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More than 80% of family care partners of older adults are responsible for coordinating care between and among providers; yet, their inclusion in the health care delivery process lacks recognition, coordination, and standardization. Despite efforts to include care partners (e.g., through informal or formal proxy access to their care recipient’s patient portal), policies and procedures around care partner inclusion are complex and inconsistently implemented. We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed articles published from 2015 to 2021 and reviewed a final sample of 45 U.S.-based studies. Few articles specifically examine the inclusion of care partners in health care teams; those that do, do not define or measure care partner inclusion in a standardized way. Efforts to consider care partners as “partners” rather than “visitors” require further consideration of how to build health care teams inclusive of care partners. Incentives for health care organizations and providers to practice inclusive team-building may be required.

Medical assistants are core members of the primary care team, but health care organizations struggle to hire and retain them amid the ongoing exodus of health care workers as part of the "Great Resignation." To sustain a stable and engaged workforce of medical assistants, we argue that efforts to hire and retain them should focus on making their work worthwhile. Work that is worthwhile includes adequate pay, benefits, and job security, but additionally enables employees to experience a sense of contribution, growth, social connectedness, and autonomy. We highlight opportunities during team huddles, the rooming of patients, and career development where the work of medical assistants can be made worthwhile. We also connect these components to the work design literature to show how clinic managers and supervising clinicians can promote worthwhile work through decision-making and organizational climate. Going beyond financial compensation, these components target the latent occupational needs of medical assistants and are likely to forge employee-employer relationships that are mutually valued and sustained over time.

BackgroundThere is an increasing demand for physicians to assume leadership roles in hospitals, health systems, clinics and community settings, given the documented positive outcomes of physician leadership and the systemic shifts towards value-based care. The purpose of this study is to examine how primary care physicians (PCPs) perceive and experience leadership roles. Better understanding how PCPs perceive leadership affords the opportunity to influence changes in primary care training in order to more adequately prepare and support physicians for current and future leadership roles.MethodsThis study used qualitative interviews, conducted from January to May 2020. The participants included 27 PCPs, recruited via the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care newsletters and through snowball sampling techniques. Participants worked in 22 different organisations, including major urban health systems, corporate pharmacy, public health departments and academic medical centres.ResultsUsing content analysis and qualitative comparative analysis methodologies, three major themes and seven subthemes emerged from the interviews. The primary themes included the advantage PCPs have in leadership positions, the lack of leadership training and development, and disincentives to leading.ConclusionsWhile PCPs perceive primary care to hold a unique position that would incline them towards leadership, the lack of training and other noted disincentives are barriers to leadership. Therefore, health organisations should seek to invest in, better train and promote PCPs in leadership.

The U.S. has a higher adolescent pregnancy rate than other industrialized countries. School-based health centers can improve access to contraceptives among youth, which can prevent unplanned pregnancies. This cross-sectional study examines the characteristics and predictors of contraceptive provision at school-based health centers in 2016-2017 and changes in and barriers to provision between 2001 and 2017.In 2020-2021, the authors conducted analyses of the National School-Based Health Care Census data collected from 2001 to 2017. The primary outcome of interest was whether adolescent-serving school-based health centers dispense contraceptives, and a secondary outcome of interest was the policies that prohibit school-based health centers from dispensing contraceptives. A multivariate regression analysis examined the associations between contraceptive provision and various covariates, including geographic region, years of operation, and provider team composition.Less than half of adolescent-serving school-based health centers reported providing contraceptives on site. Those that provided contraceptives were more likely located in the Western and Northeastern regions of the U.S., older in terms of years of operation, and staffed by a wide variety of health provider types. Among school-based health centers that experienced policy barriers to providing access to contraceptive methods, most attributed the source to the school or school district where the school-based health center was located.School-based health centers are an evidence-based model for providing contraceptives to adolescents but not enough are providing direct access. Understanding the predictors, characteristics, and barriers influencing the provision of contraceptives at school-based health centers may help to expand the number doing so.

