News and Updates for Healthcare Professionals

As life expectancies increase, the number of people living with dementia worldwide continues to rise. The 2024 report of the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care adds compelling new evidence that untreated vision loss and high LDL cholesterol are risk factors for dementia. Overall, around 45% of cases…

Unhealthy alcohol use increases the risk for and exacerbation of chronic health conditions. As such, screening, prevention, and management of unhealthy alcohol use is especially critical to improving health outcomes for patients with multiple chronic health conditions.

What if there were tests that could tell you whether the following drugs were a good match for your patients: Antidepressants, statins, painkillers, anticlotting medicines, chemotherapy agents, HIV treatments, organ transplant antirejection drugs, proton pump inhibitors for heartburn, and more? That’s quite a list. And that’s pharmacogenetics, testing patients for…

AHRQ’s ongoing research investments in clinical decision support (CDS) and its potential to help clinical teams recommend the latest evidence-based medicine to patients is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog post. AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research Program has supported CDS research, implementation, and demonstration projects throughout its 20-year history.…

Numerous studies demonstrate associations between serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) and a variety of common disorders, including musculoskeletal, metabolic, cardiovascular, malignant, autoimmune, and infectious diseases.

A five-minute cognitive assessment coupled with a decision tree embedded in electronic medical records, known as 5-Cog, improved dementia diagnosis and care, based on a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and conducted in an urban primary care setting. Researchers evaluated the system among 1,200 predominantly…

Are sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) associated with functional capacity and quality of life outcomes among patients with heart failure?

As a front-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, metformin is among the most widely prescribed drugs in the United States. In 2021 alone, clinicians wrote more than 91 million orders for the medication — up from 40 million 2004.

Join Cynthia Boyd, MD, MPH, John Hopkins Medicine, and Arlene Bierman, MD, MS, AHRQ’s Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement and Rafael Samper-Ternent, MD, PhD, UT Health Houston as they discuss policy challenges and clinical care in relation to MCCs and aging, as well as knowledge gaps and areas to…

Moderate to vigorous activity can benefit the physical, cognitive, emotional, and functional health of older adults. However, their levels of meeting physical activity guidelines are low, with older adults typically sitting for 65% to 80% of waking hours.