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Video consultations in UK primary care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic




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Delivering long-term cancer care in primary care




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Body Surface Examination Facilitated by Digital Microscopy [Innovations in Primary Care]




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Reinventing the Medical Assistant Staffing Model at No Cost in a Large Medical Group [Innovations in Primary Care]




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Connecting General Practitioners Through a Peer-Facilitated Community of Practice for Chronic Disease Care [Innovations in Primary Care]




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Impacts of Operational Failures on Primary Care Physicians Work: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of the Literature [Systematic Review]

PURPOSE

Operational failures are system-level errors in the supply of information, equipment, and materials to health care personnel. We aimed to review and synthesize the research literature to determine how operational failures in primary care affect the work of primary care physicians.

METHODS

We conducted a critical interpretive synthesis. We searched 7 databases for papers published in English from database inception until October 2017 for primary research of any design that addressed problems interfering with primary care physicians’ work. All potentially eligible titles/abstracts were screened by 1 reviewer; 30% were subject to second screening. We conducted an iterative critique, analysis, and synthesis of included studies.

RESULTS

Our search retrieved 8,544 unique citations. Though no paper explicitly referred to "operational failures," we identified 95 papers that conformed to our general definition. The included studies show a gap between what physicians perceived they should be doing and what they were doing, which was strongly linked to operational failures—including those relating to technology, information, and coordination—over which physicians often had limited control. Operational failures actively configured physicians’ work by requiring significant compensatory labor to deliver the goals of care. This labor was typically unaccounted for in scheduling or reward systems and had adverse consequences for physician and patient experience.

CONCLUSIONS

Primary care physicians’ efforts to compensate for suboptimal work systems are often concealed, risking an incomplete picture of the work they do and problems they routinely face. Future research must identify which operational failures are highest impact and tractable to improvement.




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Prognosis and Survival of Older Patients With Dizziness in Primary Care: A 10-Year Prospective Cohort Study [Original Research]

PURPOSE

The prognosis of older patients with dizziness in primary care is unknown. Our objective was to determine the prognosis and survival of patients with different subtypes and causes of dizziness.

METHODS

In a primary care prospective cohort study, 417 older adults with dizziness (mean age 79 years) received a full diagnostic workup in 2006-2008. A panel of physicians classified the subtype and primary cause of dizziness. Main outcome measures were mortality and dizziness-related impairment assessed at 10-year follow-up.

RESULTS

At 10-year follow-up 169 patients (40.5%) had died. Presyncope was the most common dizziness subtype (69.1%), followed by vertigo (41.0%), disequilibrium (39.8%), and other dizziness (1.7%). The most common primary causes of dizziness were cardiovascular disease (56.8%) and peripheral vestibular disease (14.4%). Multivariable adjusted Cox models showed a lower mortality rate for patients with the subtype vertigo compared with other subtypes (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.62; 95% CI, 0.40-0.96), and for peripheral vestibular disease vs cardiovascular disease as primary cause of dizziness (HR = 0.46; 95% CI, 0.25-0.84). After 10 years, 47.7% of patients who filled out the follow-up measurement experienced substantial dizziness-related impairment. No significant difference in substantial impairment was seen between different subtypes and primary causes of dizziness.

CONCLUSIONS

The 10-year mortality rate was lower for the dizziness subtype vertigo compared with other subtypes. Patients with dizziness primarily caused by peripheral vestibular disease had a lower mortality rate than patients with cardiovascular disease. Substantial dizziness-related impairment in older patients with dizziness 10 years later is high, and indicates that current treatment strategies by family physicians may be suboptimal.




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Impacts of Operational Failures on Primary Care Physicians Work: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of the Literature [Departments]




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Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in a Canadian primary care setting: a descriptive analysis using routinely collected electronic medical record data

Background:

Unnecessary antibiotic use in the community in Canada is not well defined. Our objective was to quantify unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in a Canadian primary care setting.

Methods:

We performed a descriptive analysis in Ontario from April 2011 to March 2016 using the Electronic Medical Records Primary Care database linked to other health administrative data sets at ICES. We determined antibiotic prescribing rates (per 100 patient–physician encounters) for 23 common conditions and estimated rates of unnecessary prescribing using predefined expected prescribing rates, both stratified by condition and patient age group.

Results:

The study included 341 physicians, 204 313 patients and 499 570 encounters. The rate of unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for included conditions was 15.4% overall and was 17.6% for those less than 2 years of age, 18.6% for those aged 2–18, 14.5% for those aged 19–64 and 13.0% for those aged 65 or more. The highest unnecessary prescribing rates were observed for acute bronchitis (52.6%), acute sinusitis (48.4%) and acute otitis media (39.3%). The common cold, acute bronchitis, acute sinusitis and miscellaneous nonbacterial infections were responsible for 80% of the unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions. Of all antibiotics prescribed, 12.0% were for conditions for which they are never indicated, and 12.3% for conditions for which they are rarely indicated. In children, 25% of antibiotics were for conditions for which they are never indicated (e.g., common cold).

Interpretation:

Antibiotics were prescribed unnecessarily for 15.4% of included encounters in a Canadian primary care setting. Almost one-quarter of antibiotics were prescribed for conditions for which they are rarely or never indicated. These findings should guide safe reductions in the use of antibiotics for the common cold, bronchitis and sinusitis.




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Association of physician payment model and team-based care with timely access in primary care: a population-based cross-sectional study

Background:

It is unclear how patient-reported access to primary care differs by physician payment model and participation in team-based care. We examined the association between timely and after-hours access to primary care and physician payment model and participation in team-based care, and sought to assess how access varied by patient characteristics.

Methods:

We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of adult (age ≥ 16 yr) Ontarians who responded to the Ontario Health Care Experience Survey between January 2013 and September 2015, reported having a primary care provider and agreed to have their responses linked to health administrative data. Access measures included the proportion of respondents who reported same-day or next-day access when sick, satisfaction with time to appointment when sick, telephone access and knowledge of an after-hours clinic. We tested the association between practice model and measures of access using logistic regression after stratifying for rurality.

Results:

A total of 33 665 respondents met our inclusion criteria. In big cities, respondents in team and nonteam capitation models were less likely to report same-day or next-day access when sick than respondents in enhanced fee-for-service models (team capitation 43%, adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.79–0.98; nonteam capitation 39%, adjusted OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.70–0.87; enhanced fee-for-service 46% [reference]). Respondents in team and nonteam capitation models were more likely than those in enhanced fee-for-service models to report that their provider had an after-hours clinic (team capitation 59%, adjusted OR 2.59, 95% CI 2.39–2.81; nonteam capitation 51%, adjusted OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.76–2.04; enhanced fee-for service 34% [reference]). Patterns were similar for respondents in small towns. There was minimal to no difference by model for satisfaction with time to appointment or telephone access.

Interpretation:

In our setting, there was an association between some types of access to primary care and physician payment model and team-based care, but the direction was not consistent. Different measures of timely access are needed to understand health care system performance.




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Patient and primary care physician characteristics associated with billing incentives for chronic diseases in British Columbia: a retrospective cohort study

Background:

Incentive payments for chronic diseases in British Columbia were intended to support primary care physicians in providing more comprehensive care, but research shows that not all physicians bill incentives and not all eligible patients have them billed on their behalf. We investigated patient and physician characteristics associated with billing incentives for chronic diseases in BC.

Methods:

We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis using linked administrative health data to examine community-based primary care physicians and patients with eligible chronic conditions in BC during 2010–2013. Descriptive analyses of patients and physicians compared 3 groups: no incentives in any of the 4 years, incentives in all 4 years, and incentives in any of the study years. We used hierarchical logistic regression models to identify the patient- and physician-level characteristics associated with billing incentives.

Results:

Of 428 770 eligible patients, 142 475 (33.2%) had an incentive billed on their behalf in all 4 years, and 152 686 (35.6%) never did. Of 3936 physicians, 2625 (66.7%) billed at least 1 incentive in each of the 4 years, and 740 (18.8%) billed no incentives during the study period. The strongest predictors of having an incentive billed were the number of physician contacts a patient had (odds ratio [OR] for > 48 contacts 134.77, 95% confidence interval [CI] 112.27–161.78) and whether a physician had a large number of patients in his or her practice for whom incentives were billed (OR 42.38 [95% CI 34.55–52.00] for quartile 4 v. quartile 1).

Interpretation:

The findings suggest that primary care physicians bill incentives for patients based on whom they see most often rather than using a population health management approach to their practice.