Endolysosomal defects in neurons are central to the pathogenesis of prion and other neurodegenerative disorders. In prion disease, prion oligomers traffic through the multivesicular body (MVB) and are routed for degradation in lysosomes or for release in exosomes, yet how prions impact proteostatic pathways is unclear. We found that prion-affected human and mouse brain showed a marked reduction in Hrs and STAM1 (ESCRT-0), which route ubiquitinated membrane proteins from early endosomes into MVBs. To determine how the reduction in ESCRT-0 impacts prion conversion and cellular toxicityin vivo, we prion-challenged conditional knockout mice (male and female) havingHrsdeleted from neurons, astrocytes, or microglia. The neuronal, but not astrocytic or microglial, Hrs-depleted mice showed a shortened survival and an acceleration in synaptic derangements, including an accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins, deregulation of phosphorylated AMPA and metabotropic glutamate receptors, and profoundly altered synaptic structure, all of which occurred later in the prion-infected control mice. Finally, we found that neuronal Hrs (nHrs) depletion increased surface levels of the cellular prion protein, PrPC, which may contribute to the rapidly advancing disease through neurotoxic signaling. Taken together, the reduced Hrs in the prion-affected brain hampers ubiquitinated protein clearance at the synapse, exacerbates postsynaptic glutamate receptor deregulation, and accelerates neurodegeneration.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTPrion diseases are rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disorders characterized by prion aggregate spread through the central nervous system. Early disease features include ubiquitinated protein accumulation and synapse loss. Here, we investigate how prion aggregates alter ubiquitinated protein clearance pathways (ESCRT) in mouse and human prion-infected brain, discovering a marked reduction in Hrs. Using a prion-infection mouse model with neuronal Hrs (nHrs) depleted, we show that low neuronal Hrs is detrimental and markedly shortens survival time while accelerating synaptic derangements, including ubiquitinated protein accumulation, indicating that Hrs loss exacerbates prion disease progression. Additionally, Hrs depletion increases the surface distribution of prion protein (PrPC), linked to aggregate-induced neurotoxic signaling, suggesting that Hrs loss in prion disease accelerates disease through enhancing PrPC-mediated neurotoxic signaling.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) presents a major challenge for delivering large molecules to study and treat the central nervous system. This is due in part to the scarcity of targets known to mediate BBB crossing. To identify novel targets, we leverage a panel of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) previously identified through mechanism-agnostic directed evolution for improved BBB transcytosis. Screening potential cognate receptors for enhanced BBB crossing, we identify two targets: murine-restricted LY6C1 and widely conserved carbonic anhydrase IV (CA-IV). We apply AlphaFold-based in silico methods to generate capsid-receptor binding models to predict the affinity of AAVs for these identified receptors. Demonstrating how these tools can unlock target-focused engineering strategies, we create an enhanced LY6C1-binding vector, AAV-PHP.eC, that, unlike our prior PHP.eB, also works in Ly6a -deficient mouse strains such as BALB/cJ. Combined with structural insights from computational modeling, the identification of primate-conserved CA-IV enables the design of more specific and potent human brain–penetrant chemicals and biologicals, including gene delivery vectors.

