Brain Health Across The Lifespan
Brain health affects Americans across all ages, genders, races, and ethnicities. Enriching the body of scientific knowledge around brain health and cognitive ability has the potential to improve quality of life and longevity for many millions of Americans and their families. To explore issues related to brain health throughout the life span, from birth through old age, a public workshop entitled Brain Health Across the Life Span was convened on September 24-25, 2019, by the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice in the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that as many as five million Americans were living with Alzheimer's disease in 2014. That same year, more than 800,000 children were treated for concussion or traumatic brain injuries in U.S. emergency departments. Each year, more than 795,000 individuals in the United States have a stroke. Developing more effective treatment strategies for brain injuries and illnesses is essential, but brain health is not focused exclusively on disease, disorders, and vulnerability. It is equally important to better understand the ways human brains grow, learn, adapt, and heal. Addressing all these domains to optimize brain health will require consideration about how to define brain health and resilience and about how to identify key elements to measure those concepts. A summary of the workshop can be obtained here.
Leading In A Time Of Crisis: Corporate America And COVID-19
New research from the Global Strategy Group reveals the opportunities and risks facing corporate leaders as they respond to COVID-19. While the economics of the pandemic will come into view in the months and years to come, right now, individuals in the U.S. are focused squarely on the safety, health, and well-being of their family, friends, communities, and the nation at large and they believe that corporations must do likewise. CEOs must counter the existing perception that they are focused most on the bottom line and work to support their employees and beyond by providing important benefits like paid leave; producing needed equipment and materials; and working in close cooperation with the government to respond to the pandemic. Companies are viewed as needing to tell the story of what they are doing and who they are helping with the stimulus dollars they receive to overcome negative perceptions. Eventually, they will be defined by what they do now. The reputational costs could be high. Research results can be obtained here.
Confronting Rural America’s Health Care Crisis
The rapid spread of COVID-19 has awakened the nation to the dire access problems that have long plagued rural communities and has underscored the need for immediate change. The current pandemic has highlighted the fragility of the rural health care system, in which hundreds of hospitals have already closed or are in imminent risk of folding. The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Rural Health Task Force has developed recommendations over the last year to stabilize and improve the urgent problems challenging rural communities and to do it permanently. The aim was to produce policy recommendations to stabilize and transform rural health infrastructure; promote the uptake of value-based and virtual care; and ensure access to local providers. These recommendations are contained in an April 2020 report. In addition to addressing telehealth, the task force recommendations include short-term stabilization for struggling rural hospitals and multiple pathways to transform into models that are customized to meet the needs of individual communities. The report can be obtained here.
More April 2020 TRENDS Articles
CALLING ALL CARS AND HEALTH DETECTIVES
Indicates the important role that epidemiologists play in explaining what is transpiring at key stages of COVID-19. Read more
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
ASAHP President Phyllis King discusses how with the thrust into the digitization of healthcare, the question for higher education is how fast can we understand, adapt, anticipate and project patient care needs and healthcare innovations to prepare our students and meet the needs of this new world? Read more
FAST CHANGING LEGISLATIVE ENVIRONMENT
Depicts efforts by the federal government to provide additional funding through Paycheck Program Protection legislation, along with an increasing concern that the U.S. is too dependent on other nations for supplying minerals used in the production of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Read more
HEALTH REFORM DEVELOPMENTS
Points out how the existence of accountable care organizations (ACOs) is threatened by the current pandemic; describes COVID-19 surveillance activities in relation to the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; and loosening by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of telehealth and scope of practice regulations. Read more
DEVELOPMENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Describes a recent ASAHP webinar on clinical education; a statement of principles on academic credit; and whether regional higher education accreditation should go national. Read more
QUICK STAT (SHORT, TIMELY, AND TOPICAL)
Lifetime Prevalence Of Self-Reported Work-Related Health Problems Among U.S. Workers
National Health Expenditure Projections, 2019-2028
Skin-Interfaced Biosensors For Wireless Physiological Monitoring In Neonatal And Pediatric Intensive-Care Units
Bacterial Colonization Reprograms The Neonatal Gut Metabolome Read more
AVAILABLE RESOURCES ACCESSIBLE ELECTRONICALLY
Brain Health Across The Lifespan
Leading In A Time Of Crisis: Corporate America And COVID-19
Confronting Rural America’s Health Care Crisis Read more
RACIAL DISPARITIES IN AUTOMATED SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEMS
Mentions how these tools do not work equally well for all subgroups of the population, with study results showing that all five ASR systems in an investigation exhibited substantial racial disparities, with an average word error rate (WER) of 0.35 for black speakers compared with 0.19 for white speakers. Read More
ESTABLISHING HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS: HEALTH CARE LESSONS
Refers to a study that shows while both Functional Change and Cultural Change processes were individually important for enhancing team-based health care, they were most effective when mobilized in tandem. Read more