A messaging standard for environmental inspections: is it time?

Environmental health (EH) services in the United States lag behind other areas of public health and health care with respect to information system interoperability and data sharing. This is partly due to an absence of well-defined use cases, the lack of direct economic drivers and resources to improve, the multiple jurisdictional elements that govern EH services across the United States, and no central organization to drive modernization of EH data. We summarize the status of EH information systems; argue for greater interoperability, including use cases for a messaging standard for environmental inspections; and present recommendations to better align EH services and data modernization efforts currently underway in other areas of public health.

The impact of integrated disease management in high-risk COPD patients in primary care.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have a reduced quality of life (QoL) and exacerbations that drive health service utilization (HSU). A majority of patients with COPD are managed in primary care. Our objective was to evaluate an integrated disease management, self-management, and structured follow-up intervention (IDM) for high-risk patients with COPD in primary care. This was a one-year multi-center randomized controlled trial. High-risk, exacerbation-prone COPD patients were randomized to IDM provided by a certified respiratory educator and physician, or usual physician care. IDM received case management, self-management education, and skills training. The primary outcome, COPD-related QoL, was measured using the COPD Assessment Test (CAT). Of 180 patients randomized from 8 sites, 81.1% completed the study. Patients were 53.6% women, mean age 68.2 years, post-bronchodilator FEV1 52.8% predicted, and 77.4% were Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease Stage D. QoL-CAT scores improved in IDM patients, 22.6 to 14.8, and worsened in usual care, 19.3 to 22.0, adjusted difference 9.3 (p < 0.001). Secondary outcomes including the Clinical COPD Questionnaire, Bristol Knowledge Questionnaire, and FEV1 demonstrated differential improvements in favor of IDM of 1.29 (p < 0.001), 29.6% (p < 0.001), and 100 mL, respectively (p = 0.016). Compared to usual care, significantly fewer IDM patients had a severe exacerbation, -48.9% (p < 0.001), required an urgent primary care visit for COPD, -30.2% (p < 0.001), or had an emergency department visit, -23.6% (p = 0.001). We conclude that IDM self-management and structured follow-up substantially improved QoL, knowledge, FEV1, reduced severe exacerbations, and HSU, in a high-risk primary care COPD population. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02343055.