Poverty in early childhood correlates with lower school achievement and reduced earnings as an adult. It is also associated with differences in brain structure and electrical brain activity. Brain activity exhibits repetitive patterns at various frequencies. More low-frequency activity has been associated with behavioral, attention, and learning problems. Higher-frequency activity has been associated with better language, cognitive, and social-emotional scores. [NIH Matters]

The study adds to growing evidence that interventions to relieve poverty can affect how infants’ brains develop. Photo Juliya Shangarey 

Some evidence suggests that children from lower-income families tend to have more low-frequency activity and less high-frequency activity than those from higher-income families. But it’s not clear whether poverty causes these changes in brain activity or is merely associated with other factors that cause them.

To find out, researchers created the Baby’s First Years study, a randomized controlled trial of poverty reduction in early childhood. In this study, 1,000 low-income mothers of newborns received a cash gift for the first several years of their children’s lives. The size of the gift was randomly chosen to be either $333 or $20 per month. The mothers could spend the money in ways that made the most sense to them, with no strings attached.

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What is the effectiveness of the Parent-focused Redesign for Encounters, Newborns to Toddlers intervention, a model for well-child care that integrates a community health worker into preventive care services at well-child care visits?  [JAMA Network]

Findings  In this cluster randomized clinical trial including 914 parents with a child younger than 2 years of age, those in the intervention group had a higher score for parent-reported receipt of recommended anticipatory guidance during well-child visits vs the usual care group (mean score, 73.9 vs 63.3, respectively); however, emergency department use was similar in the intervention and usual care groups (37.2% vs 36.1%, respectively).

Meaning  Integrating a community health worker into well-child care visits to provide early childhood preventive care services can improve the care that children receive.

Full paper here> 

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The feasibility of AI and machine learning (ML) tools in healthcare settings is up for debate. ChatGPT made headlines after a recent experiment proved it could pass all three parts of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE). At the same time, experts continue to raise concerns about the tool’s limitations in real-life healthcare situations, as well as its proclivity for inaccuracies and bias.

While clinicians and other medical experts continue to debate ML’s effectiveness for treating patients, they’re neglecting a much more dependable and equally impactful use case: administrative work. ML has tremendous potential to streamline tedious administrative tasks and free up valuable time for clinicians, which ultimately leads to better patient outcomes. However, the effectiveness of AI in reducing administrative workloads hinges on providers’ ability to properly incorporate these tools into their work routines. 

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The mission of the Michael Reese Research & Education Foundation is to continue the legacy of Michael Reese Hospital by supporting research, education, and community service through relationships that foster quality health care. Our vision is for the provision of excellent care for all patients, regardless of demographic conditions.

The Michael Reese Foundation realizes this mission through:

● Providing grants for translational research projects, addressing clinical issues, converting

research to practical applications.

● Scholarships for diverse students to complete their health care education and fill the need within

their communities.

● Connecting underserved patients with comprehensive care and other community support

projects.

The Foundation is seeking a new Executive Director due to the retirement of their current executive director. 

More details here> 

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To better understand the social determinants of preterm birth, research efforts have shifted from women’s individual level characteristics toward their exposure to contextual markers. The Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE) is a novel measure of spatial social polarization that quantifies the extremes of both privilege and deprivation. Our population-based study adds to the limited published literature on the relation of ICE to preterm birth rates among African-American and non-Latinx white women. We found that the high degree of both racial and income polarization within communities was associated with preterm birth rates even among those who received adequate prenatal care.

Download article here>

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Every day, Adrienne Grimmett and her colleagues at Evara Health in the Tampa Bay area see stories of inequity in their patients’ teeth, gums, and palates.

Marked in painful abscesses, dangerous infections, and missing molars are tales of unequal access to care.

All of these ailments — which keep patients out of work because of pain or social stigma, and children out of school because they can’t concentrate with rotting roots — are preventable.

Annual dental checks are essential to overall health. But of the 67 counties in Florida, experts say, only one has enough dentists to treat all patients. Nine counties in Florida have fewer than three practicing dentists apiece. Lafayette County, in north Florida, doesn’t have a single one.

“It’s a social injustice,” said Grimmett, director of dental services at the not-for-profit, which serves Medicaid and uninsured patients in the Tampa Bay region.

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 Good luck to the students at the National Hispanic Medical Association! 

Great turn out~ Welcome to Chicago! 

The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to be a key presence in 2023, even as the public health emergency designation — which has propped up funding and key programs in the sector — winds down in May, sparking a major transition in the industry. [Healthcare Dive]

Providers, already facing pandemic-fueled labor shortages, may struggle to rein in expenses, and financial cricumstances for hospitals and clinicians may fall into negative margins this year. To make matters worse, clashes are expected between payers and providers during rate negotiations as both groups eye a potential widespread economic recession.

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