J Natl Med Assoc
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Healthcare in the United States (U. S.) has made incredible advances, but inefficiency and high costs continue to permeate the system. Urban and underserved communities face the greatest array of healthcare problems including the need to improve the quality of care provided them, disproportionate levels of poverty among different groups in the U. ⋯ With the tripartite mission of delivering high quality care to patients, undertaking clinical and laboratory research, and training future health professionals, AMCs have a unique ability to address health concerns of the most vulnerable populations. Innovations in healthcare technology are critical to ensure that AMCs properly address health disparities and the specific health concerns of rapidly growing African American populations. Awareness of these disparities may lead to improved processes and protocol implementation, which can promote innovation and quality improvement to allow AMCs to remain a key player in addressing population-based clinical research, quality of care, and health disparities nationwide.
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Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a common disorder in general population, with higher prevalence in population with comorbid cardiovascular disease, and yet it remains frequently undiagnosed. Prior published data show that hospitalized obese patients have a high incidence of unrecognized SDB. However, limited data exists on the incidence, prevalence, and impact of SDB in hospitalized obese African-American (AA) patients. This study was performed to better understand the burden of undiagnosed SDB in hospitalized AA patients and its implications on readmission. ⋯ This is the largest SDB registry that included obese hospitalized AA patients in a tertiary care academic center and reveals a high prevalence of undiagnosed SDB in this cohort. Despite proactive screening and patient education only 3.8% (32/852) of patients returned post-discharge for formal polysomnography. The presence of SDB did not impact the 30-day readmission rate/ED visit rate in this cohort.