Archive for July, 2008

Skin in the Game

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

The New York Times recently took dermatologists to task for creating a two-tiered system of dermatology - one for patients with skin disorders, and one for “cosmetic dermatology.”
As the Times describes it, patients who wish to see a dermatologist for, say, possible skin cancer are put on a waiting list, and when their appointed time […]

Posted in New business models for healthcare | 12 Comments »

Is Treating Cancer Worth It?

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Yesterday, Jacob Goldstein of the Wall Street Journal Health Blog pointed out the financial dilemma that has been created by evidence that a new cancer drug, Nexavar, is effective in treating liver cancer.
Most liver cancers are particularly impervious to chemotherapy, and until Nexavar came along no chemotherapy had ever been shown to significantly prolong survival. […]

Posted in General Rationing Issues | 11 Comments »

Fun With Randomized Trials, and Breasts

Friday, July 18th, 2008

The Cochrane Collaboration has created something of a stir with its latest review on the advisability of doing breast self-examinations, which concluded, in essence, that they’re not advisable. Specifically, they found that women who perform breast self-examinations end up producing more harm than good, so women should be discouraged from the practice.
The Cochrane Collaboration is […]

Posted in General Rationing Issues | 9 Comments »

Throwing It To The Dogs

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Robert Pear reported this week in the New York Times that, in narrowly averting the scheduled 10.6% pay cut for doctors (and in the process taking the popular Medicare Advantage program away from seniors), congresspersons of both parties have come to recognize that “the formula for paying doctors is broken.” For their insight in reaching […]

Posted in Healthcare economics, Primary Care in America | 8 Comments »

Getting Square With the Nurses

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

Last month, DrRich wrote about how “doctor-nurses” are fixing to displace primary care doctors, and how the noble American Medical Association – champion, as always, of the American PCP – is mobilizing with decisive action to prevent this tragedy from taking place.*
One of the more remarkable responses to this article came in the form of […]

Posted in Primary Care in America | 5 Comments »

How Covert Rationing Precludes Efficiency

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

(Don’t forget to check out the Independence Day version of Medical Grand Rounds.)
Depending on which news source you read, physicians either are or are not about to get hit with a 10.6% pay cut from Medicare. (The actual outcome of the pay cut kerfuffle, some say, will depend on how many Republican Senators are buttonholed […]

Posted in General Rationing Issues | 4 Comments »

Medical Grand Rounds, Vol 4, No. 41

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Welcome to Medical Grand Rounds, Volume 4, Number 41, July 1, 2008. This week, bloggers from across the Internet have submitted articles that will help us celebrate the 232nd birthday of the United States of America. Their patriotic postings, organized according to their relationship to the Founding, follow:
Lists of Grievances
Annie at Home of […]

Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments »