How do rural patients benefit from the patient-centred medical home? A card study in the High Plains Research Network.

Context The patient-centred medical home (PCMH) has become a dominant model for improving the quality and cost of primary care. Geographic isolation, small populations, privacy concerns and staffing requirements may limit implementation of the PCMH in clinical practice. Objective To determine the primary care provider perceived benefit of PCMH for patients in rural Colorado. Design, setting and participants The High Plains Research Network (HPRN) is a community and practice-based research network spanning 30 000 square miles in 16 counties in eastern Colorado. The HPRN consists of 58 practices, 120 primary care clinicians and 145 000 residents. Main outcome measures Providers' perceived benefit of PCMH for individual patients. Results Seventy-eight providers in 37 practices saw 1093 patients and completed 1016 surveys. There was wide variation among the provider-perceived benefits of PCMH elements ranging from 9% for group visits to 64% for electronic prescribing. Provider-perceived benefit was higher for patients with a chronic medical condition. Conclusions Rural primary care providers perceived patient benefit for numerous elements of the PCMH. There is need to consider what PCMH elements may be required in practice and what components might be optional. Our findings reveal that rural practices share PCMH aspirations including commitment to quality, safety, outcomes, cost reduction, and patient and provider satisfaction. These findings support the need for ongoing conversation about how to best provide a locally relevant medical home.

Translating the medical home into patient-centred language.

Background The patient-centred medical home (PCMH) is a healthcare delivery model that aims to make health care more effective and affordable and to curb the rise in episodic care resulting from increasing costs and sub-specialisation of health care. Although the PCMH model has been implemented in many different healthcare settings, little is known about the PCMH in rural or underserved settings. Further, less is known about patients' understanding of the PCMH and its effect on their care. Aims The goal of this project was to ascertain the patient perspective of the PCMH and develop meaningful language around the PCMH to help inform and promote patients' participation with the PCMH. Method The High Plains Research Network Community Advisory Council (CAC) is comprised of a diverse group of individuals from rural eastern Colorado. The CAC and its academic partners started this project by receiving a comprehensive education on the PCMH. Using a community-based participatory research approach, the CAC translated technical medical jargon on the PCMH into a core message that the 'Medical Home is Relationship'. Results The PCMH should focus on the relationship of the patient with their personal physician. Medical home activities should be used to support and strengthen this relationship. Conclusion The findings serve as a reminder of the crucial elements of the PCMH that make it truly patient centred and the importance of engaging local patients in developing and implementing the medical home.

Energy homeostasis, obesity and eating disorders: recent advances in endocrinology.

Health problems resulting from obesity could offset many of the recent health gains achieved by modern medicine, and obesity may replace tobacco as the number one health risk for developed societies. An estimated 300,000 deaths per year and significant morbidity are directly attributable to obesity, mainly due to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, asthma, sleep apnea, arthritis, reproductive complications and psychological disturbances. In parallel with the increasing prevalence of obesity, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of scientific and clinical studies on the control of energy homeostasis and the pathogenesis of obesity to further our understanding of energy balance. It is now recognized that there are many central and peripheral factors involved in energy homeostasis, and it is expected that the understanding of these mechanisms should lead to effective treatments for the control of obesity. This brief review discusses the potential role of several recently discovered molecular pathways involved in the control of energy homeostasis, obesity and eating disorders.

Household and neighbourhood risks for injury to 5-14 year old children.

Injuries in childhood are strongly related to poverty at the household level and to living in a deprived neighbourhood, but it is not clear whether these effects are independent. In this prospective population study, all injuries to 5-14 year old children living in the city of Norwich, UK, and presented at the hospital Accident and Emergency Department over a 13 month period were recorded (N=3526). Information on the population of resident children and household composition was assembled from the health authority population register. Neighbourhood information was extracted from the census and local surveys. Unadjusted risks were calculated for individual and neighbourhood factors, followed by multilevel modelling in which predictors were included at three levels: individual, enumeration district and social area (neighbourhood). The overall injury rate was 16.44 per 100 children per year. Injury rates between neighbourhoods varied two-fold and were highest in more deprived areas. In the final multilevel model injury risk was related to gender (boys vs. girls OR=1.35), age of child (OR=1.07 per year), number of adults in the household (OR=0.91 per adult), and age gap between child and eldest female (15-24 years vs. 25-34 years, OR=1.15). Injury rates were also related to social area deprivation, although variations in injury rates between neighbourhoods were not wholly explained by deprivation. The adjusted odds ratio between the most and least deprived social areas was 1.35. Excluding less serious injuries did not substantially change the results. The risks were very similar to those found in a previous study of pre-school children, with the same neighbourhoods identified as high and low risk as before. This evidence that neighbourhood factors independently influence injury risk over and above individual and household factors supports the use of area-based policies to reduce injuries in children.

Brief report: pitocin induction in autistic and nonautistic individuals.

Oxytocin plays an important role in social-affiliative behaviors. It has been proposed that exposure to high levels of exogenous oxytocin at birth, via pitocin induction of delivery, might increase susceptibility to autism by causing a downregulation of oxytocin receptors in the developing brain. This study examined the rates of labor induction using pitocin in children with autism and matched controls with either typical development or mental retardation. Birth histories of 41 boys meeting the criteria for autistic disorder were compared to 25 age- and IQ-matched boys without autism (15 typically developing and 10 with mental retardation). There were no differences in pitocin induction rates as a function of either diagnostic group (autism vs. control) or IQ level (average vs. subaverage range), failing to support an association between exogenous exposure to oxytocin and neurodevelopmental abnormalities.

Car travel time and accessibility by bus to general practitioner services: a study using patient registers and GIS.

Accessibility to general practitioner (GP) surgeries was investigated in a population study of East Anglia (Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk) in the United Kingdom. Information from patient registers was combined with details of general practitioner surgery locations, road network characteristics, bus routes and community transport services, and a geographical information system (GIS) was used to calculate measures of accessibility to surgeries by public and private transport. Outcome measures included car travel times and indicators of the extent to which bus services could be used to visit GP surgeries. These variables were aggregated for wards or parishes and then compared with socio-economic characteristics of the populations living in those areas. The results indicated that only 10% of residents faced a car journey of more than 10 min to a GP. Some 13% of the population could not reach general medical services by daily bus. For 5% of the population, the car journey to the nearest surgery was longer than 10 min and there was no suitable bus service each weekday. In the remoter rural parishes, the lowest levels of personal mobility and the highest health needs indicators were found in the places with no daytime bus service each weekday and no community transport. The overall extent of accessibility problems and the existence of inverse care law effects in some rural localities have implications for the NHS, which aims to provide an equitable service to people wherever they live. The research also demonstrates the potential of patient registers and GIS as research and planning tools, though the practical difficulties of using these data sources and techniques should not be underestimated.