The Role of Health Insurance in Access to New Medical Technologies: A Case Study of BRCA Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer Patients While working on her master’s thesis, Colorado student Emily Hammad, encountered a female patient recently diagnosed with breast cancer and struggling to plan for the future. The patient Read more
Urban-Rural Disparities in Health Care Quality for Children with Medical and Social Complexity In a study of hospitalizations at children’s hospitals, rural-residing children have a higher prevalence of complex chronic conditions, higher inpatient costs, risk of readmissions. In an effort to dig deeper, in 2018, Dr. JoAnna Leyenaar, MD, PhD, Read more
Evaluating the Premium Sponsorship Program Colorado hit historic health insurance milestones in 2017, with over 5 million lives covered and a historically low uninsured rate of 6.5%. Meanwhile, high premiums continued to be a consistent barrier to coverage, with nearly 350,000 Coloradans remaining uninsured. Help was coming. That same year, Read more
Completing the Record of Care Housed at the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Health Data Compass (HDC) is a data warehouse supporting a broad range of health care research. The warehouse integrates information from multiple sources including: University of Colorado Hospital, Children’s Hospital Read more
Impact of Marijuana on Opioid Utilization Early research shows that legalization of medical and recreational marijuana has led to lower opioid prescribing (e.g. Bradford et al.) and harms from opioids like overdoses (e.g. Powell et al.). However, findings using more years of data at the state level have produced mixed Read more
Incidence of Cancer Diagnoses in the Rocky Flats Region Following WWII, the United States and Soviet Union found themselves locked in a superpower dynamic, with each relentlessly battling for geopolitical and military superiority. The Rocky Flats plant near Denver, Colorado was constructed in 1952 to manufacture nuclear weapons parts and Read more
Impact of Respite Care for Persons Affected by Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Many are familiar with Alzheimer’s disease, a brain disease that deteriorates your memory and other mental functions. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, every 65 seconds someone in the US develops Alzheimer’s, and it is becoming more prevalent Read more
Economic Value of 9Health Screenings The 1970’s saw a number of technological and medical innovations (computer assisted tomography (CAT Scans), Chicken Pox vaccine, Rubella vaccine) taking place, yet like today, many Americans still lacked access to basic health care services. While traveling the country, physician John Brensike, observed many individuals Read more
Colorado Refugee ER Cost Analysis The Colorado African Organization (CAO) was a nonprofit organization that supported Colorado’s refugee, immigrant, and asylum-seeking populations in their pursuit of integration, self-sufficiency and freedom. In 2018, the CAO accessed CO APCD data to research and demonstrate how its Community Navigation Program provided not only individual Read more
Increasing Reimbursement Using Claims Data When you think of your health, what do you think of? Is it fitness, weight, mental aspects, or all of the above? You wouldn’t be wrong if you said “yes” to any of these, but would you ever think of your visual health? It’s easy Read more