August 31st, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion, True Stories
No Comments »
Sometime around 1998 in the Texas Medical Center:
DrV: (enters exam room) Hey, How are you? I’m Bryan Vartabedian (extends hand).
Father: (arms crossed, smiling, leaning against wall) Oh I know who you are, Doc. And I know where you went to school, where you’ve lived, if you’ve been sued and a few other things. And I’m fine, by the way.
DrV: Um, Okay. (Shakes hands with father. Looking to child, scruffing his hair). And this must be Caleb.
An odd moment, for sure. When it happened I didn’t know what it was about. After similar encounters I understood. It was about where patients found themselves in the early days of the information revolution. And there was the father who wheeled into the exam room two large boxes of printouts perched on a dolly. Inkjet validation of his role in the decision about his son’s surgery.
These situations illustrate Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
August 25th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
No Comments »
Perhaps the biggest challenges facing the next generation of physicians is information overload. The problem: Unlimited information on limited human bandwidth. There’s simply too much to read and see. For physicians the problem is compounded by a perceived responsibility to keep up.
But the idea that we actually can have our hands around everything is reflective of a time when doctors actually could know all there was to know. Many of today’s physicians were raised at a time when a paper inbox and a pile of journals represented their only information inputs. But things are very different now.
Here are a few ideas on controlling your inputs: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
August 19th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
No Comments »
As self-quantification tools becomes more accessible, we’re able to monitor and collect all that’s coming, going and happening with our bodies. Some are beginning to think of this aggregate data as something of a health code, a repository of personal information which can be opened up to others – an API for your body. Once opened and tapped, others can create tools for manipulating and analyzing the data. Aggregated information that’s presented in the right way can give us and our providers valuable information about our physical status.
Loic Le Meur, the founder of Europe’s biggest Internet conference, raised the dialog here. It’s a fascinating concept and one that plays on the themes of personalization, measurement, and mobility.
This has implications in pediatrics, of course. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
August 11th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
No Comments »
I never thought I’d change the way I practice medicine. But I recently enrolled as a provider in the Improved Care Now (ICN) collaborative network and I’m already working differently.
ICN is an alliance of gastroenterologists and patients working in a new model of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease care based on the analysis of thousands of doctor–patient visits as well as the latest studies and treatments. Doctors and patients apply this information, experiences are tracked in an open registry, the results are then shared and refined to improve care. I can see what I’m doing well and where I’m falling short relative to other clinics and pediatric gastroenterologists.
ICN is under the direction of Dr. Richard Colletti of the University of Vermont. ICN is supported by the Chronic Collaborative Care Network (C3N), the brainchild of Cincinnati Children’s qualitymeisters, Peter Margolis and Michael Seid. I flew to Cincinnati earlier this week to catch up on C3N and what appears to be a first step into medicine’s future. More on the specifics later. But suffice it to say that I’m stoked about where this is all headed.
A couple of thoughts after enrolling my first few patients: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
August 1st, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in News, Opinion
No Comments »
Can we teach empathy to the next generation of physicians? The University of South Florida Health thinks so and they’re putting it on the line this week with the launch of the SELECT program, a new curriculum intended to “put empathy, communication and creativity back into doctoring.”
The SELECT (Scholarly Excellence. Leadership Experiences. Collaborative Training.) program will offer 19 select students unique training in leadership development as well as the scholarly tools needed to become physician leaders and catalysts for change. During their first week on campus, instead of the old-style medical school tradition of heading to the gross anatomy lab, SELECT students are immersed in leadership training centered in empathy and other core principles of patient-centered care.
The hope is that this program will prepare the next generation of departmental chairmen, CMOs and physician thought leaders through more intense, non-traditional preparation.
Students will Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
