Cervical spondylotic myelopathy, or CSM, occurs when the spinal cord becomes compressed as people age and is the most common cause of spinal cord dysfunction worldwide. A PCORI-funded study -- conducted by a team at the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts -- examined patient-reported outcomes one year after surgery among patients who received any of the three common surgical treatments for CSM. As reported in JAMA, compared with the other two types of surgery, patients with dorsal laminoplasty had better physical function and fewer problems from surgery. They were also less likely to report using opioids for pain, having imaging tests, and having ongoing physical therapy.

An algorithm based on clinical indication, breast symptoms, breast cancer history, and age successfully maximized cancer detection, according to this PCORI-funded study‘s research team at University of California, Davis. Reporting in JAMA Network Open, the study found that 12 percent of mammograms with very high or high cancer detection rates accounted for 55 percent of detected cancers, while 44 percent of mammograms with very low cancer detection rate accounted for just 13 percent of detected cancers. The findings suggest that triaging individuals most likely to have cancer detected during periods of reduced capacity, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, could result in detecting the most cancers while performing the fewest examinations compared with a non-risk-based approach.