Objectives To understand the relationship between stressful work environments and patient care by assessing work conditions, burnout, and elements of the diagnostic process. Methods Notes and transcripts of audiotaped encounters were assessed for verbal and written documentation related to psychosocial data, differential diagnosis, acknowledgement of uncertainty, and other diagnosis-relevant contextual elements using 5-point Likert scales in seven primary care physicians (PCPs) and 28 patients in urgent care settings. Encounter time spent vs time needed (time pressure) was collected from time stamps and clinician surveys. Study physicians completed surveys on stress, burnout, and work conditions using the Mini-Z survey. Results Physicians with high stress or burnout were less likely to record psychosocial information in transcripts and notes (psychosocial information noted in 0% of encounters in 4 high stress/burned-out physicians), whereas low stress physicians (n=3) recorded psychosocial information consistently in 67% of encounters. Burned-out physicians discussed a differential diagnosis in only 31% of encounters (low counts concentrated in two physicians) vs. in 73% of non-burned-out doctors’ encounters. Burned-out and non-burned-out doctors spent comparable amounts of time with patients (about 25 min). Conclusions Key diagnostic elements were seen less often in encounter transcripts and notes in burned-out urgent care physicians.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation and distrust exacerbated disparities in vaccination rates by race and ethnicity throughout the United States. Primary care, public health systems, and community health centers have shifted their vaccination outreach strategies toward these disparate, unvaccinated populations. To support primary care, we developed the SAVE Sprint model for implementing rapid-cycle change to improve vaccination rates by overcoming community outreach barriers and workforce limitations. Participants were recruited for the 10-week SAVE Sprint program through partnerships with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and the Resilient American Communities (RAC) Initiative. The majority of the participants were from community health centers. Data were evaluated during the program through progress reports and surveys, and interviews conducted three months post-intervention were recorded, coded, and analyzed. The SAVE Sprint model of rapid-cycle change exceeded participants’ expectations and led to improvements in patient education and vaccination among their vulnerable populations. Participants reported building new skills and identifying strategies for targeting specific populations during a public health emergency. However, participants reported that planning for rapid-pace change and trust-building with community partners prior to a health care crisis is preferable and would make navigating an emergency easier.

Deep learning-based methods for protein structure prediction have achieved unprecedented accuracy. However, the power of these tools to guide the engineering of protein-based therapeutics remains limited due to a gap between the ability to predict the structures of candidate proteins and the ability to assess which of those proteins are most likely to bind to a target receptor. Here we bridge this gap by introducing Automated Pairwise Peptide-Receptor AnalysIs for Screening Engineered proteins (APPRAISE), a method for predicting the receptor binding propensity of engineered proteins. After generating models of engineered proteins competing for binding to a target using an established structure-prediction tool such as AlphaFold2-multimer or ESMFold, APPRAISE performs a rapid (under 1 CPU second per model) scoring analysis that takes into account biophysical and geometrical constraints. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate that APPRAISE can accurately classify receptor-dependent vs. receptor-independent engineered adeno-associated viral vectors, as well as diverse classes of engineered proteins such as miniproteins targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, nanobodies targeting a G-protein-coupled receptor, and peptides that specifically bind to transferrin receptor and PD-L1. With its high accuracy, interpretability, and generalizability, APPRAISE has the potential to expand the utility of current structural prediction and accelerate protein engineering for biomedical applications.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) presents a major challenge to delivering large molecules to study and treat the central nervous system (CNS). This is due in part to the scarcity of effective targets for BBB crossing, the identification of which is the crucial first step of drug development. Here, we leveraged a panel of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) previously identified through directed evolution for improved BBB transport to reverse engineer protein targets for enhanced BBB crossing. We identify both murine-restricted Ly6c1 and primate-conserved carbonic anhydrase IV (Car4; CA4) as novel receptors for crossing the BBB. We demonstrate how these receptors can unlock new experimental and computational target-focused engineering strategies by creating the enhanced Ly6c1-binding vector AAV-PHP.eC and by applying AlphaFold2-enabled in silico methods to rank capsids against identified receptors and generate capsid-receptor binding models. Here, with Car4, we add a completely new receptor to the very short list currently available for crossing the BBB in humans and, with Ly6c1, we validate a pipeline for receptor-targeted engineering. The identification of Car4/CA4 and structural insights from computational modeling provide new paths toward human brain-penetrant chemicals (drugs) and biologicals (including gene delivery).

Aim The aim of this study was to design and use a parsimonious survey tool to use in real time to assess moral injury and describe how moral injury relates to burnout and intent to leave the job. The Moral Injury Quotient (MIQ) is derived from this 6-item tool. Findings The MIQ metric has good performance characteristics and captures a substantiative portion of moral injury. It is related to clinically meaningful changes; each 10-point increase in the MIQ was associated with 125% increased odds of burnout (p < 0.001) and 50% increased odds of intending to leave the job (p < 0.001). Conclusions Measuring and addressing moral injury has major workforce implications. This metric is an “off the shelf” tool that may be helpful in busy clinical settings to assess, implement improvements, and reassess for reductions in moral injury.

