Journal Articles

Boulton ML, Beck AJ, Coronado F, et al. Public health workforce taxonomy. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2014; 47(5):S314-S323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2014.07.015

Thoroughly characterizing and continuously monitoring the public health workforce is necessary for ensuring capacity to deliver public health services. A prerequisite for this is to develop a standardized methodology for classifying public health workers, permitting valid comparisons across agencies and over time, which does not exist for the public health workforce. An expert working group, all of whom are authors on this paper, was convened during 2012–2014 to develop a public health workforce taxonomy.

Abramson EL, McGinnis S, Moore J, Kaushal R. A statewide assessment of electronic health record adoption and health information exchange among nursing homes. Health Services Research. 2014;49(1pt2): 361-372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.12137

A cross-sectional study was designed to assess level of EHR implementation, automation of key functionalities, participation in HIE, and barriers to adoption in New York State nursing homes.

Dower C, Moore J, Langelier M. It is time to restructure health professions scope-of-practice regulations to remove barriers to care. Health Affairs. 2013;32(11):1971-1976. http://10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0537b

Regulation and licensure of health professionals—nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and others—currently falls to the states. State laws and regulations define legal scopes of practice for these practitioners. Concern is growing that this system cannot support workforce innovations needed for an evolving health care system or for successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act. This article highlights reforms that are needed to strengthen health professions regulation, including aligning scopes of practice with professional competence for each profession in all states; assuring the regulatory flexibility needed to recognize emerging and overlapping roles for health professionals; increasing the input of consumers; basing decisions on the best available evidence and allowing demonstration programs; and establishing a national clearinghouse for scope-of-practice information.

Orkin FK, Forte GJ, McGinnis SL, Peterson MD, Garfield JM, Katz JD, et al. In Reply. Anesthesiology. 118(6):1484-1485, June 2013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0b013e318291d93b

The authors are gratified that Drs. Steinbrook and Weinstein have read their article in such a depth that they question as “most likely incorrect” the estimate for the mean retirement age (57.4 yr) among anesthesiologists retiring before 1985. Although Steinbrook and Weinstein’s conclusion appears valid—because no one older than 58 in 1985 would have been included in a 2006 survey of anesthesiologists aged 50–79 yr—the authors standby their estimate. A more detailed report, which the authors note is available at the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Web site, can provide further documentation supporting the suspect estimate’s validity.

Dall TM, Forte GJ, Storm MV, Gallo P, Langelier MH, Koory RM, and Gillula JW. Executive Summary of the 2013 US Veterinary Workforce Study. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 242(11):1507-1514, June 2013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2460/javma.242.11.1507

The 2013 US Veterinary Workforce Study was commissioned by the American Veterinary Medical Association to estimate the current and future supply of and demand for veterinarians and veterinary services; results are expected to help inform strategies that will ensure the economic viability of veterinary medicine as the profession works to attract and retain highly qualified professionals.

Forte GJ, Hanley A, Hagerty K, Kurup A, Neuss MN, Mulvey TM. American Society of Clinical Oncology National Census of Oncology Practices: Preliminary Report. Journal of Oncology Practice. 9(1):9-19, January 2013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1200/JOP.2012.000826

In response to reports of increasing financial and administrative burdens on oncology practices and a lack of systematic information related to these issues, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) leadership started an effort to collect key practice-level data from all oncology practices in the United States. The result of the effort is the ASCO National Census of Oncology Practices (Census) launched in June 2012. In this article, the authors present preliminary highlights from the data.

Orkin FK, McGinnis SL, Forte GJ, Peterson MD, Schubert A, Katz JD, et al. United States anesthesiologists over 50: Retirement decision making and workforce implications. Anesthesiology.117(5):953-963, November 2012.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0b013e3182700c72

Anesthesiology is among the 21 medical specialties that have or are expected to have a physician shortage in the near future. Physician workforce shortages reflect the confluence of many trends, including an aging physician population, burdensome medical-education indebtedness, a relatively static production of new physicians, reduced physician work hours, growth and aging of the general population, growth and expansion of health services, and enhanced access to health care. To increase our understanding of such issues in relation to the work effort and retirement decision making of older anesthesiologists, the American Society of Anesthesiologists participated in a survey of U.S. physicians aged 50 yr and older, which aimed to identify the major factors influencing their decisions to remain clinically active or to retire and then evaluated the impact of their retirement decision making on the size of the clinical workforce now and into the future.

Maniccia D, Davison K, Marshall S, Manganello J, Dennison B. A meta-analysis of interventions that target children’s screen time for reduction. Pediatrics. 2011.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2010-2353

Screen time, especially television viewing, is associated with risk of overweight and obesity in children. Although several interventions have been developed to reduce children’s screen time, no systematic review of these interventions exists to date. This review is a systematic meta-analysis of interventions targeting a reduction in children’s screen time.

Abramson E, McGinnis S, Edwards A, Maniccia D, Moore J, Kaushal R, et al. Electronic health record adoption and health information exchange among hospitals in New York State. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. 2011.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2753.2011.01755.x

Unprecedented national and state initiatives are underway to promote adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) with health information exchange (HIE). New York State leads the nation in state initiatives and is conducting ongoing surveillance of its investments. Lessons learned from studying states like New York can inform federal policies and will be essential to evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives. This is the first in a series of planned surveys to assess EHR adoption and HIE activities by New York State hospitals.