Rationing the Doctor’s Time
In the early 1990s, prior to Medicaid and SCHIP expansions, physicians spent about the same number of minutes with both Medicaid and privately insured patients. By the year 2000, physicians…
How to Use Genomics to Treat Lung Cancer
Drug companies can use genomics to create targeted drugs like imatinib (Gleevec) and trastuzumab (Herceptin.) Physicians can then use the results of genomic studies to guide prescribing. As discussed in…
Irrational Attitudes Toward Risk
When is the last time you heard anyone suggest that the climbing of Mt. Everest should be banned? Never? Yet: When is the last time you heard anyone suggest that…
Don’t Kick a Unicorn When it’s Down
There has been a significant outcry against the proposed ACO regs: everything's wrong and nothing's right about them, or so some would have us believe. There has been a significant…
Top Quotes of the Week
“Working for rich people to make them richer isn’t all that fulfilling.” David Gilboa, the co-founder of the New York-based startup eyewear companyWarby Parker, describing why he walked away from a lucrative…
The Challenges of Health Care Cost Control
A MedPage Today post by what appears to be an informed consumer (and not a health care professional) provides a little peek into the factors that affect health care quality…
Cleveland Clinic CEO Recommends Changes to Current ACO Rules
In addition to the Cleveland Clinic, several other hospitals and chains have sent their concerns and suggestion to CMS. The Cleveland Clinic specifically saw conflicts that would ultimately put barriers…
Physician Salaries Represent 8% of Total US Healthcare Cost
When it comes to the high costs of physicians in healthcare, having 8% of the total amount spent based on this survey, is small. Costly tests still add up and…
The Healthcare Social Media Landscape
Here is a slide show I created reflecting on the different communities developing in this space. Although each emerged on its own, there is certainly collaborative projects and people across…
Mobile Phones in Hospitals – Many Contain Bacteria
The Journal of Infection Control reports that many patients’ mobile phones contain pathogenic bacteria, at least at the one hospital in Turkey where the study was conducted. About 40 percent…