PurposeElectronic Health Records (EHRs) and other Health Information Technologies (HITs) pose significant challenges for clinicians, administrators and managers in the field of primary care. While there is an abundance of literature on the challenges of HIT systems in primary care, there are also practices where HITs are well-integrated and useful for care delivery. This study aims to (1) understand how exemplary primary care practices conceptualized data and HIT system use in their care delivery and (2) describe components that support and promote data and HIT system use in care delivery.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a sub-analysis of a larger qualitative data set on exemplary primary care in which data was collected using in-depth interviews, observations, field notes and primary source documents from week-long site visits at each organization. Using a combination of qualitative analysis methods including elements of thematic analysis, discourse analysis, and qualitative comparison analysis, we examined HIT-related data across six exemplary primary care organizations.FindingsThree key components were identified that underlie engagement with data and HIT systems: data audience identification, defined data purpose and structures for participation in both data design and maintenance.Originality/valueWithin the context of primary care, these findings have implications for effective integration of HIT systems into primary care delivery.

Background The environment in which clinicians provide care and think about their patients is a crucial and undervalued component of the diagnostic process. Content In this paper, we propose a new conceptual model that links work conditions to clinician responses such as stress and burnout, which in turn impacts the quality of the diagnostic process and finally patient diagnostic outcomes. The mechanism for these interactions critically depends on the relationship between working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM), and ways WM and LTM interactions are affected by working conditions. Summary We propose a conceptual model to guide interventions to improve work conditions, clinician reactions and ultimately diagnostic process, accuracy and outcomes. Outlook Improving diagnosis can be accomplished if we are able to understand, measure and increase our knowledge of the context of care.

To inform research on developing or adopting leadership competency frameworks for use in U.S. undergraduate medical education (UME), this scoping review describes the content of U.S. UME leadership curricula, associated competency frameworks, and content delivery.The authors searched PubMed, Embase, and ERIC databases on June 22, 2020. They included English-language studies that described U.S. UME curricula in which the primary end goal was leadership development. They excluded studies published before January 1, 2000. Data were extracted on leadership competency frameworks and curricular content, audience, duration, electivity, selectivity, learning pedagogies, and outcome measures. The curricular content was coded and categorized within the Medical Leadership Competency Framework (MLCF) using the constant comparative method. A repeated search of the literature on May 14, 2021, did not yield any additional studies.Of 1,094 unique studies, 25 studies reporting on 25 curricula met inclusion criteria. The course content of the curricula was organized into 91 distinct themes, most of which could be organized into the first 2 competencies of the MLCF: Demonstrating Personal Qualities and Working With Others. Thirteen curricula (52%) aligned with leadership competency frameworks, and 12 (48%) did not appear to use a framework. Number of participants and target learner level varied widely, as did curricula duration, with fewer than half (n = 12, 48%) spanning more than 1 semester. Most curricula (n = 14, 56%) were elective, and many (n = 16, 64%) offered experiential learning. Most studies (n = 16, 64%) reported outcomes as student perception data.The authors found wide variation in content of U.S. UME leadership development curricula, and few curricula aligned with an established leadership competency framework. The lack of professional consensus on the scope of medical leadership and how it should be taught thwarts effective incorporation of medical leadership training within UME.

