Biomedical subjects

Mark C Hornbrook

Publications and source records attributed to Mark C Hornbrook.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

Racial differences in tumor stage and survival for colorectal cancer in an insured population.

BACKGROUND: Despite declining death rates from colorectal cancer (CRC), racial disparities have continued to increase. In this study, the authors examined disparities in a racially diverse group of insured patients. METHODS: This study was conducted among patients who were diagnosed with CRC from 1993 to 1998, when they were enrolled in integrated healthcare systems. Patients were identified from tumor registries and were linked to information in administrative databases. The sample was restricted to non-Hispanic whites (n = 10,585), non-Hispanic blacks (n = 1479), Hispanics (n = 985), and Asians/Pacific Islanders (n = 909). Differences in tumor stage and survival were analyzed by using polytomous and Cox regression models, respectively. RESULTS: In multivariable regression analyses, blacks were more likely than whites to have distant or unstaged tumors. In Cox models that were adjusted for nonmutable factors, blacks had a higher risk of death from CRC (hazard ratio [HR], 1.17; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.06-1.30). Hispanics had a risk of death similar to whites (HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.92-1.18), whereas Asians/Pacific Islanders had a lower risk of death from CRC (HR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.78-1.02). Adjustment for tumor stage decreased the HR to 1.11 for blacks, and the addition of receipt of surgical therapy to the model decreased the HR further to 1.06. The HR among Hispanics and Asians/Pacific Islanders was stable to adjustment for tumor stage and surgical therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The relation between race and survival from CRC was complex and appeared to be related to differences in tumor stage and therapy received, even in insured populations. Targeted interventions to improve the use of effective screening and treatment among vulnerable populations may be needed to eliminate disparities in CRC.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Social support among women who died of ovarian cancer.

GOALS OF WORK: We investigated the effects of social support in the last 6 months of life for women who died of ovarian cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study population included women enrolled in one of three Managed Care Organizations who died of ovarian cancer (1995-2000). Information was collected on demographics, living environment, presence of escorts to oncology encounters, comorbidities, medications, outpatient and inpatient encounters, and referrals to home health and hospice. Two characteristics of social support were examined: living with others and being escorted to one or more oncology visits. RESULTS: Of 421 subjects, both aspects of social support were known for 345 (82%). Of these, 227 (66%) lived with others and were escorted, 33 (10%) lived with others but were never escorted, 59 (17%) lived alone but were escorted, and 26 (8%) lived alone and never were accompanied. Women living alone were less likely to be taking a psychotropic medication (57% vs 70%, p = 0.021) and were somewhat less likely to receive hospice referral (42% vs 53%, p = 0.054). Women who were never escorted had fewer outpatient encounters (12.60 vs 15.77, p = 0.033) and were less likely to be referred to home health (18% vs 30%, p = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that social support has some beneficial effects on receipt of personal health services. Friends and family may act as proponents for the patient in obtaining services. Health care professionals should be encouraged to assess the cancer patient's social situation and identify areas where help may be needed.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

How frail elders evaluate their caregiver's role enactment: a scale to measure affection, skill, and attentiveness.

In this validity study, using factor analysis, the authors identified three dimensions (affection, skill, and attentiveness) of the Care Receiver View of Caregiver Role Enactment Scale, a self-report measure designed to elicit an elderly care receiver's evaluation of how well their family member carried out the role of caregiver. The scale is a revision of the Satisfaction With Caregiving Scale. This study was a secondary analysis of data from PREP: Family-based Care for Frail Older Persons. Care receiver mutuality was the variable most highly correlated with caregiver role enactment. Other variables related to good quality care were higher care receiver positive affect, better caregiver physical health, and lower caregiver role strain; husband caregivers were rated as giving poorer quality care.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2005

Building a research consortium of large health systems: the Cancer Research Network.

Critical questions about cancer prevention, care, and outcomes increasingly require research involving large patient populations and their care delivery organizations. The Cancer Research Network (CRN) includes 11 integrated health systems funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to conduct collaborative cancer research. This article describes the challenges of constructing a productive consortium of large health systems, and explores the CRN's responses. The CRN was initially funded through an NCI cooperative agreement in 1999 and has since received a second 4-year grant. Leadership and policy development are provided through a steering committee, subcommittees, and an external advisory committee. The CRN includes integral and affiliated research projects supported by a Scientific and Data Resources Core. Three characteristics of the CRN intensified the general challenges of consortium research: 1) its members are large health systems with legitimate concerns about confidentiality of data about enrollees, providers, and the organization; 2) CRN research projects often generate highly sensitive data about quality of care; and therefore 3) each participating organization wants a strong voice in CRN direction. CRN experience to date confirms that a consortium of health systems with internal research capacity can address a range of important cancer research questions that would be difficult to study in other venues. The advantages and challenges of consortium research are explored, with suggestions for the development, execution, and management of multisystem population laboratories.

Biomedical Research↗

PubMed2005

Building a virtual cancer research organization.

BACKGROUND: The Cancer Research Network (CRN) comprises the National Cancer Institute and 11 nonprofit research centers affiliated with integrated health care delivery systems. The CRN, a public/private partnership, fosters multisite collaborative research on cancer prevention, screening, treatment, survival, and palliation in diverse populations. METHODS: The CRN's success hinges on producing innovative cancer research that likely would not have been developed by scientists working individually, and then translating those findings into clinical practice within multiple population laboratories. The CRN is a collaborative virtual research organization characterized by user-defined sharing among scientists and health care providers of data files as well as direct access to researchers, computers, software, data, research participants, and other resources. The CRN's research management Web site fosters a high-functioning virtual scientific community by publishing standardized data definitions, file specifications, and computer programs to support merging and analyzing data from multiple health care systems. RESULTS: Seven major types of standardized data files developed to date include demographics, health plan eligibility, tumor registry, inpatient and ambulatory utilization, medication dispensing, laboratory tests, and imaging procedures; more will follow. Data standardization avoids rework, increases multisite data integrity, increases data security, generates shorter times from initial proposal concept to submission, and stimulates more frequent collaborations among scientists across multiple institutions. CONCLUSIONS: The CRN research management Web site and associated standardized data files and procedures represent a quasi-public resource, and the CRN stands ready to collaborate with researchers from outside institutions in developing and conducting innovative public domain research.

Biomedical Research↗

PubMed2005

Creating standard cost measures across integrated health care delivery systems.

BACKGROUND: Economic analyses are increasingly important in medical research. Accuracy often requires that they include large, diverse populations, which requires data from multiple sources. The difficulty is in making the data comparable across different settings. This article focuses on how to create comparable measures of health care resource use and cost using data from seven health plans and delivery systems participating in the Cancer Research Network's HMOs Investigating Tobacco study. METHODS: We used a data inventory to identify variation in data capture across sites and used data dictionaries to develop algorithms for assigning standardized cost to the three major components of health care use: outpatient, inpatient, and pharmacy. RESULTS: The plans included in this study varied from fully integrated, closed-panel models to plans and delivery systems that include network or independent physician association components. Information derived from the data inventory and data dictionary instruments demonstrated a substantial variation in both the content and capture of data across all sites and across all components of usage. The methods we employed for cost allocation varied by usage component and were based on our ability to leverage the data points available to best reflect actual resource use. CONCLUSIONS: The importance of this article is the method of ascertaining, cataloging, and addressing the within- and between-plan differences in health care resource use. Second, the decisions we made to address the differences between health plans provide other researchers a starting point when creating a cost algorithm for multisite retrospective research.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Disparities and survival among breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Although rates of survival for women with breast cancer have improved, the survival disparity between African American and white women in the United States has increased. PURPOSE: To determine whether this survival disparity persists in an insured population with access to medical care. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, we extracted data from the tumor registries of six nonprofit, integrated health care delivery systems affiliated with the Cancer Research Network and assessed the survival of African American (n = 2276) and white (n = 18 879) female enrollees who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer from January 1, 1993, through December 31, 1998. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the death rate among African American women relative to that of white women after adjustment for potential explanatory factors including stage at diagnosis, tumor characteristics, and treatment. RESULTS: Five-year survival was lower for African American women (73.8%) than for white women (81.6%). African American women were less likely to have tumor characteristics with good prognosis. Controlling for age at diagnosis, stage, grade, tumor size, and estrogen and progesterone receptor status, the adjusted hazard rate ratio for African American women was 1.34 (95% confidence interval = 1.22 to 1.46). Similar risks were found among women ages 20-49 and 50 and older. Controlling for treatment slightly lowered the hazard rate ratio to 1.31 (95% confidence interval = 1.20 to 1.43). CONCLUSIONS: Among women with invasive breast cancer, being insured and having access to medical care does not eliminate the survival disparity for African American women.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Retention of enrollees following a cancer diagnosis within health maintenance organizations in the Cancer Research Network.

