Hospital Implementation of Endovascular Thrombectomy and Health Equity in Acute Stroke Outcomes.

Background: The introduction of novel therapeutics into clinical practice could impact equity in health outcomes.

Methods: This was a retrospective, observational cohort study based on the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke program of the American Heart Association. Two epochs were considered: January 2010 to December 2014 and January 2016 to December 2019.

Associations between neighborhood socioeconomic status, readmission, and mortality for patients with cancer: A nationwide cohort study.

Background: Cancer presents a disproportionate burden, particularly among individuals from low socioeconomic status neighborhoods. Disparities in outcomes persist, influenced by limited access to healthcare services, cultural barriers, and neighborhood socioeconomic status. This nationwide study aimed to investigate the associations between neighborhood socioeconomic status and mortality/readmission among hospitalized Medicare-eligible patients with cancer.

Sex Differences in Mortality and Health Care Utilization After Dementia Diagnosis.

Importance: Sex differences may contribute to disparities in dementia outcomes.

Objective: To understand the association between sex and mortality and health care services use after dementia diagnosis.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This nationwide cohort study used Medicare enrollment data and took place from 2014 to 2021 with up to 8 years of follow-up.

Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Clinical Studies Reported to ClinicalTrials.gov, 2009-2024.

Importance: A lack of transparent reporting of race and ethnicity in clinical research limits the ability to identify health inequities and evaluate to what extent clinical research includes diverse populations.

Objective: To identify study characteristics associated with reporting race and ethnicity of clinical study participants and to document temporal trends in race and ethnicity reporting on clinicaltrials.gov.

Multimorbidity in dementia: Current perspectives and future challenges.

Multimorbidity-the co-occurrence of two or more chronic health conditions-affects > 86% of people with dementia. It is associated with cognitive and functional decline, reduced health-related quality of life, increased health-care use, and higher mortality. The relationship between multimorbidity and dementia is potentially bidirectional; conditions such as hypertension and diabetes increase the risk of developing dementia, and cognitive impairment can complicate their management.

Neighbourhood deprivation and quality of comprehensive diabetes care: findings from a national retrospective cohort study of US Medicare Advantage enrollees.

Objective: This study aims to assess the association between neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation and outcomes reflecting comprehensive diabetes care (CDC).

Design: Retrospective cohort study SETTING: US Medicare Advantage (MA) data, 2015-2020.

Participants: National sample of MA enrollees with diabetes.

Global, Regional, and National Burden of Nontraumatic Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: The Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.

Importance: Nontraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) represents the third most common stroke type with unique etiologies, risk factors, diagnostics, and treatments. Nevertheless, epidemiological studies often cluster SAH with other stroke types leaving its distinct burden estimates obscure.

Objective: To estimate the worldwide burden of SAH.

Incidence and prevalence of dementia among US Medicare beneficiaries, 2015-21: population based study.

Objective: To determine the incidence and prevalence of dementia in a nationally representative cohort of US Medicare beneficiaries, stratified by important subgroups.

Design: Population based study.

Setting: Nationwide study between 2015 and 2021.

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation and 30-Day Outcomes After Admission for Common Gastrointestinal Conditions: A Large Nationwide Study.

Background And Aims: To study the associations of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage with 30-day mortality and readmission for common gastrointestinal conditions, adjusting for individual demographics, comorbidities, access to health-care resources, and treatment facility characteristics.

Methods: We analyzed a nationwide sample of United States Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized from 2017 to 2019 for common gastrointestinal diseases, grouped by diagnosis-related groups. We then estimated the association of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, measured by the Area Deprivation Index, with 30-day mortality and readmission utilizing logistic regression models with restricted cubic splines.

Random Survival Forest Machine Learning for the Prediction of Cardiovascular Events Among Patients With a Measured Lipoprotein(a) Level: A Model Development Study.

Background: Established risk models may not be applicable to patients at higher cardiovascular risk with a measured Lp(a) (lipoprotein[a]) level, a causal risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Methods: This was a model development study. The data source was the Nashville Biosciences Lp(a) data set, which includes clinical data from the Vanderbilt University Health System.

Atrial Fibrillation and Retinal Stroke.

Importance: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common, chronic, cardiac arrythmia in older US adults. It is not known whether AF is independently associated with increased risk of retinal stroke (central retinal artery occlusion), a subtype of ischemic stroke that causes severely disabling visual loss in most cases and is a harbinger of further vascular events.

Objective: To determine whether there is an association between AF and retinal stroke.

