Journal of The National Medical Association 

About: Journal of The National Medical Association is an academic journal published by Elsevier BV. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Population & Health care. It has an ISSN identifier of 0027-9684. Over the lifetime, 6789 publications have been published receiving 99822 citations.

Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care

Abstract: www.mobilehealthmap.org 617‐442‐3200 New research shows that mobile health clinics improve health outcomes for hard to reach populations in cost‐effective and culturally competent ways . A Harvard Medical School study determined that for every dollar invested in a mobile health clinic, the US healthcare system saves $30 on average. Mobile health clinics, which offer a range of services from preventive screenings to asthma treatment, leverage their mobility to treat people in the convenience of their own communities. For example, a mobile health clinic in Baltimore, MD, has documented savings of $3,500 per child seen due to reduced asthma‐related hospitalizations. The estimated 2,000 mobile health clinics across the country are providing similarly cost‐effective access to healthcare for a wide range of populations. Many successful mobile health clinics cite their ability to foster trusting relationships. Qualitative research in such mobile health clinics has found that patients value the informal, familiar environment in a convenient location, with staff who “are easy to talk to,” and that the staff’s “marriage of professional and personal discourses” provides patients the space to disclose information themselves. A communications academic argued that mobile health clinics’ unique use of space is important in facilitating these relationships. Mobile health clinics park in the heart of the community in familiar spaces, like shopping centers or bus stations, which lend themselves to the local community atmosphere.

Measurement of socioeconomic status in health disparities research.

Abstract: Socioeconomic status (SES) is frequently implicated as a contributor to the disparate health observed among racial/ ethnic minorities, women and elderly populations. Findings from studies that examine the role of SES and health disparities, however, have provided inconsistent results. This is due in part to the: 1) lack of precision and reliability of measures; 2) difficulty with the collection of individual SES data; 3) the dynamic nature of SES over a lifetime; 4) the classification of women, children, retired and unemployed persons; 5) lack of or poor correlation between individual SES measures; and 6) and inaccurate or misleading interpretation of study results. Choosing the best variable or approach for measuring SES is dependent in part on its relevance to the population and outcomes under study. Many of the commonly used compositional and contextual SES measures are limited in terms of their usefulness for examining the effect of SES on outcomes in analyses of data that include population subgroups known to experience health disparities. This article describes SES measures, strengths and limitations of specific approaches and methodological issues related to the analysis and interpretation of studies that examine SES and health disparities.

The Principles and Practice of Medicine

Abstract: This work consists of two volumes, and extends over eighteen hundred closely printed pages. In the preface we are informed that the greater part was in manuscript when the pen dropped from the author's hand. The section on Diseases of the Heart was not completed, and that on Diseases of the Skin was not commenced. Dr Wilks has completed the former; while the editor, Dr Pye-Smith, has supplied the latter. The range of the work is the same as that of other treatises on the Principles and Practice of Medicine, while owing to its size greater freedom has necessarily been obtained for a more elaborate treatment of the varied subjects with which such a work deals, than could be possible in one of more restricted dimensions. But this is one of the few large works which one would gladly have had even fuller; its whole contents are of such a quality that curtailment in any section would have been a loss. It is quite impossible in the space at our disposal to critically review the special teaching of the various chapters, and yet without this there is difficulty in conveying anything like an accurate impression of what the book is. Even to class it as the best work