Better Health: Smart Health Commentary Better Health (TM): smart health commentary

Latest Posts

More Doctors Are Refusing Industry Perks And Gifts

Christmas present by the Italian voice via FlickrPhysicians and particularly primary care doctors are reporting fewer industry ties than five years ago, according to a survey.

While 94% of doctors reported some type of perk from a drug or device maker in 2004, 83.8% did in 2009, researchers reported in the Nov. 8 Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers surveyed a stratified random sample of 2,938 primary care physicians (internal medicine, family practice, and pediatrics) and specialists (cardiology, general surgery, psychiatry and anesthesiology) with a 64.4% response rate. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*

The Dartmouth Atlas Debate: Careful Consideration Needed

The worst-kept secret in journalism circles recently was that the New York Times was planning an article critical of the Dartmouth Atlas. Among the main points in the article:

• “The mistaken belief that the Dartmouth research proves that cheaper care is better care is widespread.”

• “The atlas’s hospital rankings do not take into account care that prolongs or improves lives.”

• “Even Dartmouth’s claims about which hospitals and regions are cheapest may be suspect.”

• “Failing to make basic data adjustments undermines the geographic variations the atlas purports to show.”

The Times has also published the correspondence it had with the Dartmouth team about methodology questions.

The Dartmouth team challenges each of these criticisms. The team says the Times made at least five factual errors and several misrepresentations. They write:

“What is truly unfortunate is that the Times missed an opportunity to help educate the American public about what our research actually shows — or about the breadth of agreement about what our findings mean for health care reform.” Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*

Mayo Clinic: $400M, The Poor: $0

The final House “Manager’s Amendment to Reconcilliation“  provides $400M for hospitals located in counties in the lowest quartile of Medicare spending, adjusted for age, sex and race — but not income. Coupled with annual cuts of $10B in DSH and $1.5B for re-admissions, this is bad news for the poor and the hospitals that care for them. Mayo Clinic wins!   

Note that adjustments cannot be based on counties. Urban counties are too big and economically varied. When the extremes of wealth and poverty are averaged, mean household income is 128% of average in Washington DC, 113% in LA, and 108% in Chicago (Cook County), all with dense and costly poverty ghettos. Without any poverty, mean household income in Olmsted County (home to Mayo Clinic) is the same as in LA. Very few truly poor counties will qualify for such payments. This is another example of the truism that “Poverty is the Problem; Wealth is the Solution.”

*This blog post was originally published at PHYSICIANS and HEALTH CARE REFORM Commentaries and Controversies*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

Read more »

How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

Read more »

See all interviews »

Latest Cartoon

See all cartoons »

Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

Read more »

The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

Read more »

Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

Read more »

See all book reviews »

Commented - Most Popular Articles