ABSTRACT
Attention to health care quality and safety has increased dramatically. The internal focus of an organization is not without influence from external policy and research findings. Compared with other specialties, efforts to align and advance rehabilitation research, practice, and policy using electronic health record data are in the early stages. This special communication defines quality, applies the dimensions of quality to rehabilitation, and illustrates the feasibility and utility of electronic health record data for research on rehabilitation care quality and outcomes. Using data generated at the point of care provides the greatest opportunity for improving the quality of health care, producing generalizable evidence to inform policy and practice, and ultimately benefiting the health of the populations served.
Subject(s)
Diffusion of Innovation , Electronic Health Records/statistics & numerical data , Information Dissemination , Quality of Health Care/organization & administration , Rehabilitation Research/organization & administration , Communication , Efficiency, Organizational , Humans , Patient Safety , Patient-Centered Care/organization & administration , Policy , Quality of Health Care/standards , Safety Management/organization & administration , Time FactorsABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Verbal fluency patterns can assist in differential diagnosis during neuropsychological assessment and identify individuals at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). While evidence suggests that subjects with AD perform worse on category fluency than letter fluency tasks, the pattern in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is less well known. METHODS: Performance on the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) and Animal fluency was compared in control, amnestic MCI, non-amnestic MCI, and AD groups. The sample included 136 participants matched for age, education, and gender. RESULTS: Both MCI groups performed similarly with a category > letter fluency pattern rather than a category < letter fluency pattern typically observed in AD. The pattern in MCI, albeit relatively more impaired than in controls, was more similar to healthy controls who exhibited a category > letter fluency pattern. CONCLUSION: MCI using a category < letter fluency pattern may not represent AD; however, future research requires longitudinal studies of pattern analysis.
Subject(s)
Alzheimer Disease , Cognitive Dysfunction , Memory Disorders , Verbal Behavior , Aged , Alzheimer Disease/complications , Alzheimer Disease/diagnosis , Alzheimer Disease/psychology , Cognitive Dysfunction/complications , Cognitive Dysfunction/diagnosis , Cognitive Dysfunction/psychology , Diagnosis, Differential , Female , Florida , Humans , Intelligence Tests , Language Tests , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Memory Disorders/diagnosis , Memory Disorders/etiology , Neuropsychological Tests , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Retrospective Studies , Severity of Illness Index , Task Performance and AnalysisABSTRACT
Parkinson's disease (PD) is progressive neurological disease characterized by resting tremor, rigidity, akinesia, postural instability and cognitive changes. The symptoms of PD are debilitating and often become unsatisfactorily treated by medication. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment to significantly reduce the cardinal motor symptoms of PD. However, the neuropsychological effects of this treatment are less clear. This study examined pre- to post-DBS scores on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) using Reliable Change Indices (RCIs) derived from 20 patients with PD who were medically managed, and then compared to 20 patients with PD treated with DBS and medication. When using group statistical analyses and false discovery rate correction, no significant differences between or within groups were evident at baseline or at follow-up. However, when using the RCIs more patients in the DBS group exhibited reliable change in RBANS scores than did the Med Tx group. Although preliminary, these RCIs provide clinicians and researchers a foundational tool for assessing the effects of interventions (e.g., DBS) independent of the effects of PD and measurement error when using the RBANS.
Subject(s)
Deep Brain Stimulation/psychology , Parkinson Disease/psychology , Subthalamic Nucleus/surgery , Aged , Antiparkinson Agents/therapeutic use , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neuropsychological Tests , Parkinson Disease/drug therapy , Parkinson Disease/therapy , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Cognitive change following bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery in those with Parkinson's disease (PD) has led to equivocal results. The current study applied a standardized regression-based (SRB) method based on 20 medically managed PD patients and 20 STN DBS PD surgical patients who were administered the Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). Of the medically managed PD participants, 94% remained stable compared to 73% of the DBS group. In the DBS group cognitive change was noted on the Total scale and the Immediate Memory Index. A secondary analysis also revealed reliable change on several subtest scores. Although preliminary, the current study provides change parameters for post DBS surgery on this brief battery.