August 2009
29 posts
Armey Encourages Good Manners At Town Halls : NPR →
Fascinating to listen to a politician twist and turn while trying to sound reasonable and honest.
“All Americans should have access to affordable, dependable and quality health...”
– Consumers Union
Real Choice? It’s Off-Limits in Health Bills →
Click the title to read an article in the NYTimes about current limits to choice.
The public’s lack of awareness of the pernicious effect of insurance policies leads to complacency with a broken system.
Example - they fund ads that lie to the public about reform plans saying “your doctor’s decisions will be dictated by government.” The actual bills say the opposite.
In...
“we have the only health system in the world based on avoiding sick people.”
– Marcia Angell, M.D.: Health Reform: Throwing Good Money After the Bad
“RAM LA Results
The following totals are from patient records in hand and, due...”
– Remote Area Medical
Some of the grim statistics reflecting the status quo of health care
Planet Money Blog : NPR - patient experience as... →
Just listed to the 8/21 podcast describing a consumer web site measuring patient satisfaction with their doctors. This is a good move - consumers taking charge of measurement.
Patient satisfaction = ‘were you satisfied with….’
E.g. “were you treated with respect” or “do you like your doctor”
Patient experience = ‘has X happened to you’
...
Why 'adherence to guidlines' is the wrong way to...
Guidlines tell us how to maximize the treatment of a condition or organ system. They are incredibly helpful tools that guide us in optimal care of diabetes, hypertension, AHDH, etc.
As I noted in my last post, overall health and wellness is not necessarily the same thing as maximizing the treatment of an organ system. There are times when guideline adherence is the wrong thing for some...
Why is primary care so important to improving...
Primary care is about treating the whole person. This is the exact lesson learned in any work that involves complex systems - the complex system in this case is the person we’re treating.
It is possible to optimize part of a system to an extreme that sub-optimizes overall system performance. An example of this in health care is an extreme focus on a person’s liver or heart,...
Safe Patient Project: Watch Money-Driven Medicine →
This is going to air on PBS 8/28. The preview is compelling. I can’t wait to see the whole thing. If you don’t catch the PBS airing, you can view it online after 8/28.
“Five myths about health reform
Setting the Record Straight on Health Reform
...”
– http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/08/where_are_the_doctors.php
This Modern World | Salon Comics →
While the health reform agenda is co-opted by the insurance industry and their supporters in Congress we can at least have a nice chuckle.
James Fallows describes misinformation campaign... →
What’s really suprising to me is finding out how many of the lies regarding health reform have come from this one person and how much she’s been able to use this tactic to boost her career (an earlier set of made up ‘facts’ rearding the 1994 Clinton health plan lauched her into the NY Lt Governor’s position).
Check her out on FactCheck.org
A Day In The Life of a family doctor - Dr. Malia... →
A thoughtful family physician blogs about practice and life. What I like about this piece is the incredible diversity of work that makes up a typical day for a primary care physician. See his other posts to get a better understanding of the power of primary care in helping people address fear, uncertainty & illness.
Paying the Price: How Health Insurance Premiums... →
Here is yet another study illustrating the need for a robust public option to counter the regional market stranglehold most commercial insurers enjoy.
That enjoyment comes at a price we can ill afford, and as this study documents, it is squeezing the middle class to the point that many are going without needed services (see other Commonwealth studies).
The reason the insurance industry spends so...
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Dr. Sof's Hippo Oath →
Welcoming another great doc to the blogosphere! Watch as Sofia Fernandez goes from good to great care, able to deliver ideal outcomes in an ethical and sustainable practice.
Setting the Record Straight on health reform →
Let the light of day wither the lies and misrepresentations of those who hold personal gain ahead of common decency.
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Watch‘Ideal’ doctors stress quality of over quantity - CNN
Story Highlights
Medical practice focuses on fewer patients, less overhead
Pared-back system allows doctors, patients to get to know each other
Doctor still makes house calls, sometimes by bicycle
“We wanted a balance of being moms and being doctors”
Check us out @ www.IMPCenter.org
'Ideal' doctors stress quality of over quantity -... →
Not waiting for anyone’s permission, we’re taking back our profession one practice at a time.
Why primary care doctors are shrinking in the U.S.... →
We’re at a point of inflection in health care in the US. We’re in the waning days of a mode of practice that is mostly unsatisfactory to both the physicians and patients. A small but continually growing number of clinicians are taking charge of their professional lives. They are exploring new business models to deliver ideal care for patients in balanced, ethical and sustainable...
Pay for Performance in England: Some Surprising... →
Not a surprise at all. When we focus on minutia, even a bunch of minutia, we often lose track of the big picture. What is the ultimate goal of health care? Is it to maximize a particular bioclinical data point or to reduce suffering and improve health?
The current paradigm of measurement that equates a bucket of bioclinical markers with overall quality is wrong. This study helps to explain...
This Modern World | Salon Comics →
Hilarious.