Journal of general internal medicine
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Acute respiratory failure (ARF) associated with antipsychotic use has been documented through case reports and population-based studies. ⋯ Recent antipsychotic use by Medicare beneficiaries with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was associated with an increased risk of ARF in those aged 75 years and older.
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Medication non-adherence, which is common in chronic diseases such as heart failure, is often estimated using proportion of days covered (PDC). PDC is typically calculated using medication fill information from pharmacy or insurance claims data, which lack information on when medications are prescribed. Many electronic health records (EHRs) have prescription and pharmacy fill data available, enabling enhanced PDC assessment that can be utilized in routine clinical care. ⋯ Linked EHR-pharmacy data can be used to identify patients who never fill their prescriptions. Estimating adherence using linked EHR-pharmacy data resulted in a lower mean PDC as compared to estimates using pharmacy-only data.
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For the first time, our study tracked disparities in the utilization of audio-video and audio-only telehealth for outpatient visits before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Pandemic-era telehealth expansions reduced but did not eliminate pre-existing disparities in telehealth and audio-video utilization for outpatient visits, indicating a need for health systems to better engage minority, elderly, and rural populations and continue to support audio-only telehealth.
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Individuals with opioid use disorder have high rates of hospital admissions, which represent a critical opportunity to engage patients and initiate medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). However, few patients receive MOUD and, even if MOUD is initiated in the hospital, patients may encounter barriers to continuing MOUD in the community. ⋯ 04921787.