The Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine provides a scale for stratifying evidence from strongest to weakest on the basis of susceptibility to bias and the quality of study design.
Disparities in children’s mental health care could be addressed through expansion of school-based programs via passage of the Mental Health in Schools Act.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(12):1218-1224. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.12.pfor1-1612.
Transgender people planning a medical transition face decisions about family planning, fertility preservation, and how to access gender-affirming treatment.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(11):1119-1125. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.11.pfor2-1611.
Extending immunosuppressive drug coverage for the lifetime of kidney patients, instead of only covering dialysis, would be a cost-effective way for the federal government to reduce the costs of posttransplant care while improving clinical outcomes for patients.
Well designed and effectively implemented ACOs should help those who deliver primary care become trusted elicitors of informed patient preferences and knowledgeable coordinators of care.
The author argues that long-term trends point to a future for physician assistants and nurse practitioners as the principal front-line deliverers of primary care, with physicians focusing on managerial duties and specialty care.
Some behavioral economists caution that, as ACOs proliferate, their focus on financial incentives could compromise hospitals’ mission and organizational behaviors.
Despite leaps forward in medical technology that have enabled the timely detection and effective treatment of many cancers, members of marginalized racial and ethnic groups and patients without health insurance often do not receive timely and appropriate care.
Bo Wang, PharmD and Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH
Because advertisements’ primary purpose is to sell products rather than to inform patients in an unbiased manner, reasonable oversight of direct-to-consumer advertisements of drugs is essential for the public’s health.