Browsing by Author "Kramer, Daniel B."

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    Incorporating Health Equity Into COVID-19 Reopening Plans: Policy Experimentation in California
    (American Public Health Association, 2021-08) Largent, Emily A.; Persad, Govind; Mello, Michelle M.; Wenner, Danielle M.; Kramer, Daniel B.; Tucker Edmonds, Brownsyne; Peek, Monica; Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine
    California has focused on health equity in the state's COVID-19 reopening plan. The Blueprint for a Safer Economy assigns each of California's 58 counties into 1 of 4 tiers based on 2 metrics: test positivity rate and adjusted case rate. To advance to the next less-restrictive tier, counties must meet that tier's test positivity and adjusted case rate thresholds. In addition, counties must have a plan for targeted investments within disadvantaged communities, and counties with more than 106 000 residents must meet an equity metric. California's explicit incorporation of health equity into its reopening plan underscores the interrelated fate of its residents during the COVID-19 pandemic and creates incentives for action. This article evaluates the benefits and challenges of this novel health equity focus, and outlines recommendations for other US states to address disparities in their reopening plans.
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    Potential Unintended Consequences Of Recent Shared Decision Making Policy Initiatives
    (Project HOPE, 2019-11) Blumenthal-Barby, Jennifer; Opel, Douglas J.; Dickert, Neal W.; Kramer, Daniel B.; Tucker Edmonds, Brownsyne; Ladin, Keren; Peek, Monica E.; Peppercorn, Jeff; Tilburt, Jon; Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine
    Shared decision making (SDM)-when clinicians and patients make medical decisions together-is moving swiftly from an ethical ideal toward widespread clinical implementation affecting millions of patients through recent policy initiatives. We argue that policy initiatives to promote SDM implementation in clinical practice carry the risk of several unintended negative consequences if limitations in defining and measuring SDM are not addressed. We urge policy makers to include prespecified definitions of desired outcomes, offer guidance on the tools used to measure SDM in the multitude of contexts in which it occurs, evaluate the impact of SDM policy initiatives over time, review that impact at regular intervals, and revise SDM measurement tools as needed.
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    The Groundwater of Racial and Ethnic Disparities Research. A Statement from Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality & Outcomes
    (American Heart Association, 2021) Breathett, Khadijah; Spatz, Erica S.; Kramer, Daniel B.; Essien, Utibe R.; Wadhera, Rishi K.; Peterson, Pamela N.; Ho, P. Michael; Nallamothu, Brahmajee K.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    The Fish. The Pond. The Groundwater. Imagine that you have a personal pond filled with fish. When viewing your pond, you notice that one fish has died, floating belly-up. You decide that the fish must have been ill and think nothing more of it. The next day, you notice that half of the fish in your pond are now dead. You are alarmed and decide to contact the neighborhood management services to investigate your pond. Something must be wrong with the local system. The following day, however, you discover that all of your neighbors with ponds have noticed the same thing. In fact, half of the fish are dead throughout all waterways in the entire state. At this point, it is clear something deeper must be wrong. This is when you need to analyze the groundwater feeding these ponds. The fish are not at fault, and not even the local systems. Rather the underlying structures through which the fish seek life has failed. Imagine that instead of fish, we are discussing patients. —Paraphrase of Groundwater Approach Metaphor by Love and Hayes-Greene of The Racial Equity Institute.