December 2008

Two case reports are presented in which previous photographs of the patients appearing in their medical record were of considerable assistance in making the diagnosis.

A telehealth nursing program used psychological counseling techniques to improve antipsychotic medication adherence, leading to reduced emergency department utilization in a managed Medicaid population.

At least 50 quality events per physician are needed to reach a minimum level of reliability for most quality measures calculated from administrative data.

Biologic therapy for rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis was associated with lower use of some types of medical services within 2 to 3 years of initiation.

Decreasing statin copayments because of the patent expiration of simvastatin has led to moderate increases in therapy adherence.

In his Editorial, Dr. Klepser considers the effectiveness and the future of value-based insurance design.

This study evaluated the association between patient-reported and medical record–abstracted local adverse events and patient-reported and claims-based adherence to inhaled corticosteroid therapy.

This study showed that complications add significantly to the cost of medical care when hyperglycemia levels were below the threshold for diabetes, and impaired glucose tolerance independently contributed to costs.