Public health and healthcare

COAST-V trial

COAST-V (NCT02696785), a phase 3 Eli Lilly trial of ixekizumab (Taltz) in bDMARD-naive radiographic axial spondyloarthritis: 341 patients, ASAS40 52%/48% at week 16 versus 18% placebo.

Cocoliztli epidemics (Nahuatl for pest): two 16th-century outbreaks in Mexico, 1545-1548 and 1576-1578, killed up to 80% and then 50% of the native population; cause debated between Salmonella Paratyphi C and an indigenous rodent-borne hemorrhagic fever.

COHORFES study

CohorFES (NCT06965972) is a Spanish multicenter prospective cohort led by Parc de Salut Mar and CIBERFES following 1,500 adults over 65 from six hospital outpatient clinics to identify frailty phenotypic clusters, progression trajectories, and outcomes, using FTS5, Fried phenotype, eFI, and a metabolomics biobank.

Cohort study

Cohort study: an observational epidemiology design following an exposed and unexposed group over time to measure incidence and risk; exemplified by the Framingham Heart Study (1948, 5,209 participants), with prospective and retrospective forms.

Cold Temperature

Cold temperature: environmental cold below the range humans tolerate without strain. Covers vasoconstriction, shivering, brown fat, hypothermia, frostbite, wind chill, public health mortality, and unproven cold-water immersion benefits.

Collaborative care model

The collaborative care model is a healthcare delivery model in which a primary care provider, care manager, and psychiatric consultant jointly treat depression in primary care.

Colter Mitchell

Colter Mitchell is an American biodemographer and Research Associate Professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, studying how social conditions shape population health.

Combat support hospital

Combat support hospital (CSH), US Army Role 3 deployable hospital, successor to the MASH from the Vietnam War; 248 beds in two companies. Converted from 2016 into 32-bed field hospitals under hospital centers.

Combined Military Hospital

Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Rawalpindi, Pakistan's largest CMH: a Class A Pakistan Army Medical Corps tertiary hospital of about 1,000 to 1,150 beds, founded 1858, teaching hospital of Army Medical College and NUMS.

COMFORTABLE trial

COMFORTABLE AMI (NCT00962416) was a randomized trial comparing biolimus A9-eluting stents with biodegradable polymer against bare-metal stents in 1,161 STEMI patients, halving 1-year MACE (4.3% vs 8.7%), a benefit sustained at 5 years.

Committee Membership

Committee membership: the composition of a committee and the status of being its member. Covers selection, terms of reference, quorum, fiduciary duties, size and diversity effects across parliaments, boards, and advisory bodies.

Community health

Community health: a public health field focused on the health of a defined population through community engagement, community health centers (US, since 1965), and community health worker programs, distinct from individual clinical care.

Community Health Centers

Community health centers (CHCs, neighborhood health centers, FQHCs) are US nonprofit clinics founded in 1965 under the War on Poverty, patient-governed, serving low-income Americans regardless of ability to pay.

Community Health Nurses

Community health nurses, also called public health nurses, care for whole populations through health promotion, prevention, and home-based care. Rooted in Lillian Wald's 1893 Henry Street Settlement, the field spans contact tracing, vaccination, and nurse home visiting.

Oct 20, 2026

Community Health Services

Community Health Services: diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive health services delivered to individuals in the community (MeSH D003153), spanning community nursing, home care, mental health, and preventive care, delivered by mixed professional teams outside hospitals.

Community Health Workers

Community health workers (CHWs), also called lay or close-to-community health workers, are non-professional, paid or volunteer community-based health workers with under two years of training; ILO ISCO 3253; central to primary health care since Alma-Ata 1978.

Community Hospitals

Community hospitals: small, locally serving hospitals. US AHA category of 5,121 nonfederal short-term hospitals (84% of all US hospitals); in England, GP- and nurse-led local hospitals under 100 beds providing intermediate and rehabilitation care, descended from 1859 cottage hospitals.

Community Participation

Community participation: involvement of community members in community affairs, central to public health since Alma-Ata 1978; typologies include Arnstein's 1969 ladder and Rifkin's mobilization-collaboration-empowerment continuum.

COMMUNITY study

COMMUNITY (COVID 19 Immunity) study: longitudinal cohort launched April 2020 at Danderyd Hospital, Stockholm, following 2,149 healthcare workers and 118 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with blood and mucosal sampling every 4 months; NCT06784739; known for hybrid immunity and secretory IgA findings.

Community Support

Community support: help from family, friends, neighbors, and community organizations, a social determinant of health linked to lower mortality and hardship, delivered via community health workers, peer support, and social prescribing.

Community trial

A community trial is an epidemiology study design in which whole communities, rather than individuals, are randomized to a health intervention, capturing population-level and herd effects.

Comparison of the healthcare systems in Canada and the United States

Canada vs US healthcare: Canada runs tax-funded provincial single-payer Medicare with universal coverage and no cost sharing; the US uses multi-payer employer and public insurance, spends over 16% of GDP, and ranks last among 10 high-income countries.

Compartmental models (epidemiology)

Compartmental models in epidemiology divide a population into compartments such as SIR or SEIR states and use equations for movement between them. Founded on Kermack and McKendrick's 1927 work, they contrast with agent-based models and are widely used for outbreak forecasting and intervention analysis.

COMPERA study

The COMPERA study is a European registry founded in Germany in 2007 documenting drug therapy and outcomes for pulmonary hypertension, with more than 13,000 patients enrolled across Europe.

Comprehensive Health Care

Comprehensive Health Care (MeSH D003191): provision of the full range of personal health services for diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and rehabilitation; underlies comprehensive primary health care and universal health coverage.

Computed tomography screening

Computed tomography screening uses low-dose CT scans to detect lung cancer early in people at high risk, chiefly heavy smokers, and is the only screening test proven to reduce lung-cancer deaths.

COMTHECARE trial

The COMTHECARE trial, standing for Complementary Therapy in Home Palliative Care Patients and Their Caregivers, is a randomized, double-blind Spanish trial testing music for palliative care.

Condoman

Condoman: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander comic superhero created 1987 in Townsville by Aunty Gracelyn Smallwood and health workers, Phantom-based, slogan 'Don't be shame, be game', for HIV and condom education; relaunched 2009.

Confirmatory trial

A confirmatory trial is a controlled clinical trial with hypotheses pre-stated and evaluated, providing firm evidence of efficacy or safety, typically in the phase III program of drug development.