Read article – Features a report by The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, which found that seniors across the country are interacting with the health care system in very different ways—and with very different regularity. While seniors living in Manhattan, N.Y., have had contact with the health care system nearly 25 days in a year, Medicare beneficiaries in Lebanon, N.H., made far less contact, at roughly 10 days.

Read article – Julie Bynum, associate professor of medicine and of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, is quoted about a report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project that used Medicare claims data to examine aging Americans’ health care and found that as people get older, their health-care goals may shift away from living as long as possible to maintaining a good quality of life. In key areas, however, the treatment that older people receive often doesn’t reflect this change.

Read article – Elliott Fisher, director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, is quoted on the importance of expanding the use of advanced care planning directives and improving end-of-life planning in the Upper Valley. “Most Americans want to die with their loved ones in non-institutional settings, (yet) most Americans die in institutional settings,” Fisher said.

Read article – Diane Gilbert-Diamond, assistant professor of epidemiology and community and family medicine, and Margaret Karagas, chair and professor of epidemiology and professor of community and family medicine, about a recent study that found associations between fetal development and consumption of arsenic, which rice often contains.

Read article – Quotes Diane Gilbert-Diamond, assistant professor of epidemiology and community and family medicine, about a recent study she led with other Dartmouth researchers about how prenatal exposure to arsenic harms the health of infants.

Read article – Kimon Bekelis, instructor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, is quoted about how continuing health care is important for traumatic brain injury patients since treatment often continues long after the injury occurs. “A potential interruption of insurance coverage for these patients and their dependents can have catastrophic consequences,” says Bekelis.

Read article – Quotes Julie Bynum, associate professor of medicine and of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, about a report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project that used Medicare enrollment and claims data from 2012 to find where seniors spend the most time with doctors, where they are most likely to be hospitalized, or be subjected to unnecessary tests or risky medications.

Read article –  H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine, community and family medicine, and of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, is quoted about how turtles are part of what he calls the barnyard pen of cancers. The barnyard has three animals, turtles, birds, and rabbits. You can’t fence in the birds. They’re the super aggressive lethal cancers that are beyond cure. The rabbits you can do something about if you can spot them and treat them. “But for the turtles,” he says, “you don’t need fences because they’re not going anywhere anyway. And the thyroid is full of turtles.”

Read article –  Julie Bynum, associate professor of medicine and of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, is quoted about a report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project that used Medicare claims data to examine aging Americans’ health care and found five key areas where too many older people continue to receive treatments that don’t meet established guidelines or, often, their own goals and preferences.