December 10th, 2011 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Health Policy, Opinion
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How do companies curb health care costs?
Do healthier employees lead to increased productivity? Several progressive companies believe so and have committed to providing employees with programs to help engage them in a healthier lifestyle.
As part of the incentives to lead a healthier lifestyle some employers have instituted a penalty and reward system tied to the companies’ benefits. For example, smokers may incur a significant surcharge to the cost of their health insurance plan while nonsmokers could see a reduction in cost.
According to an article in The New York Times, a growing numbers of companies including Home Depot, PepsiCo, Safeway, Lowe’s and General Mills are seeking higher premiums from some workers who smoke, similar to Wal-Mart’s addition of a $2,000-a-year surcharge for some smokers.
Escalating health care costs Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
December 1st, 2011 by MuinKhouryMDPhD in Opinion, Research
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In June 2011, the CDC Office of Public Health Genomics launched a community wide consultation process to develop priorities for the field of public health genomics in the next 5 years. This process was initiated as part of strategic visioning for integrating the emerging tools of genomics into practice and assuring the success of these new tools in improving population health. The process was conducted at a time of a widening gap between the rapid scientific advances in genomics and their impact on improving population health. The University of Michigan Center for Public Health and Community Genomics and Genetic Alliance spearheaded an effort to seek, collate and synthesize advice and recommendations from numerous stakeholders and constituents. The effort culminated in a workshop conducted on September 14, 2011 in Bethesda, Maryland. The results of the consultation, discussions and deliberations are summarized in a report published by the University of Michigan. Highlights of the recommendations are summarized here but readers should consult the full report. Some of the recommendations include:
To improve public health genomics education: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Genomics and Health Impact Blog*
November 23rd, 2011 by Berci in Opinion
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For the last 4 years, I’ve been teaching medical and public health students about the use of social media and generally digital technologies in medicine and healthcare and I got a good picture of what kind of medical professionals they would become soon. They represent the new generation of physicians.
Here are my points and observations:
- They are technophile. I remember the time when there was no internet, I remember the first website I first saw online. They were born into the technology and internet-based world. For them, websites, Facebook, Twitter and blogs represent the basics. They love gadgets and devices.
- They are fast. They use smartphones, read news online, follow blogs and know what RSS is, they are familiar with multi-tasking. They are much faster than the previous generations, therefore they need different tools and solutions in their work.
- But they use the technology for Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
November 10th, 2011 by KennyLinMD in Health Policy, Opinion
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A couple of years ago, I served for several weeks on a grand jury for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Mine was designated a RIP (Rapid Indictment Protocol) jury, assigned to efficiently hand down indictments for small drug-related offenses. These cases usually involved undercover officers posing as customers making purchases from street dealers, or uniformed police stopping suspicious vehicles and searching them for drugs. Although rarely we heard testimony about defendants caught with thousands of dollars of contraband, the vast majority of offenses were possession of small amounts of marijuana, heroin, or cocaine for “personal use.” Many of the latter defendants had multiple such offenses, which had resulted in probation, “stay away” orders (court orders to avoid certain neighborhoods where drugs were highly trafficked), or brief stints in jail. Few, if any, had received medical treatment for their addictions.
After a few weeks of hearing these cases, my fellow jurors and I grew increasingly frustrated with this state of affairs. We felt like a cog in a bureaucratic machine, fulfilling a required service but making little difference in anyone’s lives. A young man or woman caught using drugs would inevitably return to the street, violate the terms of his or her probation or “stay away” order, and be dragged before our grand jury again for a new indictment. We openly challenged the assistant district’s attorneys about the futility of the process. They would just shrug their shoulders and tell us Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Common Sense Family Doctor*
November 5th, 2011 by MuinKhouryMDPhD in Opinion, Research
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The popular proverbial saying “you cannot have your cake and eat it too” implies that one cannot consume something and preserve it at the same time–in other words, we cannot have it both ways. Well, for once, maybe we can have our cake–our whole genome sequence (WGS)–and eat it too. I believe having our WGS and consuming it in small bite sizes over a lifetime may be the only way to integrate it into medicine and public health.
Rapid advances in genomic sequencing technologies are making the possibility of reliable and affordable whole genome sequencing (WGS) a reality in the next few years. We all carry about 6 billion base pairs of DNA in each of our cells, with 5-10 million inherited variants that are different among us. This genetic variation along with environmental influences provides a blueprint for health throughout the life span, and is related to virtually every disease of public health significance. There is definite interest among the public and scientists about the personal utility of this information. In a recent survey by Nature, attitudes towards genome sequencing were explored among a sample dominated by scientists and professionals from medicine and public health. Although only 18.2% of respondents had had their genome sequenced or analyzed, 2/3 of those who had not reported they would take the opportunity should it arise. Curiosity was reported as the main single factor influencing respondents.
Can this information be useful today in improving medical care and preventing disease? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Genomics and Health Impact Blog*