Population laboratories with complete clinical information on episodes of care are needed to support research on the quality of care delivered to cancer patients. Data resources within the Cancer Research Network (CRN) may overcome many of the limitations of existing cancer databases, but their potential clinical value depends on the stability of the enrolled population. To assess this issue, we studied the retention rates among survivors of the 132 580 patients diagnosed with cancer from January 1, 1993, through December 31, 1998, who were enrolled at five health maintenance organization sites participating in the CRN. Enrollees were followed from cancer diagnosis through death, disenrollment, or the end of follow-up (i.e., December 31, 1999). The retention rate among survivors for all cancers combined at 1 and 5 years after cancer diagnosis was 96.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 95.9% to 96.1%) and 83.9% (95% CI = 83.4% to 84.3%), respectively. The proportion of enrollees diagnosed with cancer who remained enrolled and available for evaluation suggests that the CRN is well-suited for studies of the quality of care for cancer patients, survivorship, and long-term outcomes.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Opportunities and challenges for measuring cost, quality, and clinical effectiveness in health care.

Empirical studies of health care cost, productivity, and output have focused primarily on intermediate goods and services. Consumers are ultimately interested in final goods such as improved health or health-related quality of life, but health services research continues to address whether health services financing and delivery are structured in ways to maximize production of intermediate goods, regardless of the link between these services and final outcomes. Increasing rates of growth of health care cost and dissatisfaction with the quality of U.S. health care force us to reexamine how productivity and cost are analyzed so that research properly informs policy and practice. The authors examine recent changes in the U.S. health care sector that suggest the need to revise how health services research approaches analyses of cost, production, and output; consider alternative notions of final goods; and review the availability and quality of data necessary to conduct this research.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

PubMed2003

Risk adjustment using automated ambulatory pharmacy data: the RxRisk model.

OBJECTIVES: Develop and estimate the RxRisk model, a risk assessment instrument that uses automated ambulatory pharmacy data to identify chronic conditions and predict future health care cost. The RxRisk model's performance in predicting cost is compared with a demographic-only model, the Ambulatory Clinical Groups (ACG), and Hierarchical Coexisting Conditions (HCC) ICD-9-CM diagnosis-based risk assessment instruments. Each model's power to forecast health care resource use is assessed. DATA SOURCES: Health services utilization and cost data for approximately 1.5 million individuals enrolled in five mixed-model Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) from different regions in the United States. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using automated managed care data. SUBJECTS All persons enrolled during 1995 and 1996 in Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, HealthPartners of Minnesota and the Colorado, Ohio and Northeast Regions of Kaiser-Permanente. MEASURES RxRisk, an algorithm that classifies prescription drug fills into chronic disease classes for adults and children. RESULTS: HCCs produce the most accurate forecasts of total costs than either RxRisk or ACGs but RxRisk performs similarly to ACGs. Using the R(2) criteria HCCs explain 15.4% of the prospective variance in cost, whereas RxRisk explains 8.7% and ACGs explain 10.2%. However, for key segments of the cost distribution the differences in forecasting power among HCCs, RxRisk, and ACGs are less obvious, with all three models generating similar predictions for the middle 60% of the cost distribution. CONCLUSIONS: HCCs produce more accurate forecasts of total cost, but the pharmacy-based RxRisk is an alternative risk assessment instrument to several diagnostic based models and depending on the nature of the application may be a more appropriate option for medical risk analysis.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Using risk-adjustment models to identify high-cost risks.