The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disrupted how primary care physicians (PCPs) and their staff delivered team-based care.To explore PCPs' perspectives about the impact of stay-at-home orders and the increased use of telemedicine on interactions and working relationships with their practice staff during the first 9 months of the pandemic.Qualitative research.Participants included PCPs from family and community medicine, general internal medicine, and pediatrics.One-on-one, semi-structured video interviews with 42 PCPs were conducted between July and December 2020. Physicians were recruited from 30 primary care practices in Massachusetts and Ohio using a combination of purposeful, convenience, and snowball sampling. Interview questions focused on work changes and work relationships with other staff members during the pandemic as well as their experiences delivering telemedicine. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using deductive and inductive approaches.Across respondents and states, the context of the pandemic was reported to have four major impacts on primary care teamwork: (1) staff members' roles were repurposed to support telemedicine; (2) PCPs felt disconnected from staff; (3) PCPs had difficulty communicating with staff; and (4) many PCPs were demoralized during the pandemic.The lack of in-person contact, and less synchronous communication, negatively impacted PCP-staff teamwork and morale during the pandemic. These challenges further highlight the importance for practice leaders to recognize and attend to clinicians' relational and work-related needs as the pandemic continues.

The COVID-19 pandemic burdens health-care workers (HCWs) worldwide. Amid high-stress conditions and unprecedented needs for crisis management, organizations face the grand challenge of supporting the mental health and well-being of their HCWs. The current literature on mental health and well-being primarily focuses on improving personal resilience among HCWs. However, this puts the responsibility for coping with COVID-19-related stress almost fully on the individual. This chapter discusses an important alternative framing of this issue - how health-care organizations (HCOs) can facilitate recovery from work processes (i.e., returning to a baseline level by engaging in nonwork activities after work) for their workers. Based on a narrative review of the occupational health psychology literature, we provide practical strategies for supporting the four key recovery experiences of detachment, control, mastery, and relaxation, as well as present general recommendations about how to promote recovery. These strategies can help HCOs facing the grand challenge of sustaining worker well-being and functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during future pandemics and for workers facing high work pressure in general.

Background and Objectives: Despite recent improvements in access to health care, many Americans still lack access to dental care. There has been a national focus on interprofessional education and team-based care to work toward the integration of services including dental care into primary care. The purpose of this systematic review is to understand the impact of implementing oral health curricula in primary care training on measurable changes in primary care practice. Methods: Researchers utilized a two-step process, first a scoping review and then using the PRISMA systematic review method to develop inclusion and exclusion criteria around audience, curricula, and outcomes to identify practice change due to oral health education curricula delivered in primary care clinician training. Researchers assessed titles, abstracts, and full texts and abstracted data for the review. Results: Researchers reviewed 2,749 articles and found 12 meeting the systematic review criteria. The reported outcomes and evaluations differed for each of the 12 studies identified. Over 40% utilized self-reporting. Seven of the included studies tracked outcomes by checklists embedded in electronic health records changes to well-child visit forms, or chart audits, one of which also tracked billing reimbursements. Conclusions: Oral health curricula for primary care clinicians are too heterogeneous to determine the effects on practice behavior. Future research should focus on developing a clear evaluation framework for measuring practice level changes in primary care settings as a result of implementing an oral health curriculum.

With a rapid shift to telehealth during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, clinicians, health care organizations, and policy makers must consider and address patients' evolving needs, concerns, and expectations.

The COVID-19 pandemic burdens health-care workers (HCWs) worldwide. Amid high-stress conditions and unprecedented needs for crisis management, organizations face the grand challenge of supporting the mental health and well-being of their HCWs. The current literature on mental health and well-being primarily focuses on improving personal resilience among HCWs. However, this puts the responsibility for coping with COVID-19-related stress almost fully on the individual. This chapter discusses an important alternative framing of this issue - how health-care organizations (HCOs) can facilitate recovery from work processes (i.e., returning to a baseline level by engaging in nonwork activities after work) for their workers. Based on a narrative review of the occupational health psychology literature, we provide practical strategies for supporting the four key recovery experiences of detachment, control, mastery, and relaxation, as well as present general recommendations about how to promote recovery. These strategies can help HCOs facing the grand challenge of sustaining worker well-being and functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during future pandemics and for workers facing high work pressure in general.

