Funding mechanisms for depression care management: opportunities and challenges

OBJECTIVE: Inconsistent third-party reimbursement for depression care management is a significant economic barrier to the utilization and sustainability of the chronic illness care model in primary care practice settings. We review common mechanisms used to procure payment for depression care management services, discuss obstacles encountered and suggest future directions. METHOD: We describe several extant models for funding depression care management services in use at the demonstration sites of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded "Depression in Primary Care" project and similar programs. We derived this information from ongoing discussions with the sites' project directors and through an extensive electronic literature search on "care management, funding mechanisms and depression." RESULTS: Funding mechanisms include (a) practice-based care management on a fee-for-service basis, (b) practice-based care management under contract to health plans, (c) global capitation, (d) flexible infrastructure support for chronic care management, (e) health-plan-based care management, (f) third-party-based care management under contract to health plans and (g) hybrid models. CONCLUSIONS: While substantial obstacles remain in the way of fully implementing these depression care management funding mechanisms (e.g., variations in care managers' credentials and work locations and third-party payer concerns about overutilization and transaction costs), several recent policy advances provide some optimism for the potential adoption of financial mechanisms to support and disseminate these evidence-based practices.     

Controlled Exercise Is a Safe Pregnancy Intervention in Mice

During pregnancy, women often show a willingness to make positive lifestyle changes, such as smoking cessation, initiation of a vitamin regimen, improvement of their diet, and increases in their levels of exercise or physical activity. To study health outcomes in both pregnant mice and their offspring, we developed a model of controlled maternal exercise during mouse pregnancy. Female ICR and C57BL/6 mice underwent controlled wheel walking for 1 h daily, 5 d each week, at a speed of 6 m/min prior to and during pregnancy and nursing. Dam body weight, food consumption, pregnancy rates, litter size, pup weights and litter survival were used as markers of pregnancy success and were not significantly affected by controlled maternal exercise. The proposed exercise paradigm is a safe pregnancy intervention and can be explored further.Pregnancy is a vitally important time for both the pregnant woman and the developing fetus. Various lifestyle changes can maximize the chances for a successful pregnancy and healthy baby. For example, alcohol consumption during pregnancy is known to have negative consequences for the fetus,⁴ and a large majority of women eliminate its use throughout gestation. Reports indicate that 51.5% of nonpregnant women consume alcohol compared with 7.6% of pregnant women.⁹ Recent data indicate that only 12% of pregnant women in the United States smoke tobacco, compared with 23% to 25% of nonpregnant women.¹⁵ These statistics suggest that many women are willing to forego pleasurable or addictive behaviors in the hope of having a successful and healthy pregnancy.Furthermore, women will often take additional steps toward improving their own health during pregnancy for the sake of their growing baby. Women hoping to conceive are more likely to consume a folic acid supplement.¹⁰ In one study in the United Kingdom that analyzed smoking and alcohol cessation, caffeine limitation, and fruit and vegetable consumption, 81% of pregnant women were willing to comply with health recommendations.¹⁶ These factors seem to suggest that women are willing to adopt behaviors during pregnancy that will improve both their own health and that of their unborn children. We therefore posit that women may be willing to initiate an exercise routine during gestation if there are clear benefits for doing so.Exercise has been reported to improve mood, body composition, and glucose tolerance as well as to decrease cancer incidence.^3,17,33 Exercise during pregnancy has been shown to offer an array of positive outcomes for pregnant women, including decreased maternal weight gain and decreased body fat in the second half of gestation.¹⁴ Exercise during pregnancy also improved oral glucose tolerance and reduced gestational diabetes risk.^5,24 Maternal exercise is becoming a highly studied area, and recently the focus has turned to potential beneficial effects on offspring outcomes. For example, maternal exercise resulted in lighter, leaner human offspring,^13,19 and maternal exercise enhanced oral and cognitive skills in 5-y-old offspring.¹² Exercise during pregnancy clearly offers substantial potential benefits for both the pregnant woman and her baby.Rodents are a model for exploring the benefits of exercise during pregnancy. Using a mouse model, we previously found that voluntary exercise during pregnancy and nursing improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in adult offspring.⁸ Others have shown that voluntary running during mouse pregnancy increased offspring neural development.⁷ In addition, voluntary exercise during mouse pregnancy protects transgenic offspring from an Alzheimer-type pathology.¹⁸ Clearly, exercise during pregnancy has important potential offspring benefits. However, voluntary exercise as a model has some limitations, such as long and variable running distances. We therefore sought to develop a model of maternal exercise to control for the limitations of voluntary running. The aim of the current study was to use a paradigm consisting of 60 min of controlled exercise daily for 5 d each week to assess the safety of the model during mouse pregnancy as an alternative to voluntary wheel running. We also explored differences between the ICR stock and C57BL/6 strain as they related to pregnancy outcomes. Ideally, future experiments will be able to use a similar controlled exercise strategy for investigating both maternal and offspring health implications of this intervention.     