BACKGROUND: We examine the ability of various publicly available risk models to identify high-cost individuals and enrollee groups using multi-HMO administrative data. METHODS: Five risk-adjustment models (the Global Risk-Adjustment Model [GRAM], Diagnostic Cost Groups [DCGs], Adjusted Clinical Groups [ACGs], RxRisk, and Prior-expense) were estimated on a multi-HMO administrative data set of 1.5 million individual-level observations for 1995-1996. Models produced distributions of individual-level annual expense forecasts for comparison to actual values. Prespecified "high-cost" thresholds were set within each distribution. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for "high-cost" prevalences of 1% and 0.5% was calculated, as was the proportion of "high-cost" dollars correctly identified. Results are based on a separate 106,000-observation validation dataset. MAIN RESULTS: For "high-cost" prevalence targets of 1% and 0.5%, ACGs, DCGs, GRAM, and Prior-expense are very comparable in overall discrimination (AUCs, 0.83-0.86). Given a 0.5% prevalence target and a 0.5% prediction threshold, DCGs, GRAM, and Prior-expense captured $963,000 (approximately 3%) more "high-cost" sample dollars than other models. DCGs captured the most "high-cost" dollars among enrollees with asthma, diabetes, and depression; predictive performance among demographic groups (Medicaid members, members over 64, and children under 13) varied across models. CONCLUSIONS: Risk models can efficiently identify enrollees who are likely to generate future high costs and who could benefit from case management. The dollar value of improved prediction performance of the most accurate risk models should be meaningful to decision-makers and encourage their broader use for identifying high costs.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Surveying physicians: do components of the "Total Design Approach" to optimizing survey response rates apply to physicians?

BACKGROUND: Surveys serve essential roles in clinical epidemiology and health services research. However, physician surveys frequently encounter problems achieving adequate response rates. Research on enhancing response rates to surveys of the general public has led to the development of Dillman's "Total Design Approach" to the design and conduct of surveys. The impact of this approach on response rates among physicians is uncertain. OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which the components of the total design approach have been found to be effective in physician surveys. DESIGN: A systematic review. RESULTS: The effectiveness of prepaid financial incentives, special contacts, and personalization to enhance response rates in surveys of physicians have been confirmed by the existing research. There is suggestive evidence supporting the use of first class stamps on return envelopes and multiple contacts. The optimum amount for incentives and the number of contacts necessary have not been established. Details of questionnaire design and their impact on response rates have received almost no attention from researchers. Few studies have assessed the usefulness of combinations of components of the total design approach. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the number of surveys conducted among physicians, their cost, the level of interest in their findings, and in spite of inadequate response rates, there have been few randomized trials conducted on important aspects of enhancing response in this population. Until this gap has been filled, researchers conducting surveys of physicians should consider including all components of the total design approach whenever feasible.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2002

Issues in pooling administrative data for economic evaluation.

Managed care, in particular the health maintenance organization (HMO), now dominates US healthcare delivery, and economic evaluation is receiving increasing attention as a management tool that can be tailored to its perceived business needs. This encourages use of HMO administrative data as an efficient source of resource utilization and cost measures. Use of administrative data coincides with growing research interest in multisite analyses that increase external validity. The best alternative to a nationally representative data set is to pool administrative data from multiple sites within one database. However, pooling administrative data is problematic because HMO data sources reflect differences in systems of care, costing, and coding. This paper describes issues inherent in the pooling of HMO administrative cost data for use in multisite economic evaluations. We describe the attributes of administrative data that are relevant to costing and discuss their implications for multisite economic evaluations. We then briefly describe our experience with pooling multisite cost data, discuss lessons learned, and offer suggestions for researchers working with such data, followed by concluding comments. Multisite administrative data provide unique opportunities to conduct population-based clinical and economic research.

Community Health Planning↗