The Health Care Blog

To Change Health Care, Change Diabetes.

By DANA HAZA As we work to change health care in America, we must recognize the need to dramatically change diabetes. Twenty-four million Americans have diabetes at a cost to our nation of an estimated $218 billion for diabetes and...
September 29, 2009 in Chronic conditions, prevention, Quality | Permalink | Comments (9)

Ornish Alienates HuffPo's Class Warriors

By MERRILL GOOZNER Ariana Huffington recently anointed diet-and-exercise guru Dean Ornish as her chief medical correspondent. With all the guff her site had taken from the science-based medicine crowd for giving free rein to anti-vaccinists, faith healers and the no-evidence-needed...
September 1, 2009 in Media, Medicare, Merrill Goozner, prevention | Permalink | Comments (3)

Separating Fact from Fiction and Health from Health Care

By JAMES S. MARKS, ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION In an editorial on Wednesday, The New York Times debunks the often-cited claim that America has the best health care system in the world. For the politicians who routinely use this as...
August 31, 2009 in prevention, Quality, Reform, RWJF | Permalink | Comments (22)

Tale of Two Health Crises

By MARIA FOSCARINIS Twenty two years ago I received shocking news: I had Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system that affects primarily young people. At the age of 30 I began a long and to date successful effort...
August 14, 2009 in Disability Rights, prevention, primary care, Reform | Permalink | Comments (24)

Op-Ed: The Payoff from Preventative Healthcare: How disease screening saves lives and money

By MARK GUMZ To understand and effectively navigate the current healthcare debate, every U.S. CEO must now be a healthcare leader. From the health, well being and productivity of employees and their families to the impact on a company’s bottom...
July 29, 2009 in prevention | Permalink | Comments (9)

McAllen: A Tale of Three Counties

By DANIEL GILDEN Introduction The challenge of constraining costs while maintaining or enhancing the quality of medical care is vividly brought to life by Atul Gawande in his recent widely-read New Yorker essay. The anecdotal evidence presented in the article...
June 25, 2009 in Chronic conditions, Dartmouth Atlas, Medicare, Medicine, Policy, Policy/Politics, prevention | Permalink | Comments (55)

Following the Science To A New Era In Medicine

By WILLIAM BESTERMANN, MD "The current care systems cannot do the job. Trying harder will not work. Changing systems of care will." Crossing the Quality Chasm, Institute of Medicine, 2001 Medical leadership in the United States has not yet come...
April 20, 2009 in evidenced-based medicine, Physicians, prevention, primary care, Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (4)

Interview with Fred Goldstein, US Preventive Medicine

By Matthew Holt Last year US Preventive Medicine (USPM) caused a little splash with some full page ads in the Wall Street Journal proclaiming itself the future of preventative care. Since then the company, which has raised a significant chunk...
December 19, 2008 in Consumers, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, prevention | Permalink | Comments (6)

Can Health Plans Explain Why They Aren't Re-Empowering Primary Care?

By Brian Klepper & David Kibbe Sometimes a whisper is more powerful than a shout. Here's a cartoon from Modern Medicine that shows a Medical Home counseling session between a primary care physician (PCP), a specialist and the health plan....
October 30, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, Physicians, prevention, primary care, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (29)

Merck's marketing for HPV vaccine trumps science

By Maggie Mahar A frequent contributor to THCB, Maggie Mahar's work has appeared in the New York Times, Barron's and Institutional Investor. A fellow at the Century Foundation, Maggie is also the author of the increasingly influential HealthBeat blog, one...
August 22, 2008 in Consumers, Economics, Maggie Mahar, Policy, prevention | Permalink | Comments (5)

Reports on Gardasil study offer varying interprations

By Sarah Arnquist Merck's HPV vaccine, Gardasil, has received significant press in recent days, following a cost-effectiveness study published in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Depending on where Americans get their news, they received different...
August 22, 2008 in Consumers, prevention, Sarah Arnquist | Permalink | Comments (0)

Herd immunity -- vaccinations protect us all

By Sarah Arnquist I'm currently in the masters in public health program at Johns Hopkins University and am taking my first course in epidemiology. I have my first midterm tomorrow and among the many concepts the professors want me to...
July 29, 2008 in prevention, public health, Sarah Arnquist | Permalink | Comments (3)