I remember when one of my patients with coronary artery disease suggested that he be given a course of an antibiotic to lower his future risk of a heart attack. The patient quoted literature that pointed to a possible infectious link to atherosclerosis. He also was aware of the theory that aspirin’s benefit had less to do with blood thinning than reducing underlying inflammation.
Fast forward to the Economist ...
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If you get sick, health insurance should cover all the “stuff” necessary to make you better, right?
While that sounds good in principle, Uncle Sam has made it a lot more complicated than that. As we continue to struggle with health reform, this New England Journal article on “Medicare’s Enduring Struggle to Define Reasonable and Necessary Care” is very timely.
According to Drs. Neumann and Chambers, Medicare has always covered medical services that ...
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If you're a fan of star surgeon overachiever Atul Gawande, then reading his New Yorker article "Big Med" is a must. The rest of us skeptics should still use the article to signal our health care adroitness by knowingly referring to the "Cheesecake Factory" in our policy medical meetings, conferences, PowerPoints and bloggery.
What he wrote
Dr. Gawande uses the successful restaurant chain to extract lessons and draw health system parallels, ultimately ...
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Years ago, if you were elderly, had diabetes, high blood pressure, low back pain, needed a yearly flu shot and came to see this electronic health record-enabled physician (now with the nom de plume "Disease Management Care Blog"), you would have had your diabetes, high blood pressure and low back pain reassessed, you would have been given a flu shot and, for good measure, the DMCB would have tossed in a discussion ...
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In this enlightened era of evidence-based medicine, you'd think that the progressive academics, viziers, and mandarins who are cluttering the policy making commentariat would pay more attention to what was tried before. That should be doubly true if those lessons come from that health care nirvana called Europe, where enlightened central bureaucracies wisely allocate health care for its caffè sipping, plaza strolling and beret adorned citizenry.
Case in point is ...
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The Disease Management Care Blog attended a professional hockey game recently and it must say it was quite the spectacle.
While the athleticism on the ice was quite remarkable, the real wonderment involved the hometown fans. Questionable referee calls prompted thousands of all ages to chant phrases that the DMCB has not recently read in any medical journals, while the willingness of grown men to display, in stereo fashion, obscene gestures ...
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The Disease Management Care Blog would like to introduce you to two alternate realities.
In the first reality, physicians own the bricks and the equipment that make up their clinics. They hire and fire their office staff members. They don't mind fee-for-service payment systems, because the harder they work, the greater the reward.
"Pay-for-performance" generally results in greater practice income because they're ...
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Oh, those Millennials.
Also called "Generation Y," this is the American demographic group born during and after the '70s, that was vicariously raised by "learning is fun" Sesame Street and became accustomed to getting awarded for any effort. They don't know about bomb shelters, walking to school, tape decks or having to get up to change a TV channel. Well, they're now entering the workplace and their informality, disregard for rank, ...
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The Disease Management Care Blog received this posting from an experienced nurse with a background in clinical and administrative medicine.
We’ve all seen them. Those vacuous workplace posters exhorting teamwork, creativity and other forms of inspiration and accomplishment. A version has begun to creep into our nation’s health care facilities. reminding everyone of the need for privacy, how infections can be spread and the importance of patient service. And if my ...
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Somewhere in the Obama Administration, there is an elitist central cabal that operates with the support of the highest organs of our central government. It conspires in windowless basement rooms to plot the gun control, mass vaccinations and the nationalization of key U.S. economic sectors like automobile and chardonnay manufacturing.
Healthcare, however, is its maximum target. Much like pieces on a chess board, and with the support of renegade organizations like ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
Dear lawmakers: This is what it’s like to be a doctor today
Matthew Moeller, MD | PhysicianA gun owner responds to Sandy Hook
Edwin Leap, MD | PhysicianIs Chris Christie too obese to run for president?
Jeffrey Parks, MD | PhysicianIf I’m wrong about guns, can you please explain why?
Claire McCarthy, MD | PhysicianPrimary care doctors may no longer be needed
Doug Olson, MD | PhysicianWalgreens moves into primary care, and it’s our own damn fault
Kevin Pho, MD | Kevin's Take