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Cardiovascular Quality and Research News

ACC CV Quality SmartBrief

The ACC CV Quality SmartBrief eNewsletter is a free, twice-weekly briefing for health care stakeholders interested in quality care. Learn more about the ACC CV Quality SmartBrief and subscribe.

  • Patient safety depends on health equity

    Patient safety is inextricably dependent on health equity, as language barriers, care access problems and social drivers of health can all undermine safety, says Dr. Linda Fan, an assistant professor at Yale Medicine. Health equity in patient safety can be approached through disparity indexes and by including equity elements in evaluations of sentinel events, Fan says, and health systems should develop a four-step, systemwide process for visualizing equity data and safety measures, says Dr. Lou Hart, medical director of health equity at Yale New Haven Health. HealthLeaders Media (9/26) Learn More

  • Looking at pneumonia, inflammation in severe COVID-19

    There is debate among clinicians and research on both sides about the roles pneumonia and inflammation play in causing severe COVID-19. Dr. Benjamin Singer, a Northwestern Medicine pulmonary and critical care physician, says research shows recovering from pneumonia gives patients a better chance of survival but the best way to prevent severe illness is to be vaccinated against COVID-19. "It's very rare to see a fully vaccinated COVID patient critically ill in the ICU," he said. Medscape (free registration) (9/25) Learn More

  • COVID-19 admissions down for first time in over 2 months

    The number of people in the US newly hospitalized with COVID-19 dropped more than 4% to 19,674 for the week ending Sept. 16, marking the first decline in more than two months, according to the CDC. Washington, D.C., Florida, Arkansas, Montana and West Virginia recorded the highest hospitalization rates among states and territories, while 12 counties are experiencing high COVID-19 hospitalization levels and 322 have medium levels. U.S. News & World Report (9/26) Learn More

  • Guide helps cardiologists navigate home-based care

    The ACC's new Home-Based Care Workbook helps cardiologists and other care team members navigate the ins and outs of providing care in a patient's home. The workbook also helps clinicians perform evaluations of home-based services to ensure high-quality care. Cardiovascular Business (9/26) Learn More

  • ARPA-H launching antimicrobials research project

    The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health is launching a $100 million effort to discover new antimicrobials that are effective against drug-resistant bacterial infections, which kill an estimated 1 million people worldwide each year. More than 35,000 people in the US die of drug-resistant bacterial infections annually, according to the CDC, and health experts believe the problem is worsening. Reuters (9/27) Learn More

  • Telehealth tools have potential to enhance patient care

    Creative uses of telehealth technology can make a difference for patients, saving them time on travel and helping them get the information they need, while also giving physicians a view into patients' lives that they might not otherwise get, writes Dr. Fred Pelzman. As technology advances, virtual care team visits could address medical concerns, mental health and social determinants, while remote patient monitoring tools and patient-collected data could extend and enhance care, Pelzman writes. MedPage Today (free registration) (9/25) Learn More

  • Blood test finds immune profile differences in long COVID

    A study published in the journal Nature reported that by using an algorithm that combined survey data and a blood test, researchers found that patients with long COVID had higher antibody responses against pathogens other than SARS-CoV-2 and demonstrated anti-SARS-CoV-2 exaggerated humoral responses compared with matched controls. The study "provides physicians with important insights by highlighting the fact that people with long COVID show measurable signs of hormonal and immunological dysfunction, which should serve as further irrefutable evidence that long COVID is not a functional or psychosomatic diagnosis," the researchers said. MedPage Today (free registration) (9/25) Learn More

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