Bridging the Evidence and Practice Gap in Chronic Kidney Disease: A System Thinking Approach to Population Health.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common, costly, and life-limiting, requiring dialysis and transplantation in advanced stages. Although effective guideline-based therapy exists, the asymptomatic nature of CKD together with low health literacy, adverse social determinants of health, unmet behavioral health needs, and primary care providers' (PCP) limited understanding of CKD result in defects in screening and diagnosis. Care is fragmented between PCPs and specialty nephrologists, with limited time, expertise, and resources to address systemic gaps. In this article, the authors define how they classified defects in care and report the current numbers of patients exposed to these defects, both nationally and in their health system Accountable Care Organization. They describe use of the health system's three-pillar leadership model (believing, belonging, and building) to empower providers to transform CKD care. Believing entailed engaging individuals to believe defects in CKD care could be eliminated and were a collective responsibility. Belonging fostered the creation of learning communities that broke down silos and encouraged open communication and collaboration between PCPs and nephrologists. Building involved constructing a fractal management infrastructure with transparent reporting and shared accountability, which would enable success in innovation and transformation. The result is proactive and relational CKD care organized around the patient's needs in University Hospitals Systems of Excellence. Systems of excellence combine multiple domains of expertise to promote best practice guidelines and integrate care throughout the system. The authors further describe a preliminary pilot of the CKD System of Excellence in primary care.

Duffy antigen is expressed during erythropoiesis in Duffy-negative individuals.

The erythrocyte silent Duffy blood group phenotype in Africans is thought to confer resistance to Plasmodium vivax blood-stage infection. However, recent studies report P. vivax infections across Africa in Fy-negative individuals. This suggests that the globin transcription factor 1 (GATA-1) SNP underlying Fy negativity does not entirely abolish Fy expression or that P. vivax has developed a Fy-independent red blood cell (RBC) invasion pathway. We show that RBCs and erythroid progenitors from in vitro differentiated CD34 cells and from bone marrow aspirates from Fy-negative samples express a functional Fy on their surface. This suggests that the GATA-1 SNP does not entirely abolish Fy expression. Given these results, we developed an in vitro culture system for P. vivax and show P. vivax can invade erythrocytes from Duffy-negative individuals. This study provides evidence that Fy is expressed in Fy-negative individuals and explains their susceptibility to P. vivax with major implications and challenges for P. vivax malaria eradication.

Mobile Integrated Healthcare Intervention and Impact Analysis with a Medicare Advantage Population.

Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) is a patient-centered, innovative delivery model offering on-demand, needs-based care and preventive services, delivered in the patient's home or mobile environment. An interprofessional MIH clinical team delivered a care coordination program for a Medicare Advantage Preferred Provider Organization that was risk assigned prior to intervention to target the highest risk members. Using claims and eligibility data, 6 months of pre-program experience and 6 months of program-influenced experience from the intervention cohort was compared to a propensity score-matched comparison cohort to measure impact. The intervention led to a reduction in inpatient and emergency department utilization, resulting in net savings amount totals of $2.4 million over the 6 months of the program. After accounting for the costs of implementing the program, the intervention produced a return on investment of 2.97. Additionally, high patient activation and experience lend strength to this MIH intervention as a promising model to reduce utilization and costs while keeping patient satisfaction high.

Innovative Care Model to Improve Clinical Quality and Safety of Transitional Care: Early Outcomes.

One in five elderly patients returns to the hospital within 30 days of leaving. These rehospitalizations are a common and costly occurrence. A program developed to address problems in post-acute transitional care seems to be effective in reducing 30-day readmission rates for some Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries.