Journal of general internal medicine
-
The TOPCARE and TEACH randomized controlled trials demonstrated the efficacy of a multi-faceted intervention to promote guideline-adherent long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) in primary care settings. Intervention components included a full-time Nurse Care Manager (NCM), an electronic registry, and academic detailing sessions. ⋯ TOPCARE/TEACH participants found the intervention generally acceptable, appropriate, and easy to adopt in a variety of primary care environments, though some challenges were identified. Careful attention to the practical challenges of implementation and the professional relationships affected by the intervention may facilitate implementation and sustainability.
-
Editorial
From Revolution to Evolution: Early Experience with Virtual-First, Outcomes-Based Primary Care.
Primary care is foundational to health systems and a common good. The workforce is threatened by outdated approaches to organizing work, payment, and technology. Primary care work should be restructured to support a team-based model, optimized to efficiently achieve the best population health outcomes. ⋯ Payments must be re-structured to cover the cost of, and reward the value created by, this advanced model. Technology investments should shift from legacy electronic health records to patient relationship management systems, built to support continuous, outcome-based care. These changes enable primary care team members to focus on building engaged, trusting relationships with patients and their families and collaborating on complex management decisions, and reconnecting team members with joy in clinical practice.
-
The remarkable decline in cigarette smoking since 1964 has plateaued; approximately 12.5% of Americans still smoke. People who continue to smoke are largely members of marginalized groups, such as people with behavioral health conditions (BHC), encompassing both mental health and substance use disorders. Certified smoking cessation interventions can increase smoking abstinence in trials in people with BHC, yet smoking rates remain markedly increased, leading to increased mortality from smoking-related diseases, and worsening health disparities. ⋯ We propose smoking cessation trials utilizing electronic cigarettes in people with BHC. To this goal, the UK has already begun allowing companies to submit their products for approval as medically licensed electronic cigarettes that can be prescribed as smoking cessation aids. Our proposal is timely, backed by evidence, and aims to save hundreds of thousands of American lives.
-
Given efforts to taper patients off long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) because of known harms, it is important to understand if patients and providers align in LTOT treatment goals. ⋯ Patients emphasized the benefits of continuing LTOT for pain management and well-being, which differed from providers' emphasis on the benefits of discontinuing LTOT. Patient and provider differences are important for informing patient-centered care and decisions around continuing, tapering, or discontinuing LTOT.
-
The emergence of narrative medicine has promoted reflective practices and story-telling as means of promoting compassion, building resiliency, and understanding the "patient" and "physician" as "persons." However, though some narrative medicine pieces describe patients' experiences, the narrative of the patient is usually told by physicians, producing a second-hand facsimile of the patient's lived experience. Stories written by physicians may have their roots in patient encounters, but are filtered through the physician's, rather than the patient's, understanding of the world. ⋯ This paper explores the ways in which well-meaning physicians aiming to elevate patients' stories frequently fall short, and what we can do to better elevate patients' voices on the wards, in clinics, and in the medical literature. Stories about patients are important to help clinicians and trainees develop and practice compassionate person-centered care; stories written by patients on topics and with orientations of their choosing are currently lacking, and, we argue, even more important.