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Erratum. Diabetes Is Primary: Timely News and Notes for Primary Care Providers. Clinical Diabetes 2020;38:4-8 (DOI: 10.2337/cd20-dp01)




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Primary Care Providers in California and Florida Report Low Confidence in Providing Type 1 Diabetes Care

People with type 1 diabetes may receive a significant portion of their care from primary care providers (PCPs). To understand the involvement of PCPs in delivering type 1 diabetes care, we performed surveys in California and Florida, two of the most populous and diverse states in the United States. PCPs fill insulin prescriptions but report low confidence in providing type 1 diabetes care and difficulty accessing specialty referrals to endocrinologists.




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Timely News and Notes for Primary Care Providers from the American Diabetes Association




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Maternal Epigenetic Regulation Contributes to Prevention of Estrogen Receptor-negative Mammary Cancer with Broccoli Sprout Consumption

Cruciferous vegetables have been of special interest due to the rich presence of bioactive compounds such as sulforaphane which show promising potential on cancer prevention and therapy as an epigenetic dietary strategy. Abnormal epigenetic alteration as one of the primary contributors to tumor development is closely related to breast cancer initiation and progression. In the present study, we investigated the effect of dietary broccoli sprouts (BSp), a common cruciferous vegetable, on prevention of estrogen receptor (ER)-negative mammary tumors at three different temporal exposure windows using a spontaneous breast cancer mouse model. Our findings indicate that maternal BSp treatment exhibited profound inhibitory and preventive effects on mammary cancer formation in the nontreated mouse offspring. The BSp diet administered to adult mice also showed suppressive effects on mammary cancer but was not as profound as the maternal BSp preventive effects. Moreover, such protective effects were linked with differentially expressed tumor- and epigenetic-related genes, as well as altered global histone acetylation, DNA methylation, and DNA hydroxymethylation levels. We also found that the expression changes of tumor-related genes were associated with the levels of histone methylation of H3K4 and H3K9 in the gene promoter regions. In addition, BSp-enriched sulforaphane was shown to increase protein expression of tumor suppressor genes such as p16 and p53 and inhibit the protein levels of Bmi1, DNA methyltransferases, and histone deacetylases in ERα-negative breast cancer cell lines. Collectively, these results suggest that maternal exposure to key phytochemicals may contribute to ER-negative mammary tumor prevention in their offspring through epigenetic regulations.




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Sanders' bid to collect delegates takes blow as New York cancels its Democratic presidential primary

Bernie Sanders' bid to collect convention delegates hits snag as New York cancels Democratic presidential primary




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Maryland police release footage of fatal police shooting

Maryland police released body camera footage of an officer shooting and killing a man who rushed towards him with a knife.




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Croydon stabbing: Police issue CCTV in hunt for man who stabbed eight months pregnant mother Kelly Mary Fauvrelle to death

7.45am update: Tragic pregnant mother's baby loses fight for life




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Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong: Tens of thousands of pounds raised for family of pregnant nurse who died of Covid-19

Follow our live coronavirus updates here




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Primary school admissions 2020: When will I find out and what can I do if my child doesn't get a place?

Parents should receive updates today on whether their child has a place




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14,000 London children miss out on first choice of primary school — and 2,800 get no offers

More than 14,000 London children have been turned away from their first-choice primary school, the Evening Standard can reveal today.




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Primary schools 'to open as soon as June' as part of Boris Johnson's coronavirus lockdown exit plan

Primary schools are set to reopen as soon as June 1 as part of Boris Johnson's coronavirus lockdown exit strategy, The Sunday Telegraph reports.




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Mary Gaitskill’s Art of Loneliness

Maggie Doherty

Through her portraits of solitude, Gaitskill forces us to recognize those moments of subtle connection.

The post Mary Gaitskill’s Art of Loneliness appeared first on The Nation.




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Maryland and Washington, DC: Latest updates on coronavirus

Here is the COVID-19 situation in Maryland and Washington, DC.




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Colorado, Tennessee and other states ease coronavirus restrictions; New York cancels presidential primary

Colorado, Montana and Tennessee are among states to reopen amid coronavirus outbreak.