Migraine May Represent an Independent Risk Factor for Retinal Stroke: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Introduction: Migraine is an established risk factor for cerebral ischemic stroke, with an especially robust association in patients with migraine with aura. However, it is not known if migraine is a risk factor for retinal stroke (central or branch retinal artery occlusion; CRAO or BRAO).

Methods: We performed a retrospective, observational, cohort study using population-based data from the State Inpatient Databases and State Emergency Department Databases from New York (2006-2015), California (2003-2011), and Florida (2006-2015) to determine the association between hospital-documented migraine and retinal stroke.

Cardiovascular event reduction among a US population eligible for semaglutide per the SELECT trial.

Background: Our objective was to determine the number of major cardiovascular events (MACE, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or cardiovascular death) and deaths from any cause that could be prevented across varying nationwide uptake of semaglutide 2.4 mg SC weekly for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Methods: Using a nationally representative cross-sectional study of participants in the 2017-2018 and 2019-March 2020 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the U.

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and 30-Day Outcomes for Common Cardiovascular Conditions.

Background: Understanding the relationship between neighborhood environment and cardiovascular outcomes is important to achieve health equity and implement effective quality strategies. We conducted a population-based cohort study to determine the association of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and 30-day mortality and readmission rate for patients admitted with common cardiovascular conditions.

Methods And Results: We examined claims data from fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥65 years between 2017 and 2019 admitted for heart failure, valvular heart disease, ischemic heart disease, or cardiac arrhythmias.

Association between characteristics of employing healthcare facilities and healthcare worker infection rates and psychosocial experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Healthcare facility characteristics, such as ownership, size, and location, have been associated with patient outcomes. However, it is not known whether the outcomes of healthcare workers are associated with the characteristics of their employing healthcare facilities, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This was an analysis of a nationwide registry of healthcare workers (the Healthcare Worker Exposure Response and Outcomes (HERO) registry).

Neuropsychiatric Comorbidities and Psychotropic Medication Use in Medicare Beneficiaries With Dementia by Sex and Race.

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms affect the majority of dementia patients. Past studies report high rates of potentially inappropriate prescribing of psychotropic medications in this population. We investigate differences in neuropsychiatric diagnoses and psychotropic medication prescribing in a local US cohort by sex and race.

Racial Disparities in Low-Value Care in the Last Year of Life for Medicare Beneficiaries With Neurodegenerative Disease.

Background And Objectives: There are racial disparities in health care services received by patients with neurodegenerative diseases, but little is known about disparities in the last year of life, specifically in high-value and low-value care utilization. This study evaluated racial disparities in the utilization of high-value and low-value care in the last year of life among Medicare beneficiaries with dementia or Parkinson disease.

Methods: This was a retrospective, population-based cohort analysis using data from North and South Carolina fee-for-service Medicare claims between 2013 and 2017.

RobOCTNet: Robotics and Deep Learning for Referable Posterior Segment Pathology Detection in an Emergency Department Population.

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of a robotically aligned optical coherence tomography (RAOCT) system coupled with a deep learning model in detecting referable posterior segment pathology in OCT images of emergency department patients.

Methods: A deep learning model, RobOCTNet, was trained and internally tested to classify OCT images as referable versus non-referable for ophthalmology consultation. For external testing, emergency department patients with signs or symptoms warranting evaluation of the posterior segment were imaged with RAOCT.

Atrial fibrillation as a novel risk factor for retinal stroke: A protocol for a population-based retrospective cohort study.

Central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO; retinal stroke or eye stroke) is an under-recognized, disabling form of acute ischemic stroke which causes severe visual loss in one eye. The classical risk factor for CRAO is ipsilateral carotid stenosis; however, nearly half of patients with CRAO do not have high-grade carotid stenosis, suggesting that other cardiovascular risk factors may exist for CRAO. Specifically, prior studies have suggested that cardioembolism, driven by underlying atrial fibrillation, may predispose patients to CRAO.

Dementia and Parkinson's disease diagnoses in electronic health records vs. Medicare claims data: a study of 101,980 linked patients.

Background: Medicare claims and electronic health record data are both commonly used for research and clinical practice improvement; however, it is not known how concordant diagnoses of neurodegenerative diseases (NDD, comprising dementia and Parkinson's disease) are in these data types. Therefore, our objective was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of neurodegenerative disease (NDD) diagnoses contained in structured electronic health record (EHR) data compared to Medicare claims data.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of 101,980 unique patients seen at a large North Carolina health system between 2013-2017, which were linked to 100% North and South Carolina Medicare claims data, to evaluate the accuracy of diagnoses of neurodegenerative diseases in EHRs compared to Medicare claims data.