Introduction: Consensus on optimal prostate cancer screening remains elusive. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing of patients in their 40-50 s is highly predictive of aggressive disease, yet remains underutilized; Black patients face excess mortality burden, particularly at younger ages. We describe a novel age and baseline PSA-stratified protocol to mitigate harms of overdiagnosis and reduce burden of disease, particularly for Black patients, with implementation by primary care providers (PCPs) in an academic healthcare system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Community health centers (CHCs) are a vital safety net for under-resourced and medically underserved patients. As few studies have explored how they implemented broad-based organizational changes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we aimed to qualitatively examine CHCs' longitudinal, comprehensive pandemic response through the perspectives of staff, administrators, and researchers working in CHCs.
Methods: 25 clinic leaders, staff, and researchers from three CHC networks and two academic medical centers in Northern California and the Central Valley of California participated in 18 focus groups and interviews between April and October 2022.
J Am Board Fam Med
October 2024
J Am Board Fam Med
May 2024
Introduction: Previous research has found an association between low health literacy and poor clinical outcomes in type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) patients. We sought to determine if this association can be mitigated by a self-management support (SMS) program provided by trained health workers using a technology assisted menu driven program, called Connection to Health (CTH).
Methods: This study is a secondary analysis from a randomized trial of 2 similar versions of CTH implemented in 12 Northern California community health centers.
Background: The prevalence of functional impairment is increasing among middle-aged adults and is associated with adverse health outcomes. Primary care providers (PCPs) and geriatricians may have important insights about optimal approaches to caring for these patients, but little is known about their perspectives.
Objective: To examine PCPs' and geriatricians' perspectives on clinical needs and optimal approaches to care for middle-aged patients with functional impairment.
J Am Board Fam Med
March 2024
Background: Cigarette smoking rates remain disproportionately high among low income populations with unmet social and behavioral health needs. To address this problem, we sought to develop and evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a novel smoking cessation program for community health centers that serve these populations.
Methods: We implemented a randomized pilot trial of two smoking cessation programs in three county operated community health center (CHC) sites: (1) a systematic assessment of smoking habits and standard tools to assist with smoking cessation counseling ("Enhanced Standard Program" or ESP), and (2) another that added a structured assessment of social and behavioral barriers to smoking cessation, ("Connection to Health for Smokers" or CTHS).
J Clin Transl Sci
January 2024
Introduction: Traditionally, research institutions have valued individual achievements such as principal investigator and lead authorship status as primary indicators in the academic promotions process. However, the scientific process increasingly requires collaboration by teams of researchers across multiple disciplines, sometimes including experts outside academia, often referred to as "team science." We sought to determine whether there is agreement about what constitutes team science at our academic institution and whether current promotion processes sufficiently incentivize faculty participation in team science.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Syst Reform
December 2023
From 2005 to 2019, the Mexican government financed cervical cancer treatment for individuals without social security insurance through 's Fund for Protection against Catastrophic Health Expenses. To better understand the impact of this program on access to treatment, we estimated the cervical cancer treatment gap (the proportion of patients with cervical cancer in this population who did not receive treatment). To calculate the expected number of incident cervical cancer cases we used national surveys with information on insurance affiliation and incidence estimates from the Global Burden of Disease study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydroxyurea reduces sickle cell disease (SCD) complications, but medication adherence is low. We tested 2 mobile health (mHealth) interventions targeting determinants of low adherence among patients (InCharge Health) and low prescribing among providers (HU Toolbox) in a multi-center, non-randomized trial of individuals with SCD ages 15-45. We compared the percentage of days covered (PDC), labs, healthcare utilization, and self-reported pain over 24 weeks of intervention and 12 weeks post-study with a 24-week preintervention interval.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImplement Sci Commun
May 2023
Background: In 2017, the San Francisco Cancer Initiative (SF CAN) established the Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Screening Program to provide technical assistance and financial support to improve CRC screening processes, and outcomes in a consortium of community health centers (CHCs) serving low-income communities in San Francisco. The purpose of this study was twofold: to evaluate the perceived influence of the support provided by the CRC Screening Program's Task Force on CRC screening processes and outcomes in these settings and to identify facilitators and barriers to SF CAN-supported CRC screening activities before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted with consortium leaders, medical directors, quality improvement team members, and clinic screening champions.
