Chest
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This commentary heralds the recognition in China of a new subspecialty, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and the first national fellowship training pathway in any medical specialty. Because of striking environmental health-care similarities that existed in the United States, the Chinese medical community decided to model the specialty after that in the United States. Because of its expertise in educating pulmonary and critical care physicians in the United States, the American College of Chest Physicians was chosen by the Chinese Thoracic Society, with the approval of the Chinese government, to help with the transformation of this new specialty. A work group representing the two societies is collaborating to reorganize ICUs within a select group of large teaching hospitals in China and to introduce standardized and rigorous training in pulmonary and critical care medicine as a national program.
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In pulmonary sarcoidosis, the optimal means of quantifying change is uncertain. The comparative usefulness of simple lung function trends and chest radiography remains unclear. We aimed to explore and contrast the disease-monitoring strategies of serial pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and chest radiography compared against morphologic change on high-resolution CT (HRCT) scan. ⋯ Significant PFT trends correlate better with morphologic change as defined by serial HRCT scan than extent of disease on radiograph. Isolated change in gas transfer coefficient is more frequently discordant with change in disease extent on chest radiograph and HRCT scan and may suggest a pulmonary vascular component.
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One of the most controversial aspects of New York City's highly effective TB control program is the use of public health law and court-ordered detention to treat persistently recalcitrant patients with active TB. We now report on characteristics and outcomes of patients undergoing detention for completion of TB treatment due to nonadherence in New York City from 2002 through 2009. ⋯ The majority of patients undergoing court-ordered detention for TB treatment (95%) successfully completed therapy. Likelihood of detention was most strongly associated with factors expected to be associated with poor adherence, including mental illness and substance abuse.
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Reducing preventable readmissions for COPD is an important national health policy goal. Thus far, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) policies focused on incentivizing improvements in inpatient quality have had variable success. ⋯ CMS hopes that posthospital transitional care and services will substitute for readmission, but the evidence supporting this hypothesis is mixed. In this article, we discuss ways for ambulatory pulmonologists to leverage transitional care management payments to enhance access for their patients with COPD while minimizing the risk of a paradoxic increase in readmission rates.