April 9th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Humor, Opinion
Tags: General Medicine, Healthcare Legislation, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform Bill, Internal Medicine, Primary Care, Radical Moderate
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I have been asked by patients, readers, family members, and by fellow bloggers what I think about the healthcare bill passed by the House of Regurgitants Representatives. I resent this. I have tried hard to remain as neutral as possible, finding equal cause to point and sneer at both conservatives and liberals. It’s much more fun to watch the kids fight than it is to figure out which one is to blame.
But given the enormous pressure put on me by these people, as well as threatening phone calls from Oprah and Dr. Oz, I will give my “radical moderate” view of the healthcare bill.
My perspective is, of course, that of a primary care physician who will deal with the aftermath of this in a way very few talking heads on TV can understand. The business of healthcare is my business — literally. So, reluctantly, I take leave of the critic’s chair and take on the position where I will be a target for any rotten fruit thrown. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
April 9th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Opinion
Tags: Diabetes, Double Down Sandwich, Fast Food, Food and Nutrition, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Hypertension, KFC, Nutritional Information, Nutritionists, Obesity, Primary Care, Restaurant, Stroke
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Primary care doctors and nutritionists will soon have a new threat in the fight against obesity. KFC is going national with its new “Double Down” sandwich on April 12.
This 540 calorie, 32g of fat, 1380mg of sodium “sandwich” replaces the bread or bun with two pieces of fried chicken.
In a somewhat hyperbolic article at Consumerist.com, its predicted that the new fast-food sandwich will “start killing people” nationwide next week.
Product page: Double Down…
More: Introducing The Vegan Double Down!
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
April 9th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Humor, News, Opinion
Tags: American Board of Internal Medicine, Board Certification, Board-Certified Specialist, Cereal Box Top, Doctors, Physicians, Specialists, Specialty Care
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Remember when you were a child and an offer to be a member of a special spy club appeared on your morning cereal box? You knew — yes, KNEW — that the offer was the real deal. All you had to do is send in 3 cereal box tops and you’d be sent all the prerequisite items. Of course, when the plastic trinkets arrived weeks later, there always seemed to be the air of buzzkill when the reality of what you received for your efforts was revealed.
This could never happen with board certification for doctors, could it?
Yesterday we learned that this year every specialist has to recertify to maintain their status as a board-certified specialist. In the past, this was a voluntary process that doctors participated in to show a jury of their peers that they had the right stuff to practice medicine at the highest level possible. It was a respected term. Doctors generally knew that a board-certified specialist meant something.
Even though doctors pay thousands of dollars to the American Board of Internal Medicine for the opportunity to study for and take the certification exam, once passed doctors were proud to hang that certificate on their wall. In effect, it is the crowning achievement of one’s career.
But what if that certificate on the wall had the value of certificate purchased from a cereal box top spy club? Doctors might be pretty upset, right? Well guess what. Although the majority of those certificates hanging on the wall are the real deal, many are not. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
April 8th, 2010 by JenniferKearneyStrouse in Better Health Network, News
Tags: Addiction Therapy, Annual Physical, Breast Milk Expression, Chronic Disease, Disease Prevention, Employee Health, Employees, Fictional Doctors, General Medicine, Grey's Anatomy, House MD, Infectious Disease, Johns Hopkins, medicaid, Medicare, New Mothers, New York Times, Nutritional Information, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Physicians Ethical Codes, Pregnant Women, Prenatal Care, Primary Care, Professionalism, Public Health Initiative, Restaurants, Smoking Cessation Counseling, TV Doctors
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An article in the New York Times this week looks at a raft of new public health initiatives passed by Congress that are aimed at boosting disease prevention. Examples include requiring restaurants with at least 20 locations to include nutrition information on their menus and mandating employers with at least 50 employees to allow new mothers to express breast milk at work. In addition, Medicaid will now cover smoking cessation counseling for pregnant women and Medicare beneficiaries will be eligible for an annual physical. The initiatives are expected to eventually save money by decreasing the country’s chronic disease burden. (New York Times)
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University recently did a study applying physicians’ ethical codes to the conduct of the fictional doctors on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “House, M.D.” Perhaps to no one’s surprise, TV doctors are behaving very badly. As the abstract of the study states, both shows feature “egregious deviations from the norms of professionalism and contain exemplary depictions of professionalism to a much lesser degree.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, Journal of Medical Ethics)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
April 8th, 2010 by DavidHarlow in Better Health Network, Interviews, Opinion, Research
Tags: Clinical Care, Communication Across Healthcare IT Systems, Earl Jones, GE Centricity, GE Healthcare IT, HITECH, Intermountain, Interoperability, Mayo, Medical IT Support, Medical Technology, Population Health Improvements, Qualibria, Technology-Agnostic Bridge of Information
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GE Healthcare IT has been working in the years leading up to the HITECH Act on a number of initiatives to enable meaningful use of healthcare IT — or as Senior VP and General Manager of eHealth Earl Jones puts it, building the “connected healthcare ecosystem.”
In what may be seen as either a pragmatic move or a revolutionary one, GE is developing tools that allow for communication across healthcare IT systems — not just connecting one GE Centricity installation with another — but acting as a technology-agnostic bridge for information across healthcare IT systems and across health systems.
While Jones notes that we’re in the early stages of linking isolated lilypads across the surface of a pond, GE is developing tools that not only facilitate interoperability, but also facilitate the dissemination of medical knowledge and the use of clinical decision rules developed locally or by pacesetting health systems (e.g. Mayo, Intermountain). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at HealthBlawg*