ProblemThere is a lack of leadership training in health care despite it being an essential competency for providers to deliver accessible, high quality healthcare and navigate a continually changing system. The barriers to adding leadership development to the various stages of medical training are numerous. A specific barrier is the lack of access to resources for this training. This group aimed to tackle this barrier within post-graduate medical education and training through their e- Leadership Academy.ApproachThe e-Leadership Academy was developed as a partnership between the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care and Clinical Directors Network, Inc. (CDN). The result of the collaboration was a virtual leadership academy, offered over a 10-month period that covered the fundamental concepts and skills for leading within a clinical practice. The audience for this program were clinicians and staff of community health centers and health departments in the United States.OutcomesFor the results of this article, primary outcome analysis was of participant responses to both formative and summative evaluations that took place throughout and at the end of the course. Results were used to assess course quality, participant satisfaction, participant engagement, and provide data about future offerings that would be useful to the target audience.Next StepsThe group proposes future training programs could measure the changes in the behavior of teams and clinical outcomes utilizing expanded evaluations. Proposed plans for expansion of the e- Leadership Academy include developing additional modules and the potential integration of an in- person component.

With the increased empirical and theoretical support for common factors in the psychotherapy literature, marriage and family therapy (MFT) scholars have begun discussing the inclusion of common factors in MFT training. However, there is very little empirical research on common factors training or how to include common factors in MFT curricula. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate MFT students' experience with common factors training. Seventeen master's degree students who received training in common factors participated in the study. Data was comprised of participants' journal reflections and focus group interviews on their experience learning about common factors and how this influenced their work with clients. Participants' responses to the training were overwhelmingly positive and highlighted the ways in which studying common factors enhanced their confidence, understanding of MFT models, conceptual abilities, and clinical practice. Additional results and discussion about incorporating common factors in MFT training are presented.

Process research is important in the marriage and family therapy field, specifically process research with client participants. Process research is typically conducted in treatment-as-usual conditions. Clinically applicable research has been identified to narrow the gap between research and practice. In the present conceptual paper, we provide specific recommendations to beginning process researchers for collaborating with community agencies to sample therapy clients. We present practical strategies for reducing participant and researcher burden and fostering collaboration among clinicians and researchers that are specific to conducting process research in community agency settings with client participants. Finally, we discuss implications for narrowing the research practice gap.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, studies demonstrated an alarming prevalence of burnout in primary care. In the midst of the pandemic, primary care clinician wellbeing deteriorated and burnout rates increased, yet many organizational efforts to reduce burnout were put on hold due to the urgency of the pandemic. In this article, we present the “Reducing Burnout Driver Diagram” as a tool that clinical leaders and policy makers can use to address and mitigate primary care clinician burnout.

The mind and the body are clearly intertwined in ways that are only now being discovered. In the orthopaedic world, injuries and diseases are often classified and described in a very organized, discrete fashion-The radius is fractured, the ACL or meniscus or rotator cuff is torn, the ankle is sprained, and/or the lumbar spine has a disc herniation. Although it is, in many ways, almost comforting to think about injuries or orthopaedic issues in this manner, what about the many patients who fail to fall into this classification? What about the thousands of patients with severe unexplained chronic pain or patients who just are not improving with the typical treatment algorithm. What about patients who present with multiple overlapping symptoms that do not fall into any of the classic diagnosis patterns? The mismatch between the actual health needs of typical patients and the standard acute medical response produces an immense waste of medical resources and incredible frustration for both the patient and the provider and creates a real risk that acute conditions will go untreated and become chronic. After more than a decade of traditional orthopaedic and musculoskeletal practice, its tremendous benefits as well as its limitations have become apparent. These limitations have sparked a search for integration of mind-body considerations to fill some of these gaps. Although this can prove to be quite challenging in today's healthcare world of maximizing volume and decreasing costs, it has proven to be an invaluable resource for both personal growth and patient and family satisfaction. The goals of this 2-part article are to dissect the relatively new concept of the mind-body connection in orthopaedics. The article aims to provide a framework that illustrates how the mind will predictably create objective observable phenomena in the body. The central focus of this framework is the role of the sympathetic nervous system and its effect on the chemistry, biomechanics, and appearance of various tissues in the body. Further identified are factors contributing to the aberrant emotional response as a means to empower practitioners and patients in recognizing the link between negative perception and observable symptoms. Our hope is to ultimately introduce a model of empowerment that when presented to a patient/family can produce a proactive response and, in turn, enhance current orthopaedic and pain management practices.

