September 9th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, News, Research
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It’s only a matter of time before female physicians outnumber men, say medical school heads who are seeing more women in their programs. Although women have broken the gender barrier in medicine, they may want to keep going into nursing, because nurse practitioner salaries grew faster than primary care physicians’ pay — nearly 5 percent compared to nearly 3 percent.
Physicians can take some comfort that their average pay is more — $191,000 compared to more than $85,000 — unless they’re women, who among all the life sciences average $13,000 less than their male counterparts in comparable positions and with similar experience. (WCSC TV, Fierce Practice Management, Academic Medicine)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
September 9th, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
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If you’re into health care consumerism, you’ll enjoy my guest blog post at CDHC Solutions magazine. CDHC Solutions focuses on consumer-driven health plans. Consumer-driven plans are a form of “high deductible” health coverage that is more popular than ever. For whatever you want to say about these plans, one thing is clear: They don’t solve the fundamental problem of patients not having enough time with their doctors.
Here’s a taste of what I wrote:
Researchers have been trying to pinpoint the impact of this time starvation on the quality of medical care, and they’re finding disturbing results. A recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that because of time pressures and related factors, doctors deliver “error-free” care as rarely as 22 percent of the time. The researchers called this a “failure to individualize care,” which is a nice way of saying the doctors just weren’t paying enough attention to the needs of their patients.
Read the whole blog post here.
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
September 8th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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There’s a conversation brewing over use of the term “e-patient.” The online health revolution is over, it’s been suggested. Web use, after all, has become so widely adopted that the term “e-patient” may have more historical meaning.
Dropping the “e” might indicate that we’ve arrived. I’m not so sure. Perhaps the revolution we thought was going on never entirely took off. Or maybe it’s all about how you define the revolution.
Here’s what I see: Day in and day out, over weeks and months, hundreds of patients visit my clinic. I talk to them candidly about the tools they use and how technology and community is changing how they see their problems. I do the same with friends and family members. And like it or not, they’re a lot closer to “e-Patient 1.0” than many of us would like to think. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
September 7th, 2010 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
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A neighbor of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer about the same time my wife was being treated for lung cancer. I saw my neighbor the other day for the first time in several years. I asked her how she was doing. She said great. In turn I asked her how her PET/CT exam looked. PET/CT scans are often done to make sure that one’s cancer hasn’t spread. My wife gets one every year.
My neighbor told me her doctor never told her she needed one, that mammograms would suffice. She went on to say a friend had also recently asked her if she had a PET/CT as well. “Maybe I should ask my doctor,” she told me. That was the same response she gave me the last time I raised the subject two years earlier: “I should ask my doctor.”
So Why Don’t People Ask More Questions?
My neighbor is not alone when it comes to asking their doctor questions. In an earlier post, I cited research which found that patients ask their doctor an average of two important questions during the office visit. According to researchers, there are five reasons why people don’t ask their doctor questions. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
September 7th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion
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A recent piece in The New York Times wondered if the few patients who can afford to pay for additional attention and access to their primary care doctors in a concierge medicine or boutique medicine practice might be ethical since the extra dollars are used to support the traditional primary care practice that the vast majority of patients currently receive.
Questions you might ask are:
– What is a concierge medicine or boutique medicine practice?
– Is it worth the money?
– Is the care better quality?
– Is it possible to get similar access and care by doctors not in a concierge or boutique medicine practice?
When you think of a concierge, you think about a fancy hotel staff person who answers questions and speaks various languages, books reservations to restaurants, events, and tours (even sold-out attractions) — right? The hotel concierge is your insider, someone who possesses intimate knowledge of the city and recommends must-see sites like a true local. You are personally cared for and pampered. Imagine, then, your physician providing the same attentive service. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
