Here are a few facts to enliven the next public discussion about death panels.
An analysis of Medicare claims by researchers at Dartmouth University found that nationwide nearly one in three cancer patients died in hospitals or in intensive care, the most expensive form of end-of-life care and contrary to most patients’ wishes. Nearly half are not offered hospice …
Reduce variations in cancer care that do not improve outcomes
It’s only been a little over fifty years since vaccinations became routine for the childhood killers like polio, measles, mumps and whooping cough. People my age and older had no choice but to suffer through childhood infectious diseases given how effectively and quickly they spread through a community.
Most of us survived, subsequently blessed with life long natural immunity. Some did not survive. …
Vaccination and the killers of yesterday now overcome by modern medicine
The following op-ed was published on February 22nd, 2011 in AOL News.
If you woke up one day with an earache, you could call your doctor’s office for help. Or you could do what the majority of patients do today and Google what to do first.
Type “earache” into your Web browser and the results can vary wildly. Search engines can return results saying that an earache can be from the common cold, …
Guiding patients online is a new physician responsibility for the digital age
by Joanne Wilkinson, MD
I have a stress test nearly every year. I do this because my mother dropped dead of a heart attack when she was thirty-six, and now I am thirty-five.
They stick EKG leads on me, and for weeks I have blotchy red circles on my skin where it’s reacted to the adhesive. I run on …
I interview approximately 60 prospective physicians for medical school over the course of the year and 40 physicians who are applying for the residency program. The pre-med students (almost all of whom are the age of my children) tend to have pretty good interview skills and are trying very hard to get into medical school (“I’ve wanted to be a doctor for as long …
3 resident interviews for family medicine
Recently, I went to see a doctor about an EHR. Dr. Greene (not his real name) is a typical solo primary care physician in a typical small town in the typical middle of nowhere. Four hours from the closest airport and miles and miles of winding roads, cow pastures and corn …
EHR and the solo primary care physician
There isn’t a country on this planet where there isn’t someone dreaming of curing cancer. What if there was something even more spectacular than curing cancer? What if you could stop cancer right in its tracks and eliminate its existence. Prevent it. Squash it before it starts.
Vincent Tuohy, PhD, an immunologist at Cleveland Clinic, may be on a path toward …
Developing innovative solutions to battle cancer and disease
Recently, as I listened to leading researchers grapple with the question of how to design a feasible study of intervention for postpartum depression, I held in my mind an image of a particular moment in my office.
I was sitting on the floor with 10 month old Madison and her mother Nancy, who was struggling with postpartum depression. Nancy spoke of the strain Madison’s refusal to take a bottle and her …
How can research capture the complexity of tiny moments?
An excerpt from Doctor Confidential: Secrets Behind the Veil.
by Richard Sheff, MD
Dorothy suffered a second heart attack, leaving more of her heart muscle damaged and causing her to slip into congestive heart failure. There was not much we could do to reverse the many blockages in her arteries. Yet she was cheerful, as were her four children.
One morning Mary came to find me. “Dorothy says …
Giving the patient and family precious minutes to say goodbye
You try to do the right things to sustain your business. You set high standards for delivery of quality care, follow the basic tenets of marketing, align your organization so that everyone in your firm “gets it,” avoid unnecessary expenses but identify important growth opportunities and prudently invest so that you remain competitive and serve your patients well. But can you afford investing in the assets you require to become or …
Expand health care systems in a way that is professionally satisfying
Dr. William Follansbee is the chairman of the American College of Cardiology/American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ACC/ASNC) task force on non-invasive cardiac imaging and the director of nuclear cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Cardiovascular Institute.
He recently published an editorial in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in which he criticized the local Blue Cross/Blue Shield carrier, Highmark, for restricting the use of nuclear cardiac stress testing in …
Restricting nuclear cardiac stress testing in favor of stress echocardiography
To everything there is a season and mine comes to an end today. For 720 weeks I attempted to give quality care to my patients. The task was not always easy especially when most of my patients held the unenviable position of having a high risk pregnancy and receiving Medicaid or being uninsured. Babies have a right to be born healthy …
Patient volume and money instead of quality patient care
It is an axiom of business that employee engagement produces many positive results, no matter what the setting—manufacturing or service. This is true for healthcare as well.
Employee engagement produces a better product or service. In healthcare, engaged employees produce enhanced patient outcomes. When employees are engaged there is less turnover, which reduces training costs. Engaged employees are problem solvers.
How …
Engage employees in healthcare to enhance patient outcomes
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How important is it for hospitals to engage in social media platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter?
It’s essential.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the controversy concerning infant Joseph Maraachli. Without getting too involved in the politics or ethics …
Hospitals need an engaged social media presence on Facebook and Twitter
by mdstudent31
Going into medicine from a suburban community in the northeast, I never really knew exactly what family medicine was as a specialty. I had heard of it before, but did not see it in action until going to undergraduate school in the middle of Pennsylvania. It was there when I began …
Can family medicine really be defined?
I had a déjà vu experience recently when I visited a medical practice that was like so many others I’ve been to before.
This practice just wasn’t getting their investment back from their EHR.
The practice had been live on the EHR for about five months and was functioning effectively without pulling charts for patient visits. The clinical staff was comfortable with the …
Why the return on investment in an EHR is poor
When you go to see the doctor, how do they know (a) if you are due for any preventive health screenings like mammography or (b) if you have a chronic condition, if it is being monitored and managed?
And actually, not just if it is being monitored or managed, but are you able to achieve your life goals with good health? And what about …
How a patient support tool works to help patients and doctors
by John Rossheim
What’s the latest tool for recruiting the best clinicians to your hospital? Is it the professional pride of being associated with an organization that provides the best care in the region? Is it showing respect for the growing number of clinicians who seek to work hard but protect their personal lives from excessive intrusions in the form of frequent on-call duty or mandatory …
How your EHR can help with physician recruiting
by Sunjay Devarajan
“Mrs. Adams” slowly ambled into the family medicine clinic on a Wednesday afternoon. I immediately noticed her slight hunch as she made her way into the lobby.
“A case of back pain?” I thought to myself. “Perhaps an exacerbation of the scoliosis she’d had since childhood?” I shrugged my shoulders and carried on with my …
Being a physician is not just about medicine
Radiology has transformed into a core subject of medicine, since imaging procedures are getting more and more crucial to clinical decisions. Whether these developments, be it over-diagnosing or unnecessary radiation on the one hand or a more detailed and enhanced way of diagnostics on the other, are …
How Microsoft Kinect can help in radiology to view a CT or MRI
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