Blue Shield of California Foundation today released “Building Better Health Care for Low-Income Californians,” an in-depth survey produced for the Foundation by Langer Research Associates. The study examines the central role of patient-provider relationships in patient empowerment and efficacy, evaluating new approaches – including emerging caregiving models, the use of communication technology and improved interpersonal communication – in achieving these goals.

The Foundation hosted a presentation of key findings and a discussion panel at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Participants included Foundation President and CEO Peter V. Long, PhD.; Kavita Patel, MD, MS, Fellow and Managing Director of Delivery System Reform and Clinical Transformation at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform in the Economics Studies program at the Brookings Institution; Sara Rosenbaum, JD, Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and Founding Chair of the Department of Health Policy, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services; Ron Yee, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer, National Association of Community Health Centers; and Gary Langer of Langer Research Associates.

The survey extends a series of in-depth studies on the healthcare experiences of low-income Californians conducted for the Foundation by Langer Research Associates since 2010. Senior Analyst Julie E. Phelan was lead author of the report. See the full study, executive summary and press release here.

Our latest ABC News/Washington Post poll on the budget dispute in Washington has received wide coverage this week, by news outlets including CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the New York Daily News, NBCNews.com and others. Daily News reporter Dan Friedman tweeted Sen. John McCain’s take on it. Gary Langer appeared on Bloomberg TV with host Eric Schatzker today to summarize the public’s view of kamikaze politics; see it here. (10/17: Gary also discussed the fallout from the government shutdown with John Hockenberry on NPR’s “The Takeaway,” here.)

Gary Langer appeared on Bloomberg TV with hosts Eric Schatzker and Stephanie Ruhle today, discussing the possible impacts of a government shutdown on consumer sentiment and political attitudes alike. See the clip here.

The Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology has published Gary Langer’s commentary on a report on nonprobability sampling produced by a task force of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. See the paper here.

The final report of the federal Commission on Long-Term Care, submitted to President Obama and the leaders of Congress this week, references Langer Research Associates’ analysis of a national survey on long-term care conducted by AP-NORC and commissioned by The SCAN Foundation, with our consultation. See our report, “Pathways to Progress in Planning for Long-Term Care,” on the Foundation’s website.

A wide range of news organizations have covered recent ABC News/Washington Post polls, which we produce for ABC News. Beyond use by ABC and the Post, we’ve seen recent pickup in The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, the New York Daily News, MSNBC (here andhere), the National Journal (here and here), the Christian Broadcasting Network, the San Francisco Examiner, the Christian Science Monitor, The Hill (here and here), the Huffington Post, the Columbus Dispatch, the Kokomo Tribune, and, overseas, the Global Times(China), the Nagaland Post (India) and Bao Gaio duc (Vietnam) – among others.

Gary Langer and Julie E. Phelan led a four-hour workshop on best practices in monitoring and evaluation of civic engagement programs in developing nations today at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Washington, D.C. Our presentation included first principles in monitoring and evaluation, experimental design including pre- and post-testing and the use of control/treatment groups, considerations in field administration, questionnaire design and statistical modeling techniques including construction of indices with alpha testing, linear regression including variable coding and analysis of covariates.

The Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C., has cited our work for Blue Shield of California Foundation in a four-page Meeting Summary of its February 2013 Roundtable on Value- and Science-Driven Health Care. The summary quotes and reproduces charts from a presentation at the Roundtable by Gary Langer, discussing our 2012 reports for BSCF (here and here) on the key role of connectedness and continuity in patient-provider relationships.

Gary Langer appeared on Bloomberg TV with hosts Sara Eisen and Tom Keene today, discussing the state of consumer confidence as measured in the weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, produced by Langer Research Associates.

Anxiety-fueled avoidance, lack of information and inexperience with long-term care are key impediments to Americans planning for their care needs as they grow older, according to a report produced by Langer Research Associates and released today by The SCAN Foundation.

The in-depth analysis, based on a Foundation-sponsored survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, explores pathways to planning for long-term care by evaluating the motivators of preparing for aging needs – key information for the public and for policy makers as they seek to understand and encourage long-term care planning for the nation’s growing population of older adults.

The SCAN Foundation, based in Long Beach, California, is the nation’s only non-profit devoted exclusively to long-term care issues. The Langer Research report, “Pathways to Progress in Planning for Long-Term Care,” is available on its website.