All Articles on Health

• Now’s the time: Award and endowment hail Dr. Wagner’s lifework

  Deliberations over health care’s future continue to be divisive. The U.S. Senate “super committee”—deadlocked over deficits linked largely to health care spending—has thrown in the towel. The Affordable Care Act is headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.
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  Group Health, ITHS launch free health literacy e-course

  Group Health, ITHS launch free health literacy e-course
• Incentives studied to align care, coverage, and wellness

  The effectiveness of Total Health, a unique benefits program for Group Health Cooperative employees, is the subject of a four-year study that the federal Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently funded. It’s part of a trend to integrate care, insurance, and wellness programs and base them on research findings. The goal is to help people stay healthier and control health care costs.
• Medical home pays off, improving primary care and cutting cost at 2 years

  In a two-year evaluation at Group Health Cooperative, transforming primary care into a “patient-centered medical home” model paid off. The evaluation compared the medical home prototype to GH's other medical centers, showing that the quality of care was higher, patients reported having better experiences, and clinicians said they felt less “burned out.”
• Study of aging in Group Health patients renewed with $12 million grant

  Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) joint project between GHRI and the University of Washington focuses on finding ways to delay or prevent dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, and declines in memory and thinking.
• Acupuncture eases chronic low back pain in SPINE trial

  Acupuncture can help people with chronic low back pain feel less bothered by their symptoms and function better in their daily activities, according to the largest U.S. randomized trial of its kind, published in the May 11, 2009 Archives of Internal Medicine. But the SPINE (Stimulating Points to Investigate Needling Efficacy) trial raises questions about how the ancient practice actually works.
• Pain relievers seem not to prevent Alzheimer's in very old

  A new study shows that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as the pain relievers ibuprofen and naproxen, do not prevent Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia.