Recommendations and guidelines of integrative medicine for COVID-19 care: The APEC project outcome.

This article - Recommendations and Guidelines of Integrative Medicine (IM) for COVID-19 Care - was one of the outcomes from an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Project (Integrative Medicine (IM) and COVID -19 Care) during the time between May 2022 and March 2023. With the efforts from care providers, researchers, health policy makers and healthcare administrative leaders among APEC economies, the purpose of this file was to provide comprehensive IM systems for COVID-19 care as recommendations and suggestive guidelines including care methods, tools, procedures, symptom conditions and targets selections, and points need to be considered during care applications. All cited COVID-19 care practices have confirmed their efficacy and usefulness either used alone or combined with conventional medicine. This article provides current useful medical information on IM for COVID-19 care which could benefit APEC economies and world health communities on their healthcare system.

Hemoglobinopathy Learning Collaborative: using quality improvement (QI) to achieve equity in health care quality, coordination, and outcomes for sickle cell disease.

Care and outcomes for individuals living with sickle cell disease (SCD) vary across institutions and communities. The Hemoglobinopathy Learning Collaborative (HLC) seeks to improve outcomes across the life course through improvement science. Faculty identified five key drivers of improved outcomes: a strong community network; knowledgeable, proactive individuals, families and providers; reliable identification and follow-up; seamless co-management between primary and specialty care; and appropriate treatment for acute episodes. Using a modified Delphi process, we selected improvement measures aligned with the drivers. Data are collected via a Web-based system linked to a reporting portal. Participating teams include consumers, community organizations and primary and specialty care providers. This commentary reviews the context of SCD in the U.S.; describes the framework, measures, and technology infrastructure already created for the HLC; reports on the early experience of teams; highlights the initiative's challenges and opportunities; and reflects on its implications in the setting of health reform.

A proposed framework for understanding the forces behind legislation of universal health insurance: lessons from ten countries.

OBJECTIVE: To understand the forces propelling countries to legislate universal health insurance. DATA SOURCE/STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive review and exploratory synthesis of historic data on economic, geographic, socio-demographic, and political factors. DATA EXTRACTION METHODS: We searched under "insurance, health" on MEDLINE and Google Scholar, and we reviewed relevant books and articles via a snowball approach. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Ten countries with universal health insurance were studied. For the five countries that passed final universal insurance laws prior to 1958, we found that two forces of "historical context" (i.e., social solidarity and historic patterns), one "ongoing dynamic force" (political pressures), and "one uniqueness of the moment" force (legislative permissiveness) played a major role. For the five countries that passed final legislation between 1967 and 2010, the predominant factors were two "ongoing dynamic forces" (economic pressures and political pressures) and one "uniqueness of the moment" force (leadership). In general, countries in the former group made steady progress, whereas those in the latter group progressed in abrupt leaps. CONCLUSIONS: The lessons of more recent successes-almost all of which were achieved via abrupt leaps-strongly indicate the importance of leadership in taking advantage of generalized economic and political pressures to achieve universal health insurance.