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Guest Commentaries
Magazine
Part of the solution | Physicians can and want to improve quality, lower cost of healthcare
October 12, 2013
| Print Magazine
A recent survey of some 2,500 doctors conducted by Dr. Jon Tilburt at the Mayo Clinic and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association was full of good news for those of us who believe that, as physicians, we have a big role to play in controlling healthcare costs. It reveals near-universal understanding of the savings that can be attained by engaging doctors to improve quality, efficiency and value in the practice of medicine.
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Magazine
Measuring radiation | Intermountain seeks to limit patient exposure to reduce cancer risk
By Dr. Keith S. White | September 14, 2013
| Print Magazine
Intermountain Healthcare recently launched the nation's first enterprise system to measure and report cumulative medical radiation exposure of patients. Across our 22 hospitals and 185 clinics, our systems and personnel are now compiling data on the cumulative radiation that patients receive from about 220,000 higher-dose procedures and imaging exams each year. In developing the system, whose data is available to clinicians and patients through Intermountain's electronic health records, my colleagues and I...
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Magazine
Letting the sunshine in | CMS rolls out tools to make physician payments program work
By Shantanu Agrawal | August 31, 2013
| Print Magazine
Financial relationships between the healthcare industry and the clinical community are a prevalent aspect of the healthcare landscape. A common financial interaction, for example, is when a physician receives a fee for consulting with a pharmaceutical company about a drug in development. Such financial arrangements are widespread, but they are often known only to the parties directly involved.
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Magazine
Healthcare at home | Doctor, home-care partnership ensures superior post-acute clinical service
By Dr. Michael Fleming | August 10, 2013
| Print Magazine
For a long time, many of us healthcare professionals have operated largely within our own comfort zones. We do just as we've always done, acting independently of each other, as if in our own private universe. We saw little incentive to change, least of all soon. That's happening less often now, thanks mostly to pressures for healthcare reform from the federal government and private sector alike. But our approach to caring for patients remains fragmented. We're still going to have to break free of those comfort zones.
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Magazine
Win the battle, lose the war? | Intergenerational differences among docs may define future of healthcare
By Sean K. Murphy | July 13, 2013
| Print Magazine
If you believe the critical battles over implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) are being fought among politicians, you're wrong. The real fight is taking place in doctors' lounges at hospitals across the country. The outcome will determine the future quality of healthcare in the U.S. because it will define for the next generation the very essence of what it means to be a physician.
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Magazine
The importance of basics | Seventeen essential questions for outpatient oncology clinics
By Dan Shapiro | July 06, 2013
| Print Magazine
Since writing a cancer memoir in 2000, I've given talks at more than 150 hospitals and oncology clinics. I learned that many centers and clinics invest far more in their coffee stations, light airy infusion rooms and brochures than on the basics that make a difference to patients.If cancer centers truly want to improve the patient experience, here are 17 questions clinic managers might want to ask themselves:
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Magazine
Wellness now, value later | Workplace programs have benefits, though not in the short run
By Soeren Mattke and Kristin Van Busum | June 29, 2013
| Print Magazine
Across the country, workplace wellness programs are making Americans healthier, paying quality-of-life dividends for millions of participating workers now and into the future. Employers are screening workers for diseases, paying for health club memberships and providing incentives to encourage healthier lifestyle choices.This is a good thing. But it's just not good for the reason many employers and lots of other people think it is.
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Magazine
Oregon study a wake-up call | Medicaid needs to change as it expands to improve outcomes
By Dr. Glenn Steele | June 01, 2013
| Print Magazine
Recent findings from the Oregon Health Study have resulted in headlines intended as a warning for next January's planned expansion of the Medicaid program (as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act): “Bad news for Obamacare: A new study suggests universal healthcare makes people happier but not healthier” “Oregon study throws a stop sign in front of Obamacare's Medicaid expansion” “Giving people government health insurance may not make them any healthier”Overall,...
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Magazine
Eating better for less | To treat the obesity epidemic, why not lower prices on healthier food
By Roland Sturm and Derek Yach | May 25, 2013
| Print Magazine
Since the early 1980s, federal dietary guidelines have urged Americans to eat more nutrient-rich foods and cut back on fatty foods and highly processed “empty calorie” snacks such as cookies and chips. But those pleas have fallen on deaf ears. It's time to start thinking differently about how to encourage Americans to make smarter food choices—and a fine place to start would be cutting the costs of healthy foods in our supermarket aisles.
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Magazine
Transforming care delivery | Doctors, patients, families acting as a team can lead to improved healthcare
By Dr. Benjamin Chu | May 25, 2013
| Print Magazine
Deepening engagement among patients, families, physicians and providers will produce higher-quality health results and lead the way to answering the question: “What is best for the patient?”Our healthcare world is rapidly evolving. Among those changes is a cultural one that affects those who provide care and the people who receive it. When I began my medical career, patients rarely questioned their doctor's recommendations or gave their own opinions. Conversely, doctors did not want their patient's opinion and seldom were concerned about the patient's world outside of the medical...
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Magazine
Cost sustainability | If payment reform fails, tie spending per beneficiary to GDP
By Dr. Manoj Jain and Dr. Bill Frist | May 18, 2013
| Print Magazine
We have done it. We have decreased the increase in the cost of healthcare. Let us explain. For three decades (1980–2009), the cost of healthcare has been increasing each year at an average rate of 7.4%—double the rate of inflation. However, over the past three years, the increase in healthcare expenditures has remained at a low 3.1%.Is this decline the desperately needed bend in the healthcare cost curve or just the impact of the depressed economy?
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Magazine
Geographic disparity | Excluding some of the poorest from health reform shouldn't be an option
By Dr. Patricia Gabow | May 11, 2013
| Print Magazine
One of the most disturbing challenges faced by American healthcare is the enormous geographic variability in both access and quality. We are one nation, and no matter which state we live in, we are all Americans. But (to paraphrase Bono) where we live actually determines if we live.A poor person living in Massachusetts is more likely to have access to health insurance and healthcare than one who lives in Texas. Given what we know about the relationship of healthcare and health, this means that a poor resident of Texas faces the possibility of a less healthy, shorter life.
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