Could Legally Mandated Racial Bias Training Reduce Maternal Mortality Rates for Black Women?

A 2016 analysis of data published in Obstetrics & Gynecology showed a dramatic worsening in U.S. maternal mortality rates, increasing from 18.8 per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 23.8 in 2014. The researchers pointed out that this increase of nearly 27% took place in the United States while global rates fell by a third around that same time period. The data becomes even more pronounced when examining maternal mortality rates for black women.

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Report Finds Radiologists to Blame for Missed Diagnoses

The Red Signal Radiology Report reviews five years of Coverys’ closed claims to identify major risk factors, illuminate warning signals and safety vulnerabilities within radiology practices, and provide evidence-based recommendations to help radiologists proactively avoid patient harm.

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A Health IT Soothsayer

With 2019 on the horizon, it makes sense to offer up some health IT (HIT) predictions. What’s the harm? If I am correct, the HIT community will praise my ability to critically think and predict the future. If I am miserably wrong, no one will care. So here goes.

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Who Is the Patient Advocate?

A fast-growing solution is the rise of private patient advocates. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement defines a patient advocate as a “supporter, believer, sponsor, promoter, campaigner, backer, or spokesperson.” This can be a family member or close friend, but it’s increasingly an independent professional who specializes in helping patients and families make sense of their healthcare options.

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PEARR: Treating Abuse and Violence Victims, Step by Step

The Dignity Health system, HEAL Trafficking, and the Pacific Survivor Center teamed up to create a tool that could identify and care for victims/survivors of any form of abuse, neglect, or violence, including human trafficking. Together, they published the PEARR Tool, a suite of procedures to guide providers in providing assistance to possible abuse victims.

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Case Study: Human Trafficking Prevention at Dignity Health

Between 2007 and 2017, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has identified 43,564 human trafficking victims living in the U.S. At least 88% of these victims visit a healthcare provider at least once during their captivity and aren’t recognized as victims, say experts.

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Telehealth: A Primer

Telehealth, as defined by the Health Resources Services Administration, is the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration.

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