. The new system, called Electronic Medical Record Support for Public Health, or ”ESP,” was highlighted in the April 11 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the CDC. The pilot version of ESP was installed in January 2007 at Atrius Health in Massachusetts. Click to read more

New Medicare drug benefit helps some beneficiaries, but sickest still struggling

A new DACP study finds that advantages of the new Medicare Part D drug benefit-a program that for the first time offers Medicare recipients prescription drug coverage-are mixed. On the one hand, both healthy and sick beneficiaries are now less likely to cut back on basic necessities (e.g., food) in order to pay for medicine. However, the sickest patients, who typically have high drug expenditures, are still skipping medications for financial reasons-despite the new benefit. Click to read more