JAMA network open
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Emergency medical services (EMS) are an essential component of the health care system, but the effect of insurance expansion on EMS call volume remains unclear. ⋯ Insurance expansion within New York City under the ACA was associated with a significant reduction in the asthma EMS dispatch rate. Insurance expansion may be a viable method to reduce EMS utilization for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions such as asthma.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed unprecedented strain on patients and health care professionals and institutions, but the association of the pandemic with use of preventive, elective, and nonelective care, as well as potential disparities in use of health care, remain unknown. ⋯ In this cross-sectional study of a large US population with employer-sponsored insurance, the first 2 months of the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with dramatic reductions in the use of preventive and elective care. Use of telemedicine increased rapidly but not enough to account for reductions in in-person primary care visits. Race and income disparities at the zip code level exist in use of telemedicine.
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Comparative Study
Association of Electronic Cigarette Use With Incident Respiratory Conditions Among US Adults From 2013 to 2018.
Generating robust and timely evidence about the respiratory health risks of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) is critical for informing state and federal regulatory standards for product safety. ⋯ This cohort study found that e-cigarette use was associated with an increased risk of developing respiratory disease independent of cigarette smoking. These findings add important evidence on the risk profile of novel tobacco products.
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Comparative Study
Clinical Trial Evidence Supporting US Food and Drug Administration Approval of Novel Cancer Therapies Between 2000 and 2016.
Clinical trial evidence used to support drug approval is typically the only information on benefits and harms that patients and clinicians can use for decision-making when novel cancer therapies become available. Various evaluations have raised concern about the uncertainty surrounding these data, and a systematic investigation of the available information on treatment outcomes for cancer drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warranted. ⋯ In this study, data available at the time of FDA drug approval indicated that novel cancer therapies were associated with substantial tumor responses but with prolonging median overall survival by only 2.40 months. Approval data from 17 years of clinical trials suggested that patients and clinicians typically had limited information available regarding the benefits of novel cancer treatments at market entry.
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Comparative Study
Trends in Representation of Female Applicants and Matriculants in Canadian Residency Programs Across Specialties, 1995 to 2019.
Disparities in representation between sexes have been shown at multiple career stages in medicine despite increasing representation in the overall physician workforce. ⋯ Increasing representation of female residency applicants over time was seen in some, but not all, medical specialties in Canada, and sex-based differences in successful match rates were observed in some specialties. The reasons for these disparities require further investigation for corrective strategies to be identified.