Journal of general internal medicine
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The efficiencies of plasma Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers could facilitate early AD diagnosis. Unfortunately, limited knowledge exists about whether and how they would be used by clinicians. ⋯ Several factors will influence clinical use of plasma AD biomarkers. Some of them may inform the design of interventions to promote the effective and appropriate clinical translation of these tests.
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The aim of this analysis was to create a parsimonious tool to screen for high social risk using item response theory to discriminate across social risk factors in adults with type 2 diabetes. ⋯ Based on these findings, crime and neighborhood rating discriminate best between individuals with type 2 diabetes who have high social risk and those with low social risk. These two questions can be used as a parsimonious social risk screening tool to identify high social risk.
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Prevalence of smoking is high among patients receiving care in safety-net settings, and there is a need to better understand patient factors associated with smoking cessation and receipt of cessation services. ⋯ Health system interventions could close the gap in access to smoking cessation services for unhoused and racial/ethnic minority patients in safety-net settings, thereby increasing cessation among these populations.
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Primary care is an important yet underutilized resource in addressing the overdose crisis. Previous studies have identified important aspects of primary care for people who use drugs (PWUD) and have found patient involvement in healthcare decisions and goal-setting to be especially critical. However, there has been limited research describing the primary care goals of PWUD. In harm reduction settings, where it is imperative that PWUD set their own goals, this research gap becomes especially relevant. ⋯ To best meet the primary care goals of PWUD, these findings underscore the importance of primary care providers and programs facilitating such partnerships through organizational-level support anchored in harm reduction. Future research should explore how these experiences in primary care affect patient health outcomes, ultimately shaping best practices in the provision of high-quality primary care for PWUD.
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There is growing, widespread recognition that expectations of US primary care vastly exceed the time and resources allocated to it. Little research has directly examined how time scarcity contributes to harm or patient safety incidents not readily capturable by population-based quality metrics. ⋯ Primary care physicians identify and address patient safety issues and high-risk situations by spending more time than allotted for a given patient encounter. Current quality metrics do not account for this critical aspect of primary care work. Current healthcare policy and organization create time scarcity. Interventions to address time scarcity and to measure its prevalence and implications for care quality and safety are urgently needed.