Treatment of intrabony defects with enamel matrix proteins or barrier membranes: results from a multicenter practice-based clinical trial

BACKGROUND: This prospective multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial compared the clinical outcomes of enamel matrix proteins (EMD) versus placement of a bioabsorbable membrane in conjunction with guided tissue regeneration (GTR). METHODS: Seventy-five patients with advanced chronic periodontitis were recruited in seven centers in three countries. All patients had at least one intrabony defect of > or = 3 mm. Heavy smokers (> or = 20 cigarettes/day) were excluded. The surgical procedures included access for root instrumentation using the simplified papilla preservation flap and either the application of EMD or the placement of a GTR membrane. At baseline and 1 year following the interventions, clinical attachment levels (CAL), probing depths (PD), recession (REC), full-mouth plaque scores, and full-mouth bleeding scores were assessed. A total of 67 patients completed the study. RESULTS: At 1 year, the EMD defects gained 3.1 +/- 1.8 mm of CAL, versus 2.5 +/- 1.9 mm for GTR defects. Probing depth reduction was 3.8 +/- 1.5 mm and 3.3 +/- 1.5 mm, respectively. A multivariate analysis indicated that the differences between EMD and GTR treatments were not significant while a center effect and baseline PD significantly influenced CAL gains. No significant differences in terms of frequency distribution of the outcomes were observed. All cases treated with GTR presented at least one surgical complication, mostly membrane exposure, while only 6% of EMD treated sites displayed complications (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this trial failed to demonstrate superiority of one treatment modality over the other. GTR outcomes in this trial were lower than anticipated based on previous evidence. This was attributed to the high prevalence of post-surgical complications in the GTR group.     

Point of Care Ultrasound Use by Associate Providers for Differentiating Abscess Versus Cellulitis Skin and Soft Tissue Infection in the Emergency Department

BackgroundSkin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) are a common complaint in the ambulatory setting and pose a significant burden on the health care system.ObjectivesWe sought to determine the accuracy of ultrasound for detecting soft tissue abscesses by emergency medicine associate providers (APs).MethodsThis was a prospective observational study of adult patients with suspected SSTI in the emergency department of a rural tertiary care academic medical center. The AP performed and interpreted point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) of the suspected infected area. Ultrasound images and interpretation were reviewed by the attending emergency physician with either rejection or agreement of the image interpretation, diagnosis, and management. If incision and drainage was performed, presence or absence of purulent drainage was recorded.ResultsSixty-four patients with suspected SSTI were enrolled: 29 had POCUS-proven abscesses and 33 had cellulitis; 2 were excluded. AP clinical evaluation alone for identifying abscess revealed sensitivity of 92.3 (74.9–99.1), specificity of 67.7 (49.5–82.6), positive predictive value of 68.6 (57.0–78.2), and negative predictive value of 92.0 (81.4–100). The use of POCUS by APs in addition to clinical examination demonstrated sensitivity of 96.2 (80.4–99.9), specificity of 93.9 (79.8–99.3), positive predictive value of 92.6 (76.5–98.0), and negative predictive value of 96.9 (81.9–99.5). p values were <0.05 for test characteristics. Ultrasound results changed SSTI management decisions in 10 of 62 (16.1%) patients, with the most common change being a new incision and drainage or needle aspiration. Agreement of the POCUS interpretation between APs and attending physicians was 96.8% with a κ of 0.94 (0.85–1.00).ConclusionWith modest training, APs can successfully use POCUS to identify abscesses in patients in the emergency department with SSTIs. POCUS increases the ability to rule in the diagnosis and changes management in a clinically relevant number of patients with SSTIs.     

Activation of caspase-8 and caspase-12 pathways by 7-ketocholesterol in human retinal pigment epithelial cells

PURPOSE: To determine whether caspase or cathepsin pathways are activated in human retinal pigment epithelial cells (ARPE-19) after exposure to 7-ketocholesterol (7kCh). METHODS: ARPE-19 cells were exposed to 7kCh with or without z-VAD-fmk, a pan-caspase inhibitor. Caspase-3, -8, and -9 activities were measured by a fluorochrome inhibitor of caspase (FLICA) assay. Caspase-12 activity was detected by Western blotting. RT-PCR was performed for 18s, mortalin-2, cathepsins B, D, and L/V2. RESULTS: At 24 hours, 7kCh-treated cultures had increased caspase-8 (P < 0.001) and caspase-3 (P < 0.001) activities compared with vehicle-treated cultures. 7kCh-induced caspase-3 activation was blocked by z-VAD-fmk (P < 0.001). Caspase-9 was not activated by 7kCh treatment (P > 0.05). Procaspase-12 was cleaved into its active form after treatment with 7kCh for 24 hours. At 6 hours, the RNA level for mortalin-2, a pro-survival gene, was upregulated. ARPE-19 cells did not express RNA for cathepsins B, D, or L/V2 under any conditions. CONCLUSIONS: In ARPE-19 cells, 7kCh-induced apoptosis uses the receptor-mediated caspase-8 pathway and the endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced caspase-12 pathway but not the mitochondrial caspase-9 pathway. The cathepsin pathways are not involved in 7kCh-induced cell death. These data demonstrate that 7kCh causes a loss of cell viability through caspase-dependent apoptosis and can act as an oxidative stressor leading to retinal pigment epithelial cell atrophy. Elucidating the specific apoptotic pathways involved may have therapeutic potential for AMD and other retinal diseases.     

Changes in activity participation following traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often results in impairments in cognitive skills as well as depression. As a result of these changes in cognition and mood, individuals with TBI may reduce their levels of participation and often report reduced health-related quality of life (HrQOL). The current study compares levels of past and present activity participation between healthy participants and persons with TBI using a client-centred approach in measurement. We additionally examine the relationship between activity participation, emotional functioning and HrQOL in persons with TBI. Fifty-two individuals with TBI who live in the community and 30 healthy age-matched controls performed a battery of cognitive tests and rated their affective symptomatology and activity participation (using the Activity Card Sort Test). Participants with TBI reported significantly lower current activity participation compared to controls. Current levels of activity and participation in the TBI sample were significantly related to age, time since injury, and HrQOL. Additionally, depressive symptomatology was significantly associated with HrQOL, but not with activity participation. Following TBI, levels of activity participation are reduced in most aspects of life, but more profoundly in social activities, high demand leisure activities and household activities. Additionally, high levels of depressive symptoms are associated with negative reports of HrQOL, regardless of current levels of activity participation.