News and Updates for Healthcare Professionals

This strategic plan demonstrates the commitment of all of NIH to improving minority health and reducing health disparities.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released today a final recommendation statement on screening for hearing loss in older adults. The Task Force concluded that more research is needed to determine whether or not to screen older adults for hearing loss before they have symptoms.

Patient Safety Awareness Week is an annual recognition event intended to encourage everyone to learn more about health care safety. During this week, IHI seeks to advance important discussions locally and globally, and inspire action to improve the safety of the health care system — for patients and the workforce.

Patient Safety Awareness Week serves as a dedicated time and platform for growing awareness about patient safety and recognizing the work already being done.

Effort is part of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership to enable development of effective targeted therapies.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released today a final recommendation statement on screening for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis. The Task Force continues to recommend against screening in adults

Our health literacy skills and those of the people we serve can vary in different situations. For example, our health literacy skills can decline when we’re under stress, such as when we’re dealing with an illness or when we’ve been up all night with a crying baby.

In an effort to address the opioid epidemic, a prominent goal of current research is to identify alternative treatments with equal or better benefits for pain while avoiding potential unintended consequences that could result in harms.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released today a final recommendation statement on interventions for tobacco smoking cessation in adults, including pregnant persons. The Task Force recommends clinicians ask about tobacco use and connect people to proven, safe methods to help them quit. The evidence is unclear whether e-cigarettes help adults quit smoking. More research is needed on the benefits and harms of using medications to help pregnant people quit.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released today a final recommendation statement on screening for hepatitis B virus infection in adolescents and adults. The Task Force recommends screening people at increased risk for hepatitis B infection.

Over the past two years, we have made tremendous progress in growing our network and disseminating current, evidence-based guidelines to users around the world. We are pleased to represent more than 1,800 guidelines from over 200 national and international guideline developer organizations. This year we launched a new offering, the Guideline Snapshot, a screening tool that succinctly outlines a guideline’s focus, patient population, and major interventions, as well as the Cultural Competence Corner, highlighting articles and guideline content which focus on underserved populations.

Updates to six key areas of asthma care focus on improving diagnosis, management and treatment.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released today a final recommendation statement on behavioral counseling interventions to promote a healthy diet and physical activity for cardiovascular disease prevention in adults with cardiovascular risk factors.The Task Force recommends counseling for a healthy diet and physical activity to help people at risk for cardiovascular disease. The final recommendation statement can also be found in the November 24, 2020 online issue of JAMA.

Nearly half of U.S. adults have hypertension, or high blood pressure, and only about 1 in 4 of those individuals has their hypertension under control.

Chronic diseases are a source of high payer spending, but payers can implement preventive care strategies to lower their expenses and maintain positive patient outcomes.

Approximately 15% of adults in the United States have chronic kidney disease (CKD). Aging is associated with a decline in kidney function, as estimated by glomerular filtration rate (GFR), even in healthy individuals without CKD. Furthermore, declining kidney function with age occurs faster in people who smoke or have obesity, diabetes, or high blood pressure. Lower GFR is associated with complications, such as heart disease and stroke, kidney failure, and early death.3 Thus, health care providers should pay special attention to a lower GFR when giving medicines (i.e., dosing) that are filtered through the kidneys to older individuals and CKD patients.

Temporary disruptions in routine and nonemergency medical care access and delivery have been observed during periods of considerable community transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, medical care delay or avoidance might increase morbidity and mortality risk associated with treatable and preventable health conditions and might contribute to reported excess deaths directly or indirectly related to COVID-19.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s mission is to protect and promote the public health, both in the U.S. and globally, by ensuring the safety and effectiveness of the products we regulate. Nowhere is this public health mission more evident than in the FDA’s role in the scientific and regulatory oversight of vaccines. One of the agency’s highest priorities is ensuring the quality, safety and effectiveness of vaccines. This deep and abiding commitment is something that we consider essential to engendering the public’s trust in vaccines.

Strategies for Patient, Family, and Caregiver Engagement

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, today announced that it has awarded 11 grants with a total first-year value of approximately $17 million to establish the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID).

A consensus statement published in Diabetes Care outlines the benefits and barriers associated with diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) in adults with type 2 diabetes.

In the United States, it is estimated that about 37 million adults have chronic kidney disease (CKD).1 Generally, sleep problems have been associated with higher mortality risk, chronic diseases such as heart disease, and progression of CKD.2-4 As a considerable proportion of the US population has reported sleep problems, prevalence is generally higher in adults with CKD than adults without CKD.3

In the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, two in five (41.0%) adults with CKD stages 3 and 4 reported trouble sleeping compared with 29.2% in adults with CKD stages 1 and 2* and 27.1% in adults with no CKD. The percentage reporting sleep disorders was also higher in adults with CKD stages 3 and 4 (17.7%) and CKD stages 1 and 2 (13.6%) than in adults without CKD (9.6%). Nocturia (waking up during the night to urinate) was also more prevalent in adults with CKD—39.4% in CKD stages 3 and 4 and 38.7% in CKD stages 1 and 2—compared with 24.3% in adults with no CKD. On the other hand, inadequate sleep was similar among adults with and without CKD.

The higher burden of sleep problems among adults with CKD, especially with stages 3 and 4, highlights the importance for early detection and management of these symptoms in the primary and specialty care settings.

References:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chronic Kidney Disease Basics website. https://www.cdc.gov/kidneydisease/basics.html.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sleep and Sleep Disorders website. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/index.html.
3. Shieu M, Morgenstern H, Bragg-Gresham J, et al. US trends in prevalence of sleep problems and associations with chronic kidney disease and mortality. Kidney360. 2020;1(6):458–468. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34067/KID.0000862019.
4. Molnar MZ, Mucsi I, Novak M, et al. Association of incident obstructive sleep apnea with outcomes in a large cohort of US veterans. Thorax. 2015;70(9):888–895. DOI: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2015-206970.