September 20th, 2010 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research
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According to Marshall Becker, PhD, MPH, a one-time professor of mine and prime mover behind the Health Belief Model (HBM), four things must be in place for health behavior change to occur. I am paraphrasing here:
- A person has to know that they have a particular health condition.
- A person has to believe that having said health condition is bad.
- A person must perceive the benefits of behavior change to outweigh the difficulties of behavior change.
- There must be a “call to action” to spark the change.
Absent any one of these steps and the likelihood that behavior change will occur is diminished. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
September 17th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, News, Research
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Patients won’t confront doctors if they think there’s been a mistake. They’ll just find a new doctor, even if there’d been no medical error.
Researchers looked at adult visits to seven primary care practices in North Carolina during 2008. They asked patients about their perceptions of medical mistakes and how did it influence the choice to switch doctors.
Of 1,697 patients, 265 (15.6 percent) reported a mistake had been made, 227 (13.4 percent) reported a wrong diagnosis, 212 (12.5 percent) reported a wrong treatment, and 239 (14.1 percent) reported changing doctors as a result. Results appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
But anecdotes cited by patients as mistakes were often normal diagnostic or therapeutic challenges. A typical scenario might be the patient reported symptoms, the doctor did not correctly diagnose it at first presentation, and a specialist or second physician offered a specific diagnosis. Other scenarios included medication trials or side effects from the prescription. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
September 17th, 2010 by DavedeBronkart in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion
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On Monday, NPR’s Scott Hensley posted:
“Between the Internet and all the data insurance companies and the government collect on doctors, you’d think it would be a lot easier than it used to be to find a good one. But it’s not.”
Sound familiar around here? See his thoughts: “3 Tips For Picking A Slightly Better Doctor.”
(Thanks to friend Cindy Johnson for the tip.)
*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*
September 12th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
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This is a thoughtful “sounding board” piece in the New England Journal of Medicine this week: Lessons from the Mammography Wars.
It is so important to keep this discussion alive. The miscommunication that took place last November of what the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force tried to convey, and the complicity of some news organizations in adding to that confusion, provide lessons from which we simply must learn to do better.
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
September 11th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (our government’s name for healthcare reform) may make our already crowded emergency rooms swarm with more patients.
A new study from Health Affairs shows that more than a quarter of patients who currently visit emergency departments in the U.S. are there for routine care and not an emergency. New complaints like stomach pain, skin rashes, fever, chest pain, cough or for a flare up of a chronic condition should not be treated in emergency rooms. They are best worked up and treated by an internist or family physician, preferably one who knows the patient. So why are these patients waiting for hours and spending up to 10 times as much money for emergency department care? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