As the US transitions to value-based healthcare, physicians and payers are incentivized to change healthcare delivery to improve quality of care while controlling costs. By assisting with the management of common chronic conditions, community health workers (CHWs) may improve healthcare quality, but physicians and payers who are making choices about care delivery also need to understand their effects on healthcare spending.We searched PubMed, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycINFO, Embase, and Web of Science from the inception of each database to 22 June 2015. We included US-based studies that evaluated a CHW intervention for patients with at least one chronic health condition and reported cost or healthcare utilization outcomes. We evaluated studies using tools specific to study design.Our search yielded 2,941 studies after removing duplicates. Thirty-four met inclusion and methodological criteria. Sixteen studies (47%) were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). RCTs typically had less positive outcomes than other study designs. Of the 16 RCTs, 12 reported utilization outcomes, of which 5 showed a significant reduction in one or more of ED visits, hospitalizations and/or urgent care visits. Significant reductions reported in ED visits ranged from 23%-51% and in hospitalizations ranged from 21%-50%, and the one significant reduction in urgent care visits was recorded at 60% (p 0.05 for all).Our results suggest that CHW interventions have variable effects, but some may reduce costs and preventable utilization. These findings suggest that it is possible to achieve reductions in care utilization and cost savings by integrating CHWs into chronic care management. However, variations in cost and utilization outcomes suggest that CHWs alone do not make an intervention successful. The paucity of rigorous studies and heterogeneity of study designs limited conclusions about factors associated with reduced utilization.

INTRODUCTIONT he need for accessible, efficient, cost-effective, and quality primary care is a recurring theme in the literature. The 15-minute physician visit model fails to provide acute, chronic, and preventive care and does not enable providers to build lasting relationships with patients or manage multiple diagnoses in line with evidence-based recommendations (Bodenheimer & Laing, 2007). These problems have caused a resurgence of interest in team-based primary care among key stakeholders, including government officials, providers, policy analysts, and researchers (Institute of Medicine, 2011; Iglehart, 2009). The rise of integrated models, such as accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes (PCMI Is), the critical shortage of primary care physicians, the increasing number of patients covered by insurance since passage of the Affordable Care Act, the prioritization of interprofessional training, and the call for payment reform all suggest a solution that includes implementation of team-based primary care (Iglehart, 2009). By incorporating team-based frameworks and lessons from management, stakeholders can create innovative and holistic solutions for primary care that enable teams to achieve goals (Hackman, 1990). The purpose of this literature review is to examine the extensive management literature on this topic, as well as current trends and recommendations in the healthcare literature. T his review focuses on applying this knowledge to primary care and considers the preliminary research conducted on primary care teams.METHODSStudy DesignWe conducted an extensive, semistructured review of management and healthcare literature to identify research on teams. We identified articles in the Business Source Complete (Premier, Elite, and Main Edition), Academic Search Complete (Premier, Elite, and Main Edition), Coogle Scholar, and PubMed databases, and we also identified relevant reports and white papers on prominent healthcare websites, including-but not limited to-The Commonwealth Fund, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and T he Johns I Jopkins Primary Care Consortium. In addition, we examined cited works and references to discover additional publications. The following key search terms, as well as stems, variants, and synonyms, were used in combination across the databases: "management," "teams," "teamwork," "interprofessional teams," "cross-functional teams," "highfunctioning, " "high-performing," "health care," and "primary care." Additionally, the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) headings "primary health care" and "patient care team" were used in PubMed to focus results. We queried databases and collected articles dating from 1979 to 2015.Inclusion Criteria and Articles IdentifiedAll articles identified in the preliminary searches were selected because of their interdisciplinarity and potential applicability to healthcare. "Management" searches yielded results from the fields of general management, service management, operations management, crisis management, organizational behavior, and strategy. We excluded articles from the field of information services because we determined that their technologyfocused team structure was too narrow and did not directly apply to healthcare. Our search for "teams" and "teamwork" included, but was not limited to, literature detailing members of a team and their behavior, planning, and execution of teamwork, situations requiring teams, and benefits and challenges of teams. We also included seminal literature on "interprofessional" and "cross-functional" teams. For the terms "high functioning and high performing," we included literature pertaining to the distinction between successful and unsuccessful teams. When searching for the term "health care," we included only literature relevant to the field in general; with the exception of primary care, subspecialties were excluded. Within primary care, we included existing models and evidence of team-based care for adults from internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, and geriatrics; literature focusing on mental health was excluded because of its lack of integration with primary care. …

