Prices for some generic drugs have increased in recent years, adversely affecting patients who rely on them.

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), the most common health care-associated infection, often recurs. Fecal microbiota transplantation is increasingly used to treat multiply recurrent CDI (mrCDI).

About 28 million Americans are currently uninsured, and millions more could lose coverage under policy reforms proposed in Congress. At the same time, a growing number of policy leaders have called for going beyond the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to a single-payer national health insurance system that would cover every American. These policy debates lend particular salience to studies evaluating the health effects of insurance coverage. In 2002, an Institute of Medicine review concluded that lack of insurance increases mortality, but several relevant studies have appeared since that time. This article summarizes current evidence concerning the relationship of insurance and mortality. The evidence strengthens confidence in the Institute of Medicine's conclusion that health insurance saves lives: The odds of dying among the insured relative to the uninsured is 0.71 to 0.97.

Editors' Note: This article is the traditional Chinese version of the CONSORT Extension for Chinese Herbal Medicine Formulas 2017: Recommendations, Explanation, and Elaboration. (Cheng C, Wu T, Shang H, Li, Y, Altman D, Moher D; CONSORT-CHM Formulas 2017 Group. CONSORT Extension for Chinese Herbal Medicine Formulas 2017: Recommendations, Explanation, and Elaboration. Ann Intern Med. 2017;167:112-21. [Epub 27 June 2017]. doi:10.7326/M16-2977).

Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) formulas are the major components of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) interventions. The general reporting quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of CHM formulas is disappointing, although CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) Statement extensions for herbal medicinal interventions and acupuncture interventions are available. A group of TCM clinical experts, methodologists, epidemiologists, and editors has developed this CONSORT Extension for CHM Formulas (CONSORT-CHM Formulas 2017) through a comprehensive process, including publication of the draft version, solicitation of comments, revision, and finalization. The CONSORT 2010 Statement was extended by introducing the idea of TCM Pattern and the features of CHM formulas. One new checklist subitem, keywords, was added to facilitate indexing and data searching. Seven of the 25 CONSORT checklist items, namely title and abstract, background and objectives, participants, interventions, outcomes, generalizability, and interpretation, are now elaborated, and the explanation of harms specific to CHM formulas is revised. Illustrative examples and explanations are also provided. The group hopes that CONSORT-CHM Formulas 2017 can improve the reporting quality of RCTs of CHM formulas.

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in asymptomatic adults might prevent disease but increase health care use without clinical value.

Editors' Note: This article is the simplified Chinese version of the CONSORT Extension for Chinese Herbal Medicine Formulas 2017: Recommendations, Explanation, and Elaboration. (Cheng C, Wu T, Shang H, Li, Y, Altman D, Moher D; CONSORT-CHM Formulas 2017 Group. CONSORT Extension for Chinese Herbal Medicine Formulas 2017: Recommendations, Explanation, and Elaboration. Ann Intern Med. 2017;167:112-21. [Epub 27 June 2017]. doi:10.7326/M16-2977).

Patients with essential thrombocythemia (ET) are at high risk for both thrombosis and hemorrhage.