October 11th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
Tags: Aaron Carroll, GDP, General Medicine, Global Healthcare Spending, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Politics, Healthcare reform, Healthcare Spending In The U.S., Healthcare Spending Worldwide, Movin' Meat, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Physicians' Salaries, PPACA, Shadowfax, The Incidental Economist, U.S. Healthcare System
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Aaron Carroll over at The Incidental Economist has been running an excellent series on healthcare spending in the U.S. and how much more we spend than the rest of the world on a per capita basis, as a percentage of GDP, and by category. It’s an excellent series and I wholly recommend it. Summary graph:
Hint: the U.S. is the lavender-ish line on top. As he says, is there anything about this graph that isn’t concerning? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
October 11th, 2010 by DavidHarlow in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Chilmark Research, David Harlow, Goodfellas, Google Health, HealthBlawg, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Quality, Healthcare Status, Healthcare Wired, John Moore, mHealth, Microsoft HealthVault, Mobile Health, Mobile Health Monitoring Devices, Mobile Health Reminder Services, Price, PWC
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Last month, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) issued a report, Healthcare Unwired, examining the market for mobile health monitoring devices, reminder services, etc. among both healthcare providers and the general public. One of the big take-away points seems to be that 40% of the general public would be willing to pay for mobile health (or “mHealth”) devices or services ranging from reminders to data uploads — and the reaction by insiders is either joy (40% is good) or dismay (40% is not enough).
PwC estimated the mHealth market to be worth somewhere between $7.7 billion and $43 billion per year, based on consumers’ expressed willingness to pay. Deloitte recently issued a report on mPHRs, as well — and there is tremendous interest in this space, as discussed in John Moore’s recent post over at Chilmark Research. I agree with John’s wariness with respect to the mHealth hype — there is certainly something happening out there, but significant questions remain: What exactly is going on? Is there reason to be interested in this stuff or is it just something shiny and new? Can mHealth improve healthcare status and/or healthcare quality and/or reduce healthcare costs? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog*
October 10th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: America's Health Insurance Plans, Dr. Davis Liu, General Medicine, Health Insurance, Health Insurance Companies, Health Insurance Coverage, Health Insurance Policies, Health Plans, National Committee for Quality Assurance, NCQA, Personal Health Insurance, Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis
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Unless your doctor is a policy expert, in healthcare administration, a researcher, an author or blogger, I seriously doubt he will be reviewing an important report card that helps you pick the best health insurance plan that keeps you healthy. Published annually by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), this year’s report card ranks 227 health plans across the country on their ability to keep you healthy and well, treat you quickly, and how patients feel about their insurance coverage.
Because unlike banking or airlines where there is not much difference in ATM machines or planes, there is a big difference in whether a health insurance plan helps in keeping its enrollees healthy. Do children get their vaccinations? Do healthy mothers get screened for breast cancer or cervical cancer with mammograms and pap smears respectively? Do kids only get antibiotics appropriately for strep throat and not overtreated and unnecessarily when they have a viral illness or cold? Are adults over 50 screened for colon cancer (something Dr. Oz can relate to). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
October 10th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Humor, Opinion, Research
Tags: ACP Hospitalist, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, CPAP, Disturbing Others' Sleep, Dr. John Henning Schumann, Family Medicine, General Medicine, GlassHospital, Good Night's Sleep, Internal Medicine, Lack Of Sleep, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, OSA, Primary Care, Quality of Sleep, Ryan DuBosar, Sleep Deprived, Sleep Disturbance, Sleep Medicine, Sleep Remedy, Sleep Studies, Snoring, University of Chicago
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Guest post by Dr. John Henning Schumann
I’m not a drum banger for the latest “epidemics” to come to media attention, whether it’s H1N1, Vitamin D, or getting your kids CAT-scanned routinely.
But there comes a time in every blogger’s life when he must comment on something that does bubble up into consciousness a tad, shall we say, often.
I’m talking here about an epidemic that we are learning more about each passing day. Something that you or someone you know or sleep with may be diagnosed with, and ultimately treated for (an interesting national problem in its own right): Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
What is it, you ask? A new national scourge? Stop the presses! Can I catch it? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
October 8th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Medblogger Shout Outs, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: 33 Charts, Breaking Oncology News, Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment, Chemotherapy, Childhood Cancers, Children's Health, Children's Hospital Blogs, Children's Oncology Group, Cinchcast, COG, CureSearch, Dr. Bryan Vartabedian, Dr. Katherine Matthay, Facebook, Healthcare Social Media Camp, Hematology, Medical Blogosphere, NEJM, Neuroblastoma, New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Pediatric Medicine, Pediatric Oncology, Press Release, Social Media In Medicine, Twitter, UCSF, University of California-San Francisco
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I [recently] received a press release from a friend in the Bay Area. Investigators at UCSF have published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that less chemotherapy can be effective at treating some childhood cancers.
The paper was the result of an eight-year clinical study in children with neuroblastoma. In this particular population, researchers were able to reduce chemotherapy exposure by 40 percent while maintaining a 90 percent survival rate. You can read about it here.
The press release sparked a brief email exchange between me and my friend: Who might be interested in writing about this study and is there any way to get it to spread? What would make it sticky in the eyes of the public?
Here are a few ideas:
Figure out who cares. Sure it’s niche news, but there are people who would think this is pretty darn important. Think organizations centered on parents of children with cancer, adult survivors of childhood cancer, pediatric hematology-oncology physicians, pediatricians and allied professionals in pediatric medicine like nurse practitioners and hematology-oncology nurses. Networks form around these groups. Find them and seed them.
Make a video. Offer powerful, visual content beyond a press release. A four-minute clip with the principal investigator, Dr. Matthay, would be simple and offer dimension to what is now something restricted to print. The Mayo Clinic has done this really well. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
