November 29th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Annals of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Ivan Oransky, Evidence-Based Health Reporting, Gary Schwitzer, Health Journalism, HealthNewsReview.org, Medical Journalists, Medical Journals, Medical Peers' Professional Opinions, Medical Reporting, Peer Review System, Peer Reviewers, Peer-Reviewed Journals, Peer-Reviewed Publications, Retraction Watch, Science Journalists
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Interesting post by the Retraction Watch blog, pointing to an interesting paper published last week in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. An excerpt from the blog post:
Over 14 years, 84 editors at the journal rated close to 15,000 reviews by about 1,500 reviewers. Highlights of their findings:
…92% of peer reviewers deteriorated during 14 years of study in the quality and usefulness of their reviews (as judged by editors at the time of decision), at rates unrelated to the length of their service (but moderately correlated with their mean quality score, with better-than average reviewers decreasing at about half the rate of those below average). Only 8% improved, and those by very small amount.
How bad did they get? The reviewers were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 in which a change of 0.5 (10%) had been earlier shown to be “clinically” important to an editor. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
November 29th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Research
Tags: ACP Internist, American College Of Physicians, Diabetes, Diabetes-Related Care, Drive Down The Cost of Healthcare, Endocrinology, Healthcare Cost Curve, Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Exchange Subsidies, medicaid, Medicare, New Primary Care Models, Patient Incentives, Patient-Centered Medical Home, Prediabetes, Prediabetes Screening, Preventive Health, Preventive Medicine, Public Awareness, Public Education, Ryan DuBosar, The Cost of Diabetes, U.S. Healthcare Spending, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, UnitedHealth Group, USPSTF
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By 2020, an estimated 15 percent of adults will have diabetes and 37 percent will have prediabetes, a total of 39 million people, compared with rates of 12 percent and 28 percent today, respectively.
Today, more than 90 percent of people with prediabetes, and about a quarter of people with diabetes, are unaware of it, according to a report from UnitedHealth Group, the provider of insurance and other health care services.
The health savings alone of preventing diabetes would bend the cost curve of health care spending in the country. Health spending associated with diabetes and prediabetes is about $194 billion this year, or 7 percent of U.S. health spending, the report said. That cost is projected to rise to $500 billion by 2020, or a total of almost $3.4 trillion on diabetes-related care.
Engaging the at-risk population could save up to $250 billion, or 7.5 percent of estimated spending on diabetes and prediabetes, in the next decade. Of that money, $144 billion, or about 58 percent, would come from savings in Medicare, Medicaid and health care exchange subsidies. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
November 29th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Denied Coverage, Dr. Liam Yore, Election 2010, Everyone Must Buy Health Insurance, Healthcare Insurers, Healthcare Law, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Politics, Healthcare reform, Kaiser Family Foundation, McClatchy-Marist Poll, Movin' Meat, Pre-Existing Conditions, Public Support, Repeal or Replace, Shadowfax
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GOP hardliners soon to be in control of the House have made repeal of the detested healthcare reform law a cornerstone of their agenda, despite the impossibility of actually being able to repeal it, politically, at least until an election or two has passed, and despite the fact that their ascent to power had more to do with the terrible economy and high unemployment than any mandate to repeal the law.
It seems that, finally, there may be movement towards increased public support for the law. A new McClatchy poll shows a majority of Americans now in favor of the law:
A majority of Americans want the Congress to keep the new health care law or actually expand it, despite Republican claims that they have a mandate from the people to kill it, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.
The post-election survey showed that 51 percent of registered voters want to keep the law or change it to do more, while 44 percent want to change it to do less or repeal it altogether.
Driving support for the law: Voters by margins of 2-1 or greater want to keep some of its best-known benefits, such as barring insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. One thing they don’t like: the mandate that everyone must buy insurance.
Of course, it is the mandate that makes the whole thing hang together. And it’s hardly news that people like the individual provisions and protections found within the law. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
November 29th, 2010 by Glenn Laffel, M.D., Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Biotechnology, Boehners, Chronic Diseases, Dr. Glenn Laffel, Election 2010, Grant Funding, Health Reform Law, Healthcare Reform Politics, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Life Sciences, National Institutes of Health, NIH, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pelosis, Pizaazz, PPACA, Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Program, Research Grant, Tax Credits, Underfunded, Washington Post
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After assuming control of the House in the mid-term elections, Republicans vowed to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act, the health reform law signed by the “Big O” last March. Thank heavens, therefore, that the Boehners were too busy congratulating themselves to even notice those federal helicopters dumping $1 billion in cash on some needy biotech companies just as the election results were being tallied.
Yep, it happened. Federal disbursements in the form of grants and tax credits were made last week, as required by a provision in the reform law known as the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Program. According to the terms of this program, biotech and life sciences companies with less than 250 employees could apply for federal funds to cover research costs they had incurred in the last two years, so long as the research focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic diseases. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Pizaazz*
November 27th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: AMA, American Medical Association, Archives of Internal Medicine, Choosing A Good Doctor On The Internet, Doctor Rating Sites, Doctor Ratings, Doctor Reviews on the Web, Doctors' Ratings Accountability, Dr. Kevin Pho, Dr. Nancy Nielsen, Finding A Doctor Online, Going Online To Look For A Doctor, Journal of General Internal Medicine, KevinMD, Online Doctor Reviews, Online Patient Reviews Of Doctors, Online Physicians Ratings, Patient-Physician Communication, Searching Your Doctor's Name Online, Tara Lagu, USA Today
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The following op-ed was published on October 27th, 2010 in USA Today:
When I ask new patients how they found me, frequently they say on the Internet through search engines such as Google.
Out of curiosity, I recently Googled myself. Numerous ads appeared, promising readers a “detailed background report” or a “profile” of me. Among the search results was information about my practice, whether I was board certified, had any lawsuits against me, and reviews from online doctor rating sites. Thankfully, most were favorable, but some were not.
Can patients reliably choose a good doctor online?
People already choose restaurants, movies, and their college professors based on what they read on the Internet, so it’s inevitable that many will research their doctors on the Web as well. But there are some good reasons consumers should be wary of the information they find online about doctors.
Random information?
An Archives of Internal Medicine study in September found that most publicly available information on individual physicians — such as disciplinary actions, the number of malpractice payments, or years of experience — had little correlation with whether they adhered to the recommended medical guidelines. In other words, there’s no easy way to research how well a doctor manages conditions such as heart disease or diabetes. That kind of relevant performance data are hidden from the public. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
