Annals of internal medicine
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Observational Study
Changes in Dialysis Center Quality Associated With the End-Stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Program : An Observational Study With a Regression Discontinuity Design.
In 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services started levying performance-based financial penalties against outpatient dialysis centers under the mandatory End-Stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Program. ⋯ None.
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Evidence to understand effective strategies for surveillance and early detection of SARS-CoV-2 is limited. ⋯ The NFL and the NFLPA.
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Historical Article
The Reign of the Ventilator: Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, COVID-19, and Technological Imperatives in Intensive Care.
In the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, a dispute arose as to whether the disease caused a typical or atypical version of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This essay recounts the emergence of ARDS and places it in the context of the technological transformation of modern hospital care-particularly the emergence of intensive care after the 1952 Copenhagen polio epidemic. The polio epidemic seemed to show the value of manual positive-pressure ventilation, leading to the proliferation of mechanical ventilators and the expansion of intensive care units in the 1960s. ⋯ Moreover, the imperative to understand and treat ARDS with mechanical ventilation set the stage for the early confusion about whether patients with COVID-19 should receive mechanical ventilation. This history offers many crucial lessons about how new technologies can lead to new and valuable therapies but can also subtly shape and constrain medical thinking. Moreover, ventilators not only changed how respiratory disorders were conceived; they also brought new forms of respiratory illness into existence.
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China L, Freemantle N, Forrest E, et al. A randomized trial of albumin infusions in hospitalized patients with cirrhosis. N Engl J Med. 2021;384:808-17. 33657293.
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Observational Study
Patient Characteristics and Costs Associated With COVID-19-Related Medical Care Among Medicare Fee-for-Service Beneficiaries.
New cases of COVID-19 continue to occur daily in the United States, and the need for medical treatments continues to grow. Knowledge of the direct medical costs of COVID-19 treatments is limited. ⋯ None.