Journal of general internal medicine
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Observational Study
Population Segmentation Based on Healthcare Needs: Validation of a Brief Clinician-Administered Tool.
As populations age with increasingly complex chronic conditions, segmenting populations into clinically meaningful categories of healthcare and related service needs can provide healthcare planners with crucial information to optimally meet needs. However, while conventional approaches typically involve electronic medical records (EMRs), such records do not always capture information reliably or accurately. ⋯ With modest training, clinicians can complete a brief instrument to segment their patient into clinically meaningful categories of healthcare and related service needs. This approach can complement and overcome current limitations of EMR-based instruments, particularly with respect to whole-patient care.
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Women remain underrepresented in top leadership positions in academic medicine. In business settings, a person with power and influence actively supporting the career advancement of a junior person is referred to as a sponsor and sponsorship programs have been used to diversify leadership. Little is known about how sponsorship functions in academic medicine. ⋯ Sponsorship is perceived to be critical to high-level advancement and is experienced differently by women. Increased understanding of how sponsorship works in academic medicine may empower individual faculty to utilize this professional relationship for career advancement and provide institutions with a strategy to diversify top leadership positions.
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Healthcare providers use a life expectancy of at least 5 to 10 years in shared clinical decision-making with older adults about cancer screening, major surgeries, and disease prevention interventions. At present, few prognostic indexes predict long-term mortality beyond 10 years or are suited for use in primary care settings. ⋯ The PCP Index using simple clinical assessments and point scoring is a potentially useful prognostic tool for predicting long-term mortality and is well suited for risk stratification and shared clinical decision-making with older adults in primary care.