This analysis of data from the Health and Retirement Study estimated that the prevalence of dementia among people older than 70 years of age in the United States in 2010 was 14.7% and that the total costs attributable to dementia were between $157 billion and $215 billion.

Among nursing home residents with cognitive impairment, burdensome transitions between the nursing home and the hospital or hospice during the last months of life were common, varied according to state, and were associated with a poor quality of care.

Despite tremendous interest in medical malpractice and its reform,¹–¹⁰ data are lacking on the proportion of physicians who face malpractice claims according to physician specialty, the size of payments according to specialty, and the cumulative incidence ...

This article compares outcomes specified in research protocols with those described in published reports for trials of off-label use of gabapentin that were sponsored by the manufacturer. The authors had access to internal company documents; the article details discrepancies between the published record and the research plans.

Governments and ethics boards increasingly require written informed consent from all subjects before enrollment in clinical registries. The authors of this article examine the effect of a comprehensive effort to obtain informed consent on the participation rate in the prospective Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network. The overall participation rate was 39.3 percent during phase 1 of the project and 50.6 percent during phase 2. Obtaining written consent was costly, leading to selection bias.

The authors describe the experience of family caregivers who provided end-of-life care to patients with dementia. During the year before the patient's death, many caregivers reported feeling that they were “on duty” 24 hours a day and had symptoms of depression. These symptoms often resolved after the death of the patient, and 72 percent of caregivers reported that the death was a relief for them. These findings highlight the demanding and stressful nature of end-of-life care provided by family members to patients with dementia.

Waiting lists for organ transplantation are growing. This study examined numbers of potential organ donors and actual organ donations from 1997 through 1999 in areas of the United States that are served by 36 organ-procurement organizations. Hospitals with 150 or more beds had significantly higher proportions of potential donors and actual donors than smaller hospitals; 19 percent of hospitals accounted for 80 percent of all potential donors.