Category: Primary Care and Community Medicine

Value Institute Spring Symposium 2015 – “Eliminating Health Care Disparities”

Giselle Corbie-Smith, M.D., MSc and Lisa Cooper, M.D., MPH discuss the critical topic of eliminating health care disparities. Dr. Lisa Cooper is the James F. Fries Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Nursing, and Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also Vice President, Healthcare Equity, for Johns Hopkins Medicine. A […]

Fear, Vulnerability, and Sacrifice as Factors in ED Use: Ethnographic Research Methods and their Insights

Ethnographic research and social analyses in healthcare settings have long been valued, however their use is not widespread. Qualitative research about patient-centered care makes patients the experts, and providers, policy makers and administrators the students. In this presentation, I discuss a 2015 case study of a 51-year-old low-income Philadelphia man who had two ED visits […]

Field Trials in Developing Countries: Lessons from the PURE Study

The PURE study assesses environmental, societal, and biological influences on obesity and chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. This presentation will describe the setup and execution of this large and complex study; key findings to date; and the possibilities and pitfalls of field-based data collection in developing countries. Dr. Rahman is […]

Delaware Medical Legal Partnership: Attorneys Collaborating with Clinical Teams to Address Social Determinants of Health

Patients challenged with social determinants of health are more likely to incur higher health care costs due to their inability to adhere to prescribed medical recommendations and their inefficient use of health care resources. Some of these challenges can be resolved with legal intervention. The Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) model has demonstrated positive impact on improving […]

Health Policy at the Ground Level: The Impact of Marketplace Guides on Healthcare Utilization

In response to provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that became effective in 2014, Christiana Care Health System (CCHS) hired 12 market place guides (MPGs) to assist eligible uninsured individuals with enrollment in insurance and provide referrals to meet patients’ healthcare needs. Policy experts predicted that new insurance coverage would lead […]

Kids Safe and Smokefree: A Multilevel Intervention Model to Address Child Tobacco Smoke Exposure and Parental Smoking in Underserved Communities

Low-income and underserved populations have higher smoking rates, greater challenges in quitting smoking, and bear greater tobacco-related morbidity/mortality risk than the general population. More intensive interventions are needed to address this ongoing public health priority. This presentation will describe a recently completed trial that combined a pediatric systems-level intervention with a pragmatic, individualized intervention. We […]

Smoking Cessation and Relapse Prevention during Pregnancy and Continuing Care Postpartum

In spite of the well-established negative health implications of tobacco smoking during pregnancy on mother and unborn child, 15.4% of pregnant women report smoking in the past month. Approximately one-third of women who smoke prior to pregnancy quit spontaneously during pregnancy, but up to 60% relapse within the first six months postpartum. This presentation will […]

Research in Diet, Nutritional Status, and Energy Balance in Infancy

Increasing evidence indicates there are sensitive periods in life during which nutrition and growth may have a programming or long lasting effect on later life health outcomes; one such period is infancy. This presentation will focus on diet composition, nutritional status, and measures of energy balance in infancy, and their effect on growth, in both […]

Healthy Food Access: Intervention Trends and Research Findings

From the establishment of state and national financing programs that support the development of supermarkets in low income communities to improving corner stores’ inventory to promote health, innovative approaches to change the food environment to influence public health are gaining momentum nationally. This talk will review the history of the “movement” and will include an […]

Dietary Sodium and Health: More Than Just Blood Pressure

Sodium is essential for cellular homeostasis and physiological function. Excess dietary sodium has been linked to elevations in blood pressure (BP). The mechanisms underlying sodium-induced increases in BP are not completely understood but may involve alterations in renal function, fluid volume, fluid-regulatory hormones, the vasculature, cardiac function, and the autonomic nervous system. Recent pre-clinical and […]