Health Affairs

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Health Affairs Blog

While 2017 promises to be an eventful year in health policy, it’s worth reflecting back on what we learned in 2016. As Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief, I have the pleasure of reading hundreds of articles each year — more, I’m sure, than most of our readers have time to read. I have selected my own “top ten” for 2016. The papers I chose go beyond our “most-read” and “most-shared” articles, which, this year, were disproportionately on topics related to health care costs. My list of articles covers a broad range of topics. Many of these articles analyze the effects of a specific policy; others raise the profile of issues that deserve more attention. Some articles had unexpected findings. Their shared attribute is that the authors chose to focus on interesting and important questions.  These are my favorites for the year — whether they are yours or not, I hope you find them interesting, enjoy reading them, and learn something from them.

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MedicalXpress.com

Research conducted by the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) finds that in states where dental hygienists are allowed by law to practice at higher levels of professional competence and skill, the population’s oral health notably improves. The paper, published in Health Affairs‘ December 2016 thematic issue on , examines impacts of “scope of practice” on oral health outcomes. Scope of practice for health professionals is defined by individual states’ laws and regulations, which describe permissible settings, allowable services, and requisite supervision by other health professionals.

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Newswise.com

The American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) is pleased that Health Affairs recognizes the enormous impact oral health has on the overall public health system in the U.S. by devoting an entire issue to the subject. ADHA has long advocated evidence-based oral health management strategies for the prevention of oral and systemic diseases.

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DrBicuspid.com

Does expanding a hygienist’s scope of practice translate to improved oral healthcare at the state level? Researchers from New York believe it does, according to the results of a survey published this month in Health Affairs. With the debates about dental therapists and dental telemedicine ongoing, researchers from the University at Albany in New York updated a previous study to investigate if hygienists with an expanded practice options could reduce the oral disease burden. “Scope of practice for dental hygienists … had a positive and significant association with having no teeth removed because of decay or disease,” wrote lead study author Margaret Langelier and colleagues (Health Affairs, December 2016, Vol. 35:12, pp. 2207-2215).

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Health Affairs Blog

For several decades, there has been a general consensus that the nation would benefit from an increased supply of primary care practitioners, including physicians. Most reform efforts to improve health care, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), have viewed an increased focus on primary care as essential for improving the delivery system and outcomes of care. According to the Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) demand index, these efforts are beginning to pay off.

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