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Five Maryland Commercial Fishermen Plead Guilty to Illegally Overfishing Striped Bass

Five St. Mary’s County, Md., commercial fisherman pleaded guilty today to illegally overfishing striped bass also known as rockfish.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Disbarred Maryland Attorney Pleads Guilty to Preparing False Tax Returns

Tax return preparer Lawrence Sperling pleaded guilty today to aiding in the preparation of false tax returns. Sperling was scheduled to begin trial on April 14, 2009 before Judge Deborah Chasanow in Greenbelt, Md. According to the indictment and the plea agreement, Sperling knowingly prepared tax returns for his clients that contained false and fraudulent items, including inflated medial expenses, charitable contributions, miscellaneous employment-related expenses, and child care credits.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Maryland Commercial Fisherman Sentenced to Prison for Illegal Harvesting of Rockfish

Thomas L. Hallock, a commercial fisherman licensed in Maryland, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., to 12 months in prison, for illegally overfishing striped bass also known as rockfish. He was also fined $4,000 and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $40,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to the benefit of the Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass Restoration Account.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Justice Department Files Lawsuit Alleging Disability Discrimination by the City of Baltimore, Maryland

The Department filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Baltimore alleging that the city of Baltimore’s zoning code discriminates against individuals with disabilities by requiring substance abuse treatment facilities to go through a burdensome “conditional ordinance” zoning process in order to locate in any zone.



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Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Using a Noose to Assault a Man at the Pentagon

William Michael King, a fifty-year-old truck driver from Maryland, pleaded guilty today to assault and violating the civil rights of an African American man he encountered while King delivered construction materials to the Pentagon.



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Silver Spring, Maryland, Return Preparer Found Guilty of Preparing False Tax Returns for Clients

Following a four-day trial and less than an hour of deliberations, a federal jury today convicted tax return preparer, Marcel J. Toto-Ngosso, of Silver Spring, Md., of 17 counts of preparing false tax returns in connection with a scheme to generate fraudulent tax refunds for client-taxpayers.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Two Baltimore Businessmen Indicted for Conspiring to Rig Bids at Maryland Tax Lien Auctions

Two Baltimore businessmen were indicted today for conspiring to rig bids at tax lien auctions in Maryland for more than five years. The one-count felony indictment filed today in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore alleges that Harvey M. Nusbaum and his business partner, Jack W. Stollof, participated in a conspiracy to rig bids in tax lien auctions conducted by the city of Baltimore and various counties in the state of Maryland beginning in or around the Spring of 2002 and continuing until at least Aug. 9, 2007.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Maryland Man Sentenced on Federal Sex Trafficking Charge

Defendant Paul Raymond Green was sentenced late last week to 52 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to prostitute minor females. Green, 23, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Maryland Tax Preparer Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison for Preparing False Tax Returns for Clients

Marcel J. Toto-Ngosso of Silver Spring, Md., was sentenced to 70 months in prison today for preparing and filing false tax returns in connection with a scheme to generate fraudulent tax refunds for his clients.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Maryland Scientist Charged with Attempted Espionage

A Maryland scientist who once worked for the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been arrested for attempted espionage



  • OPA Press Releases

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Maryland MS-13 Gang Leader Convicted of Racketeering Charges Related to Murder; Sentenced to Life in Prison

U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow today sentenced Roberto Antonio Argueta, aka "Alex Antonio Cruz," aka "Buda," 29, of Hyattsville, Md., to life in prison, plus an additional 35 years, for ordering the murder of Nancy Diaz and the attempted murder of another juvenile girl.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Maryland Man Convicted of Sex Trafficking, Firearm and Drug Charges

Lloyd Mack Royal, III aka “Blyss”, aka “B”, aka “Furious” was convicted late yesterday of sex trafficking of minors and sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, as well as firearm and drug charges.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Latin Kings Leader Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy Related to Gang Activities in New York and Maryland

Andres Echevarria, aka “B-Boy” and “King B-Boy,” pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise, in connection with his gang activities as a member of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (Latin Kings).



  • OPA Press Releases

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Maryland Man Sentenced on Federal Sex Trafficking, Drug and Firearm Charges

Lloyd Mack Royal III, aka “Blyss,” “B,” and “Furious,” 29, of Gaithersburg, Md., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. for his role in a sex trafficking operation.



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Owners of “Super Soda Center Stores” in Maryland and Delaware Settle Allegations of Underground Storage Tank Violations

The United States has settled alleged violations of federal and state underground storage tank (UST) regulations at 17 gas stations in Delaware and Maryland formerly owned by Duncan Petroleum Corp.



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Maryland Contractors and Their President to Pay Settlement for Falsely Obtaining Hubzone Contracts

CSI Engineering and CSI Design Build, located in Beltsville, Md., and their president, Debdas Ghosal, have agreed to pay the United States $200,000 to settle claims that they used false statements to obtain contracts from several government agencies.



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