November 10th, 2010 by Richard Cooper, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: CHSI, Colorado, Community Health Status Indicators, Dr. Richard Cooper, Ethnic Minorities, Family Practice, General Medicine, Grand Junction, Health Affairs, Health Outcomes, Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Politics, Healthcare reform, Hospital Rankings, Mesa County, Model Medical Community, Poverty, Primary Care, Rankings in Healthcare, St. Mary's Hospital, The Poor, U.S. Healthcare System
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In a high-profile paper in the September issue of Health Affairs, Thorson and coworkers showed that the care at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, CO was superior to that of 20 other unnamed hospitals. Grand Junction is, of course the smal town in SW Colorado that became famous when President Obama visited there during the health care reform debates during the summer of 2009, and here’s what he said:
“Hello, Grand Junction! It’s great to be back in Southwest Colorado. Here in Grand Junction, you know that lowering costs is possible if you put in place smarter incentives; if you think about how to treat people, not just illnesses. That’s what the medical community in this city did; now you are getting better results while wasting less money.”
So, Grand Junction, a town of 58,000 people located in SE Colorado, where there are virtually no blacks and fewer Native Americans but where family practice rules, is supposed to be the model for the nation. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at PHYSICIANS and HEALTH CARE REFORM Commentaries and Controversies*
November 10th, 2010 by AndrewSchorr in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Andrew Schorr, Cancer of the Blood Cells, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, CLL, Empowered Patients, Helping Others, Hematology, Inspiring Others, Jill Clayburgh, Oncology, Patient Empowerment, Patient Power, Patient Privacy, Patient Responsibility, Responsibility Of Survivorship, Responsibility To Others, Sharing Your Health Issues
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This past weekend Oscar-nominated Hollywood and Broadway actress Jill Clayburgh died at age 66. The cause was chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which she had been fighting, privately, for 21 years.
As you may recall, I, too, have CLL and I was diagnosed at the same age, 45. For me, I am 16 and a half years into that “battle” although, fortunately, I have been feeling very good in the ten years since I received treatment as part of a breakthrough clinical trial. While I have no symptoms and take no medicine I do not consider myself cured.
So when someone like Ms. Clayburgh dies of CLL after 21 years, I can’t help but wonder if the disease will shorten my life too, even if I feel good now. That brings up the question of what do we do with the time we have when we know we have had a serious diagnosis and the clock may be ticking for us — or not? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*
November 10th, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Barbara Ficarra, Clinical Empathy, Doctor-Patient Communication, Dr. Jodi Halpern, Empathy, Empowered Patients, Family Medicine, Health In 30, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Patient Care, Patient Empowerment, Patient Engagement, Patient-Physician Relationship, Personalized Medicine, Primary Care, Quality Patient Care, The Decision Tree, Thomas Goetz
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In my recent post on KevinMD, “Deeply Connect and Engage Your Patients With Empathy,” I write about how empathy is essential to help empower our patients: “It is with empathy that we can engage and empower our patients.”
Doctors and nurses are leaders in health care.
Being a great leader means having a clear vision, mission or goal. It means being committed, and knowing how to listen and communicate, but it involves much more. It’s about having heart, empathy, and an uplifting spirit.
I value and respect a well written post by Thomas Goetz, author of The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine recently published on KevinMD, “How can doctors successfully engage their patients?” Goetz writes about “Five things they should seek to give every patient, strategies to tap the most underutilized resource in medicine, their patient,” however I feel the most critical ingredient is missing, empathy.
Empathy
It is with empathy that we can engage and empower our patients. With empathy and heart we can help our patients feel good, valued and respected. Empathy allows us to engage and empower our patients to take charge of their health and well-being. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
November 9th, 2010 by Lucy Hornstein, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: America's Health Insurance Plans, Big Health Insurers, Dr. Lucy Hornstein, Election 2010, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Government-run Healthcare, Healthcare Insurance Reform, Healthcare Politics, Keep Your Health Insurance, Meaningful Healthcare At Reasonable Cost, Musings of a Dinosaur, Primary Care, U.S. Healthcare System
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Forgive me for being a little late to the healthcare insurance reform discussion. I was busy, y’know, providing actual healthcare to sick people while that whole rigamarole was going on. But that one sentence, uttered over and over by everyone from the President on down, always stuck in my craw. At long last, I’m finally able to properly articulate my response.
Trying to pass sweeping health insurance reform legislation while telling people that, of course, they “can keep their current plans if they want” is like legislating tough new laws against wifebeating and assuring women that, of course, they can stay with their husbands if they like.
No one tries to force victims of domestic violence to leave their abusers, but they do try to help them understand that they have options, and that they don’t deserve to be treated so poorly. I firmly believe that people who like their current insurance plans probably have several things in common. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Dinosaur*
November 9th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: ACP Internist, American College Of Physicians, Anti-Viral Medication, Antibodies, Common Cold, Gastroenteritis, Gastroenterology, Infectious Disease, Last Line of Defense Against Infection, Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Reducing Infection, Ryan DuBosar, TRIM21, U.K., United Kingdom, Viral Diseases, Viruses, Winter Vomiting
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Antibodies can fight viruses from within infected cells, reported researchers who now believe that treatments could be applied to viral diseases like the common cold, “winter vomiting,” and gastroenteritis.
Previously, scientists thought that antibodies could only reduce infection by attacking viruses outside cells and by blocking their entry into cells. Once inside the cell, the body’s only defense was to destroy the cell. But protection mediated by antibodies doesn’t end at the cell membrane. It continues inside the cell to provide a last line of defense against infection.
Researchers at the U.K.’s Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology showed that cells possess a cytosolic IgG receptor, tripartite motif-containing 21 (TRIM21), which binds to antibodies with a higher affinity than any other IgG receptor in the human body. Antibodies remain attached when viruses enter healthy cells. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
