MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mehwish Qasim PhD Candidate, Research & Teaching Assistant Department of Health Management and Policy University of Iowa, College of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: This study focused on two questions: Do patients living in the poorest communities have worse post-surgical outcomes than those in the wealthiest communities? And has the level of these differences in post-surgical outcomes changed over time? We found that although post-surgical outcomes improved in general from 2000-2009, (significant decreases in nine of twelve mortality and patient safety measures), patients from low-income areas had worse surgical outcomes than those from high-income areas for nine of twelve measures in both 2000 and 2009. The disparities in outcomes between low- and high-income groups did not change significantly for nine of the twelve measures. (more…)