We are pleased to announce the “most-read” Health Affairs journal articles published in 2008. The number 1 article has topped 61,000 pageviews to date. The next two articles, which were published in September, analyzed the presidential candidates’ health plans. All articles below are open to all readers for the next 2 weeks—through January 28, 2009.

1. Measuring The Health Of Nations: Updating An Earlier Analysis
   by Ellen Nolte and C. Martin McKee
2. Cost And Coverage: Implications Of The McCain Plan To Restructure Health Insurance
   by Thomas Buchmueller, Sherry A. Glied, Anne Royalty, and Katherine Swartz
3. The Obama Plan: More Regulation, Unsustainable Spending
   by Joe Antos, Gail Wilensky, and Hanns Kuttner
4. National Health Spending In 2006: A Year Of Change For Prescription Drugs
   by Aaron Catlin et al.
5. Health Spending Projections Through 2017: The Baby-Boom Generation Is Coming To Medicare
   by Sean Keehan et al.
6. Waits To See An Emergency Department Physician: U.S. Trends And Predictors, 1997–2004
   by Andrew P. Wilper et al.
7. Happiness And Health: Lessons—And Questions—For Public Policy
   by Carol Graham
8. Blending Better Ingredients For Health Reform
   by Mark V. Pauly
9. How Many Are Underinsured? Trends Among U.S. Adults, 2003 And 2007
   by Cathy Schoen, Sara R. Collins, Jennifer L. Kriss, and Michelle M. Doty
10. Covering The Uninsured In 2008: Current Costs, Sources Of Payment, And Incremental Costs
    by Jack Hadley, John Holahan, Teresa Coughlin, and Dawn Miller
11. The U.S. Economy And Changes In Health Insurance Coverage, 2000–2006
    by John Holahan and Allison Cook
12. On The Road To Universal Coverage: Impacts Of Reform In Massachusetts At One Year
    by Sharon K. Long
13. Impact Of Decreasing Copayments On Medication Adherence Within A Disease Management Environment
    by Michael E. Chernew et al.
14. A House Is Not A Home: Keeping Patients At The Center Of Practice Redesign
    by Robert A. Berenson et al.
15. Continuous Innovation In Health Care: Implications Of The Geisinger Experience
    by Ronald A. Paulus, Karen Davis, and Glenn D. Steele
16. Retail Clinics, Primary Care Physicians, And Emergency Departments: A Comparison Of Patients’ Visits
    by Ateev Mehrotra et al.
17. The Gap Gets Bigger: Changes In Mortality And Life Expectancy, By Education, 1981–2000
    by Ellen R. Meara, Seth Richards, and David M. Cutler
18. Financial Burden Of Health Care, 2001–2004
    by Jessica S. Banthin, Peter Cunningham, and Didem M. Bernard
19. The Health Care Systems Of China And India: Performance And Future Challenges
    by Winnie Yip and Ajay Mahal
20. Toward A Policy-Relevant Analysis Of Geographic And Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Child Health
    by Dolores Acevedo-Garcia at al.

Journal articles from earlier years also continue to attract strong readership. At the close of 2008, the paper by Uwe Reinhardt, Peter Hussey, and Jerry Anderson on comparative health spending had reached nearly 200,000 pageviews. The paper on medical costs as a major factor in personal bankruptcy topped 186,000 pageviews; coauthor Elizabeth Warren now chairs the congressional oversight panel for the economic bailout funding. And the classic paper on electronic medical records by Richard Hillestad and colleagues reached 152,000 pageviews. Here are the most-read papers over time:

1. Health Care Spending In An International Context
   by Uwe E. Reinhardt, Peter S. Hussey, and Gerard F. Anderson
2. Illness And Injury As Contributors To Bankruptcy
   by David U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Warren, Deborah Thorne, and Steffie Woolhandler
3. Can Electronic Medical Record Systems Transform Health Care?
   Richard Hillestad et al.
4. The Working Hours Of Hospital Staff Nurses And Patient Safety
   by Ann E. Rogers et al.

Rankings are based on Web traffic at www.healthaffairs.org from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008 and do not take into account print readership or online readership from article aggregators, such as Lexis-Nexis. Health Affairs subscribers have complete access to the online journal content, plus online research tools. All readers have free access to all Health Affairs Blog content; selected journal articles at time of posting (Web Exclusives for 2 weeks); all journal articles three years old or older; and all article abstracts. Readers may link to free access articles and abstracts, but may not repost articles on other Websites. The full 27-year article archive is online.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Access, All Categories, Consumers, Cost, Disparities, Global Health, Health Reform, Innovation, Insurance, Nonmedical Determinants, Nurses, Physicians, Policy, Politics, Spending, States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.