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 …
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.
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.
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.
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 …
Is the practice of medicine more of an art or an applied science?
It’s a debate patients may not even know is taking place. But the way your primary care physician, surgeon or hospital answers this question may determine whether you live or die.
Doctors on the far “art” side of the spectrum maintain that every patient and physician is different. Therefore, they believe there is no one right way to treat …
The U.S. spends nearly $3 trillion a year on health care, significantly more than any other nation.
In fact, America’s annual health care spending is greater than the total gross domestic product (GDP) of every other country except China, Germany and Japan.
Yet our measurable health outcomes — from infant mortality to life expectancy — aren’t any better than nations spending much less.
I’ve written about this paradox before, pointing to a few …
At the end of my interview with Chip Heath, co-author of the New York Times bestsellers “Made to Stick” and “Decisive,” I asked him what topic he’d like me to cover in the future.
“I’m impressed by the culture you’ve created at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California,” he said. “You’ve generated quarter-to-quarter change that I think would have taken three years elsewhere. I don’t think most organizations know how to do that. …
It’s a leading cause of death and disability in the U.S., leading to hundreds of thousands of preventable heart attacks, strokes and failed kidneys each year. About one-third of all American adults have it, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and it costs the nation about $50 billion annually to treat it and its complications.
“It” is high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. It is a symptomless, silent killer.
Despite the political angst, the doomsday predictions and a very rocky launch, the Affordable Care Act has enabled more than 8 million Americans to acquire insurance coverage through the public exchanges.
Health insurance increases the probability that patients will access the medical care they need. And my colleagues at Kaiser Permanente are already seeing some positive stories emerging as a result.
They’ve shared dozens of stories with me about patients with undiagnosed …
