April 19th, 2010 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
Tags: Abnormal Test Results, Communication Skills, Doctor-Employees, Doctor-Patient Communication, Failure To Inform, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Hospital-Owned Practice, Medical Speciality, Medication Errors, Physician Practices, Primary Care, Private Practice Medicine, Private Practitioners
No Comments »
Hospitals today are aggressively buying physician practices in their local markets. Why? Hospitals want to solidify their referral base for inpatient and outpatient referrals as well as increase their negotiating power with insurance companies.
Over 50% of physician practices are now owned by hospitals according to the Medical Group Management Association. As such, many one-time private practitioners are now hospital employees.
Having done physician recruitment in a prior life, I know that before buying a practice that hospitals look at a variety of things including the practice’s patient volume, number of hospital referrals, estimates of patient turnover, and so on. One of the things we did not consider years ago in evaluating and buying a physician practice was the quality of the physician’s patient communication skills and supporting practices. I doubt that things have changed much since. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
April 19th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Research
Tags: Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, Arnold Reinhold, Atopic Dermatitis, Breast Milk, Breastfeeding Guidelines, Childhood Diseases, Childhood Obesity, Entercolitis, Exclusive Breastfeeding, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Infant Deaths, Infant Morbidity and Mortality, Maternal Diseases, Melissa Bartick, Middle Ear Infection, New Mothers, Non-compliance, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Otitis Media, Pediatrics, Poor Compliance, Premature Death, Primary Care, Respiratory Tract Infections, sids, sudden infant death syndrome
2 Comments »
Poor compliance with breastfeeding recommendations costs the nation at least $13 billion each year, with nearly all of the cost related to infant morbidity and mortality, according to a comprehensive economic analysis.
If 90% of new mothers followed guidelines for six months of exclusive breastfeeding for their children, an estimated 911 deaths would be prevented annually, said authors Melissa Bartick, MD, MSc, of Harvard Medical School, and Arnold Reinhold, MBA, of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, both in Boston. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
April 18th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Cardiology, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, DTI, Heart Muscle Fiber, Heart Strings, Imaging Studies, Left Ventricle, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Medical Imaging, MRI, Myocardium, Radiology, University of Oxford
No Comments »
Thanks to the wonders of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), amazing images of “heart strings” — the muscle fiber orientation of the left ventricle of the heart — have been obtained. According to the University of Oxford:
The image was produced using a branch of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The technique tracks the diffusion of water throughout the myocardium (the heart’s muscular wall comprising interconnected sheets of muscle cells called myocytes). Due to the way the myocytes are organized, the movement of water is restricted, so tracking the location of water molecules can reveal valuable information about the structure of the heart in a non-invasive way.
Nice.
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
April 17th, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Research
Tags: Archives of Internal Medicine, BMI, Body Mass Index, CDC, Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, DASH diet, Diet and Exercise, Dietary Studies, Dietetics, Dietitian, Eating Habits, Food and Nutrition, High Blood Pressure, Hypertension, Low-Salt Diet, Obese, Obesity, Saturated Fat, Sodium, Teresa Fung
1 Comment »
Do a search on the Internet for “high blood pressure” or “hypertension” and you’ll find that nearly every health website recommends the DASH diet to control blood pressure. It makes some sense: If sodium and saturated fat cause high blood pressure, then removing them from your diet should make it come back down.
But changing your eating habits is easier said than done. It’s easy to say you want to cut down on fat and sodium, but it’s hard to resist a hot slice of Chicago-style pizza piled high with sausage and cheese. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
April 17th, 2010 by David H. Gorski, M.D., Ph.D. in Announcements, Better Health Network, Health Policy, Medblogger Shout Outs, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Academic Medical Centers, CAM, Canada, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, Diet and Exercise, Dietary Studies, Homeopathy, Medical Academia, Medical Schools, Medical Students, Meditation, NCCAM, NECSS, Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism, Quackademic Medicine, Reiki, SBM, Science Based Medicine, Yoga
No Comments »
One advantage of having a blog is that I can sometimes tap into the knowledge of my readers to help me out.
As many readers know, a few of the SBM bloggers (myself included) will be appearing at the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS) today (Saturday, April 17). Since the topic of our panel discussion is going to be the infiltration of quackademic medicine into medical academia, I thought that now would be a very good time for me to update my list of medical schools and academic medical centers in the U.S. and Canada that have embraced (or at least decided to tolerate) quackademic medicine in their midst. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
