Health of the Public

(04/18/2008)  --  According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ, one in four Americans does not take prescription medications as prescribed. Often, it's because they don't understand how to take their medications or because they simply lose track of what they're supposed to take each day. To address this problem, AHRQ has developed free, online, step-by-step instructions patients can use to create a "pill card" at home. More

(04/09/2008)  --  The AAFP is again supporting Cover the Uninsured Week, April 27-May 3, to help highlight the need to provide solutions to problems faced by the millions of Americans living without health insurance. About 47 million Americans, including 9 million children, lack health insurance, according to Cover the Uninsured, a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. More

(04/09/2008)  --  The growing call among health care professionals, legislators, health policy-makers, consumer advocates, and the public to boost the overall quality of health care provided in the United States has led to advances in quality. However, according to findings from two new annual reports published by the Agency on Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ, the overall rate of improvement is slowing. Similarly, although progress has been made in addressing some health care disparities among various racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups, overall inequalities in health care among different patient populations have not improved. More

(04/02/2008)  --  Consumers are being warned not to purchase or use "Blue Steel" and "Hero," distributed by Active Nutraceuticals or the Marion Group in Carrollton, Ga., according to a March 25 FDA news release. The products are considered illegal drugs because they have not been proven safe or effective and because they contain undeclared ingredients, including substances similar in chemical structure to sildenafil, the FDA found. More

(03/25/2008)  --  Patients don't always understand why their physician has ordered a particular laboratory test. Similarly, patients don't always appreciate the role of clinical testing in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Now a Web-based resource -- Lab Tests Online -- can help balance a patient's need for information and the time constraints of a busy medical practice. More

(03/20/2008)  --  The nation's community health centers, or CHCs, have launched a campaign aimed at providing billions of dollars' worth of resources to the centers to help them serve as many as 30 million patients by 2015. More