J Am Board Fam Med
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Prescription amphetamines are the most common pharmacological treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and use among older age groups is increasing. The purpose of this study is to assess the risk of adverse cardiovascular events among individuals older than 65 years. ⋯ Amphetamines have clear safety data in younger age cohorts; however, this safety data may not generalize to older populations. Additional research is warranted to clarify further exposure and subpopulation-level risk factors associated with adverse cardiovascular events among older patients.
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Addressing the opioid epidemic would benefit from primary care clinicians identifying and managing opioid use disorder (OUD) during routine clinical encounters, but current rates are low. Clinical decision support (CDS) systems are a promising way to facilitate such interactions, but will clinicians use them? ⋯ With the right design and a supportive organization, these primary care clinicians believe a CDS could help them regularly identify and address OUD among their patients as long as it incorporates their concerns about relationships, competing priorities, patient complexity, and user simplicity.
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Primary care is crucial to the health of individuals and communities, but it faces numerous structural and systemic challenges. Our study assessed the state of primary care in Virginia to prepare for Medicaid expansion. It also provides insight into the frontline of health care prior to an unprecedented global COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Primary care serves as the foundation of our health care system and is an essential service, but it is severely stressed, under-resourced, and overburdened in the best of times. Primary care needs strategic workforce planning, adequate access to resources, and financial investment to sustain its value and innovation.
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Family physicians provide a sizable portion of emergency care in the United States. However, there is limited work characterizing this population. ⋯ We find that family physicians represent a sizable portion of the overall emergency physician workforce despite decreases in physician densities across the United States.
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To study the relationship between adherence to chronic medications and adherence to preventive medicine recommendations among persons with diabetes mellitus and hypertension. ⋯ A positive association was observed between adherence to chronic medications and adherence to preventive medicine among persons with hypertension and diabetes.