After introducing guidelines for breast cancer screening in 2003, Mexico began to prioritize the implementation of mammography screening nationally. Since then, there have been no studies assessing changes in mammography in Mexico using the two-year prevalence interval that corresponds to national guidelines for screening frequency. The present study analyzes the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a national population-based panel study of adults aged 50 and older, to evaluate changes in 2-year mammography prevalence among women aged 50 to 69 across five survey waves from 2001 to 2018 (n = 11,773).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeighborhood context shapes opportunities and barriers for residents to access healthcare and cancer screening. Neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES) is associated with disparities in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, but the extent to which the effectiveness of specific screening interventions vary by nSES has not been studied. The original trial conducted in San Francisco, CA from 2016 to 2017 randomly assigned patients eligible for CRC screening either to a multicomponent intervention including advanced notification, mailed fecal immunochemical test (FIT) kits and reminders or to a control group receiving usual care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransl Behav Med
October 2022
Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) self-management support (SMS) programs can yield improved clinical outcomes but may be limited in application or impact without considering individuals' unique social and personal challenges that may impede successful diabetes outcomes. The current study compares an evidence-based SMS program with an enhanced version that adds a patient engagement protocol, to elicit and address unique patient-level challenges to support improved SMS and diabetes outcomes. Staff from 12 Community Health Center (CHC) clinical sites were trained on and delivered: Connection to Health (CTH; 6 sites), including a health survey and collaborative action planning, or Enhanced Engagement CTH (EE-CTH; 6 sites), including additional relationship building training/support.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented adoption and implementation of virtual primary care services, and little is known about whether and how virtual care services will be provided after the pandemic ends. We aim to identify how administrators at health care organizations perceive the future of virtual primary care services.
Methods: In March-April of 2021, we conducted semistructured qualitative phone interviews with administrators at 17 health care organizations that ranged from multi-state nonfederal delivery systems to single-site primary care practices.
Salud Publica Mex
February 2022
In 2014, a partnership was established between the Univer-sity of California and Mexico, which subsequently catalyzed formation of collaborations between cancer researchers at University of California, San Francisco and in Mexico. Over the past two decades cancer burden has dramatically increased in Mexicans on both sides of the California - Mexico border. Together, we face a growing burden of cancer in the context of globalized economies, diverse migration patterns, and dynamic immigration policies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSalud Publica Mex
February 2022
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View Article and Find Full Text PDFSalud Publica Mex
February 2022
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View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Gen Intern Med
January 2023
Background: Difficulty performing basic daily activities such as bathing and dressing ("functional impairment") affects more than 15% of middle-aged people, and this proportion is increasing. Little is known about the experiences and needs of individuals who develop functional impairment in middle age.
Objective: To examine the experiences and needs of adults who developed functional impairment in middle age.
Curr Epidemiol Rep
March 2022
Purpose Of Review: Cancer incidence and mortality are decreasing, but inequities in outcomes persist. This paper describes the San Francisco Cancer Initiative (SF CAN) as a model for the systematic application of epidemiological evidence to reduce the cancer burden and associated inequities.
Recent Findings: SF CAN is a multi-institutional implementation of existing evidence on the prevention and early detection of five common cancers (i.
Background: National guidelines recommend different pharmacologic management of hypertension (HTN) without comorbidities for Black/African Americans (BAA) compared with non-BAA. We sought to 1) identify if these recommendations have influenced prescription patterns in BAA and 2) identify the differences in uncontrolled HTN in BAA on different antihypertensive medications.
Methods: We constructed a linked retrospective observational cohort using 2 years of electronic health records data, comprising of patients aged 18 to 85 with HTN on 1- or 2-drug regimens, including angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE), angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB), thiazide diuretics, or calcium channel blockers (CCB).
Objective: This article presents a new conceptual framework "Connection to Health for Smokers" (CTHS), its application to address smoking cessation, and its acceptability in community health centers (CHCs).
Methods: CTHS, an online interactive patient educational tool comprehensively implements the "5 A's" (ask, advise, assess, assist, and arrange) within the context of patients' social and behavioral health needs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five health educators (nurses) who administered CTHS with 62 patients to evaluate the acceptability of the program.
J Am Board Fam Med
September 2021
Introduction: Collaborative goal setting and action-planning are key elements of self-management support for people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), however little is known regarding action plan quality or correlation of quality in primary T2DM care.
Methods: T2DM patients from 12 primary care sites participated in either: Connection to Health (CTH; 6 practices), consisting of a health survey followed by collaborative action planning, or Enhanced Engagement CTH (EE-CTH; 6 practices), including additional training in relationship building promoting patient engagement. Action plan quality was rated using an adapted version of the Goal-Setting Evaluation Tool for Diabetes (GET-D) (dual coding of 20%, inter-rater reliability [IRR] >80%).
Background: Individuals living with sickle cell disease often require aggressive treatment of pain associated with vaso-occlusive episodes in the emergency department. Frequently, pain relief is poor. The 2014 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute evidence-based guidelines recommended an individualized treatment and monitoring protocol to improve pain management of vaso-occlusive episodes.
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