Robert Pearl is a plastic surgeon and author of Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors and Patients. He can be reached on Twitter @RobertPearlMD.
Imagine an institution where the occupants are routinely left immobile, deprived of sleep and fed a diet that is tasteless and nutritionally marginal. Imagine further that they experience the indignity of losing any semblance of privacy and get stuck multiple times a day with needles.
Sounds like a brutal prison, right? Yet the same description could apply to a typical U.S. hospital.
As …
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has changed Medicare for the better, and produced higher quality of care for patients. But whether the new shifts in Medicare policy will lower the total cost of health care, remains unclear. And that could present the program with a major problem in the future.
For the first 40 years of Medicare, most enrollees opted for the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program. The main reason for doing so was …
In October, 2013, at the launch of the Affordable Care Act, I predicted that the health insurance exchanges about to go into effect would grow in popularity and improve the health insurance marketplace, then so imperfect.
Twenty months later, the exchanges are proving effective in reducing the number of uninsured and are beginning to provide the information people need to make an informed selection about which plan is best …
The country is in a state of health care denial. Politicians, pundits, and executives proudly declare America’s medical care is the best in the world. But it isn’t.
The U.S. lags behind other industrialized nations in many important health measures — partly because citizens of certain races, ethnicities and incomes experience poorer versions of U.S. health care than others. The disparities are glaring. The solutions aren’t nearly as obvious — but we’ll explore some …
My father’s sister Mary died from measles when she was six years old. Her death haunted my grandparents for the rest of their lives.
She was one of the thousands who died each year from measles before there was a vaccine to prevent this life-threatening disease.
Her story has always stayed with me — from my days as a child to my years in medical school. And once again I’m reminded of …
Rural hospitals are fighting for their lives. Over the past five years, more than 40 rural facilities have closed their doors due to lack of funding. And because the majority of their funds come fromMedicare and Medicaid — two government programs facing potential cutbacks in 2015 — many rural hospitals may be fighting a losing battle.
Understandably, small-town residents fear hospital closures or downsizing may leave them vulnerable when serious illness strikes. …
Part of the fun of ringing in the New Year is looking back on the achievements of the previous one. And in 2014, there were plenty of health care success stories to celebrate: major medical advances, new technologies and the Affordable Care Act’s unexpectedly good first year.
At the same time, many of the health care changes in 2014 yield potential risks for patients, employers and the nation as a whole. …
Since Ebola was first discovered in 1976, there have been an estimated 16 to 22 recorded outbreaks. In August, the World Health Organization designated the most recent outbreak a global emergency.
Ebola is a deadly infection and the scope of the current epidemic in West Africa is unprecedented. More than 17,000 people have contracted Ebola virus disease (EVD) with more than 6,000 estimated deaths.
Many in the health care field have criticized the response of world …
Everything in health care seems to take a long time.
Remember the last time you tried to schedule a routine doctor’s appointment? More than likely, the receptionist told you the doctor couldn’t see you for another week or even another month.
Perhaps you’ve had the experience of a loved one being hospitalized on a Friday night for a major (but not life-threatening) problem, …
Personalized medicine. Predictive medicine. Targeted medicine. These are just some of the descriptors being applied to “genomic medicine,” a field of medical research generating much fanfare and hope for the future.
Genomics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is the study of all the genes in the human genome – that double-stranded DNA helix that defines who we are and what we’re made of. Building on classical …
In recent months, Silicon Valley has surpassed Hollywood as America’s home for high-profile split ups.
Last month, computer security giant Symantec announced its intentions to split in two. And three days before that, HP announced plans to divide up into parts. In September, eBay announced its intention to spin off PayPal.
With enough twists and turns to fill a screenplay, the tech industry’s recent split-up saga raises a …
I had little doubt the long-rumored Apple Watch would be cool. U2′s live concert and surprise album announcement at Apple’s unveiling a few weeks ago only reaffirmed the company’s ability to launch a product unlike anyone else.
Cool or not isn’t the question. Usefulness is. The iPhone and iPad radically changed how people lived their lives. The first generation of the Apple Watch won’t.
The health application
One way Apple hopes to increase …
Baseball fans like me take great joy in studying the way general managers assemble their rosters.
The variations are fascinating. Some teams focus on pitching strength. Others go for speed or power-hitting. Each approach carries distinct advantages and disadvantages on the field.
That same level of variation and strategic decision-making applies to health plans, as well.
With the health care marketplaces reopening for enrollment on Nov. 15, anyone evaluating their coverage options should take …
Every year, ambitious students from around the world flock to America’s leading business schools, hoping to learn how to create new ventures that can change the world.
On the West Coast, situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business attracts budding entrepreneurs with challenging and practical programs. Courses like “Entrepreneurship: Formation of New Ventures” and “Managing Growing Enterprises” encourage students to develop innovative business models that solve real …
Why do so many seemingly great technologies fail to penetrate the health care system?
I hope the following five answers shed some light on the realities of technology adoption in health care.
1. Many new technologies don’t address the real problem
Tech entrepreneurs often take a backward approach to invention. They start by discovering a nifty technology. Later, they figure out how people can use it.
This technique often teaches entrepreneurs a tough lesson: Technology …
Recently, Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers told me that U.S. health care is at a tipping point. A positive one, he hopes, but the truth is no one knows for sure which direction the system will tip.
At the close of our interview, I asked Chambers what health care topic he’d like me to cover in the future. He asked me to …
Today’s article follows the money trail to expose a different form of bias: the kind that takes place when doctors own their own diagnostic and therapeutic equipment.
For people living with cancer, this kind of bias can have a particularly painful impact.
Radiation therapy brings out medical bias
In the United States, cancer is the second most common cause of death, killing nearly 600,000 Americans …
Today’s article highlights the lingering problem of physicians buying and selling prescription medications to patients — at a profit.
The medical profession has struggled with this controversial practice for more than 150 years.
In George Eliot’s 1874 novel “Middlemarch,” an idealistic young doctor named Tertius Lydgate questions the ethics of fellow physicians who make handsome profits prescribing and dispensing their own remedies to the townsfolk. His medical colleagues shun him for it.
Around …
To improve patient care, doctors rely on research and published information.
According to an American Medical News report, professional journals are still the most popular source of up-to-date medical information among doctors.
These medical publications inform physicians on new drugs and treatments, and they contain peer-reviewed studies that both physicians and patients assume are scientifically accurate.
But all too often, research findings aren’t as scientific as they should be. And some are flat-out biased.
Research studies …
How do you really know if your doctor, surgeon or hospital is good, bad or somewhere in between?
I frequently speak with large audiences, ranging from CEOs to Stanford business school students.
I often start by asking participants to raise their hands if they receive excellent health care. Each time I ask, about 90% of the hands in the room shoot up. But all the hands come down when I ask, “How do …
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