Evidence Development & Decision Science

In Political Behavior, Daniel Hopkins analyzes the ability of American elites to frame political issues to sway public opinion, as well as the real-world constraints on that ability. Previous experiments demonstrate that elites can influence public opinion through framing, yet those experiments may not account for limitations on that ability. The author uses the 2009-2010 health care debate, along with automated content analyses of elite- and general population language, to study real-world effects of framing. He finds that the language Americans use to explain their opinions is...

In Health Services Research, Hummy Song and colleagues develop and validate a survey instrument designed to measure team dynamics in primary care. The authors study 1,080 physician and non-physician health care professionals at 18 primary care practices participating in a learning collaborative to improve team-based care. They administer a cross-sectional survey addressing team dynamics, and assessed reliability and discriminant validity of survey factors, as well as the overall survey’s goodness-of-fit. They find that this model demonstrated adequate fit, scale reliability, and...

In American Journal of Epidemiology, Michelle Kondo and colleagues, including Eugenia South, Therese Richmond, and Douglas Wiebe, investigate relationships between being in urban green space and experiencing gun violence. The authors conducted interviews with Philadelphia males aged 10-24, including victims of gun violence. They used statistical analyses to compare tree locations with gun assaults. They found that, when participants were under tree cover, they were less likely to experience gun violence. Numerous analyses and comparative models confirmed that being under tree...

In Annals of the American Thoracic Society, Nita Khandelwal and colleagues, including Norma Coe, assess the economic feasibility of staffing intensive care units (ICUs) with a communication facilitator. This person assists families in complex decision-making, improves patient-provider communication, and ensures that care is consistent with patient values and goals. The authors conducted a randomized trial with an ICU communication facilitator, and also looked at financial hospital records. Units that had a facilitator saw significantly reduced daily average ICU costs, and maximal...

In American Journal of Nursing, Kathleen Burke and colleagues validate core competencies and knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that were previously developed for professional nursing practice. The researchers then assess the integration and progression of these competencies in clinical advancement programs. Clinical experts from 13 Magnet hospitals participated in quality improvement rounds aimed at reaching consensus on how much the KSAs have been incorporated into clinical advancement. The group found that all of the core competencies assessed were essential at all levels...

In Medicine, Jayadevappa, Schwartz, and colleagues analyzed the comparative effectiveness of localized prostate cancer treatments (active surveillance, radical prostatectomy, and radiation therapy) through systematic review and meta-analysis. They focused on outcomes that matter most to newly diagnosed patients: mortality; cancer recurrence; disease and treatment complications; side effects; and patient-reported outcomes such as health-related quality of life, satisfaction with care, and decision regrets. The systematic review included 58 articles published from 1995-2016, (29...