Comparative effectiveness research in Newsweek, and parallels between real-life and NBC’s ‘ER’ in Variety

You can find some of my comments in recent magazine articles.

First, Newsweek’s Sharon Begley talks comparative effectiveness research and mentions that, “a younger generation of doctors, perhaps more comfortable with science and clinical studies, is embracing CER. Dr. Kevin Pho, who practices internal medicine in Nashua, N.H., says that at least once a day he has a patient for whom there are numerous treatment options””the new diabetes drug or an old one? ‘An unbiased source of data, not drug companies, could really help us in primary care,’ he says. ‘There have to be allowances for individual differences, but you need standards.’”

Next, I show up in Variety of all places, in a piece on NBC’s long-running drama, ER. On the set, producers talked about how the crowding in real-life ERs were causing them to become places where people increasingly received primary care. Indeed, “Dr. Kevin Pho referred to a ‘nationwide crisis of emergency department overcrowding,’ wasting more than $18 billion annually on unnecessary ER visits. Pho further called the outlook for progress ‘dismal.’”

Update:
Orac, over at his blog Respectful Insolence, has a more negative take of the Begley piece.

Related posts:

1. USA Today op-ed: Will comparative effectiveness research help patients?
2. We need comparative effectiveness research, or, I agree with Paul Krugman for the first time ever
3. Do doctors already have a source of comparative effectiveness research?
4. Will comparative effectiveness research really save money?
5. Comparative effectiveness is dealt a blow in the UK
6. Will patients accept comparative effectiveness?
7. EHRs and real life

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Tagged as: diabetes, emergency, patient, primary care