J Am Board Fam Med
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Loneliness is the subjective feeling people experience when they feel less socially connected to others than they desire. Beyond the impact to mental health and well-being, loneliness is linked to detrimental health outcomes. ⋯ Whether it be through in-person or virtual visits, primary care clinicians have tools and expertise to screen patients for loneliness, provide them supportive consultations, and refer persons with loneliness to helpful resources. As the societal changes from the pandemic continue to evolve, we recommend that primary care providers include loneliness screens as part of their standard workflow and consult with patients about effective interventions to reduce loneliness.
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We sought to determine if there are differences between number of International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) codes per visit before and after COVID-19 when comparing in-office visits and between telemedicine vs in-office visits, toward the goal of determining value of telemedicine visits relative to in-office visits. ⋯ We found an increase in the number of diagnoses addressed during in-office visits from 2019 to 2020. When looking at diagnoses managed per visit, all 3 types of visits had similar complexity. These results may guide future reimbursement policy for telemedicine visits.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Pragmatic Clinical Trial
Patient and Clinician Perspectives on Two Telemedicine Approaches for Treating Patients with Mental Health Disorders in Underserved Areas.
Primary care practices in underserved and/or rural areas have limited access to mental health specialty resources for their patients. Telemedicine can help address this issue, but little is known about how patients and clinicians experience telemental health care. ⋯ Both approaches addressed patient needs and provided access to specialty mental health care. Each approach better aligned with different patients' needs, suggesting that having both approaches available to practices is optimal for supporting patient-centered care.
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The objective of this study was to adapt the National Diabetes Prevention Program (N-DPP) into a pragmatic tool for primary care settings by using daily text messaging to deliver all N-DPP content, supplemented by Fitbit technology to provide behavioral strategies typically delivered by personnel in traditional programs. Test the mobile health (mHealth), technology-based N-DPP adaptation (DPPFit) in primary care patients with prediabetes using a remote intervention based on the traditional 16 core sessions of the DPP. ⋯ The remote DPPFit intervention demonstrates a promising and practical approach to the management of prediabetes in a primary care setting. The results support the use of the DPPFit program and application to achieve meaningful outcomes in a population with prediabetes. A randomized controlled trial with a larger sample is warranted.
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Disparities in access to video-visit services have been described during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, we aimed to examine factors associated with not having a video-visit among a medically high-risk ambulatory population. ⋯ Our findings suggest that additional efforts are needed to eliminate disparate video-visit use.