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other Health Information Technologies (HITs) pose significant challenges for clinicians, administrators, and managers in the field of primary care. While there ...

The field of epigenetics, which is the study of factors regulating gene transcription, is expanding rapidly. Yet one area that has received little attention is the influence of epigenetic factors on human consciousness. We examine this topic by investigating how transcriptional regulation modulates the development and ongoing functioning of the human brain, mediates interactions between the environment and the genome, and may contribute to the evolution of consciousness. Epigenetics is demonstrated to play an instrumental role in human consciousness throughout the lifespan and over the course of multiple generations. Further research is recommended to broaden and deepen our understanding of the relationship between epigenetics and human consciousness.

With increasing recognition of the important relationship between oral and systemic health, non-dental health professions schools and programs are now teaching their students about oral health in various ways. This study built on surveys of medical schools, primary care residency and fellowship programs, and other health professions programs conducted by the authors in 2017, which found some had made significant progress in integrating oral health into primary care training, while others lagged behind. The aim of the current study was to better understand the characteristics and climate of oral health education in non-dental health professions schools by conducting interviews with leaders of programs who had self-identified in the surveys as having a robust oral health curriculum. Hour-long interviews were conducted between October 2017 and March 2018 with 31 program directors or deans of medical specialty and allied health professions programs using a semi-structured interview guide. These interviewees were from 13 health disciplines. The coding of interview transcripts identified seven major themes: motivations to develop an oral health curriculum; rationale for curriculum topics covered; best aspects of the curriculum; evaluation and assessment strategies; relationships with dental providers and residents and dental hygienists; barriers and challenges; and advice and lessons learned. The interviewees reported a strong belief that oral health is an important health topic. Key elements that interviewees identified as helping them build robust oral health programs in their primary care curricula were the following: having an oral health champion; having some funding; building relationships with dental professionals; using local, state, and national resources; using curricular materials from existing sources; incorporating skills-based sessions; taking an IPE approach; and making oral health part of what the program already does. These findings should be useful for primary care schools and programs that are beginning to add oral health to their curricula and those seeking to improve their existing oral health education for their students.

Investments in global health have more than doubled over the past decade, generating a cadre of new institutions. To date, most of the funded research in global health has focused on discovery, and, more recently, on the development of new tools, which has tightened the implementation bottleneck. This article introduces the concept of global health delivery and the need to catalog and analyze current implementation efforts to bridge gaps in delivery. Global health delivery is complex and context-dependent and requires an interdisciplinary effort, including the application of strategic principles. Furthermore, delivery is necessary to ensure that the investments in research, discovery, and development generate value for patients and populations. This article discusses the application of value-based delivery to global health. It provides some examples of approaches to aggregating implicit knowledge to inform practice. With global health delivery, the aim is to transform global health scale-up from a series of well-intentioned but often disconnected efforts to a value-based movement based upon 21st-century technology, standards, and efficiency. Mt Sinai J Med 78:458–469, 2011 © 2011 Mount Sinai School of Medicine