Journal of general internal medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Systems on Top of Nasal Cannula Improve Oxygen Delivery in Patients with COVID-19: a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Treating hypoxemia while meeting the soaring demands of oxygen can be a challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ The addition of the surgical facemask or the double-trunk mask above the nasal cannula improves arterial oxygenation and reduces oxygen consumption.
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The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act led to the rapid implementation of telemedicine across healthcare office settings. This innovation has the potential to improve healthcare use and ensure continuity of care. However, this delivery model could have an unintended consequence of worsening racial/ethnic disparities in healthcare utilization if adoption varies across sub-populations. ⋯ Racial/ethnic disparities in telemedicine use persisted among this cohort. However, telemedicine improved utilization for African Americans and Hispanics living farther away from the clinic.
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Study results vary on whether depressive symptoms are associated with worse prognosis for low back pain (LBP). We assessed the association between depressive symptoms or depression and health outcomes in persons with LBP. ⋯ PROSPERO database (CRD42019130047).
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Trust in healthcare providers is associated with important outcomes, but has primarily been assessed in the outpatient setting. It is largely unknown how hospitalized patients conceptualize trust in their providers. ⋯ While measures of trust in the outpatient setting have been validated as unidimensional, in the inpatient setting, trust appears to be composed of two factors: cognitive and affective trust. This provides initial evidence that inpatient providers may need to work to ensure patients see them as both competent and caring in order to gain their trust.
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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment has experienced a rapid transformation in the USA. New direct-acting antiviral (DAA) medications make treatment easier, less toxic, and more successful (90% or greater viral cure) than prior, interferon-based HCV medications. We sought to determine whether DAAs may have improved access to HCV treatment for hard-to-reach populations such as the homeless. ⋯ We found a clear indication that the likelihood of treatment initiation was greater for all veterans in the DAA era as compared to the interferon era. However, disparities in treatment initiation rates between housed and homeless veterans that were observed in the interferon era persisted in the DAA era.