Over the last four weeks I have written about new technologies and their coming impact on medical care. We generally think of new technologies (and new, branded drugs) as pushing up the cost of healthcare. There is truth to this contention, of course, but often the real problem from a cost perspective is inappropriate use. And this happens all to often in medical practice today because the physician does not ...
Read more...
“To Err Is Human” is the title of the now famous book from the Institute of Medicine on patient safety published about a decade ago. From it we learned that anywhere from 44,000 to 98,000 individuals die each year of preventable medical errors (and other sources suggest the number might even be much higher). In this continuing series of posts on disruptive and transformational technologies, there are some that ...
Read more...
Robotics has the potential to revolutionize the delivery of healthcare. It can help extend the delivery of information, expertise and clinical care across time and geographical space barriers. Robotics offers the opportunity to enhance quality of care through extension of clinical expertise and leveraging of integrated datasets and best practices. It can be used across the continuum--from the hospital setting (e.g. OR, ER, etc.) into primary care offices and even ...
Read more...
Distance medicine technologies can be disruptive in the way physicians and other care givers interact with patients and with each other and can fundamentally change how patients are able to interact with the entire health care system. This is of increasing relevance as medicine gravitates toward chronic illnesses where diagnosis and treatment are complex and require multi-specialist teams. It also has potential to alleviate some of the effects of the ...
Read more...
Incredible innovative and entrepreneurial skills have led to many new techniques and technologies in medicine. Some are both disruptive of the old way of doing things. Others are transformational. Over the next few weeks I will review some of those that I believe are among the most disruptive and transformational. Medical simulation is such an advance. It is dramatically transforming the way medicine, especially medical procedures, are taught and it ...
Read more...
Our children (and grandchildren) are the future and we are responsible for their growth and development. As responsible parties, we are clearly failing.
That is my interpretation of the report issued a few days ago by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on seven criteria known to the associate with ideal cardiovascular health as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examinination Survey. They are defined, briefly, as 1) a diet ...
Read more...
Radiation therapy has advanced dramatically in the past few decades and the rate of change is increasing rapidly. Innovations as a result of engineering and computer advances along with conceptual advances are making a dramatic difference.
Some of the new technologies include improved computer assisted treatment planning (smarter and faster and has more capability like auto-contouring, smart segmentation and improved algorithms) , continuous imaging guidance (fluoroscopic, stereoscopic, and cone beam CT), ...
Read more...
I see five major themes in cancer care advances: new approaches to screening and diagnosis, better understanding of the role of viruses as causative agents, targeted therapies, new technologies and improved approaches to ensuring better quality of life.
Screening for the most common major cancers has been straight forward for years – women should get an annual mammogram and Pap smear, men should get a PSA test annually, both should get ...
Read more...
Not many years ago it was assumed that most cancers were not caused by viruses. Today it is clear that many are and the list is growing. Head and neck cancers are either caused by the environment (especially tobacco) or by the human papilloma virus, the same virus that causes cervical cancer and some genital warts.
The incidence of HPV-related head and neck cancer has been rising rapidly in the past ...
Read more...
The revolution in medicine brought about by greater understanding of genomics has led to a number of targeted therapies in cancer care.
The basic concept is to first find the genomic change or mutation that leads to a disease, then learn its gene product and then develop a drug that inhibits the action of the aberrant gene product. The first was imatinib (Gleevec) for chromic myelocytic leukemia (CML.) When a ...
Read more...
"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
Learn More...
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