Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Pay-for-performance or health care quality report cards are the latest fad in medicine. Different types of report cards, however, measure different things. Eve Kerr and co-authors investigate (‘Quality by any other name?’) how different quality measures compare against each other. The authors look at 3 types of physician review: Implicit Review: This involves using ‘subjective’…
According to a paper by Singleton et al. (Am J Infect Control 2005) a significant number of people receive their influenza vaccination at non-traditional sites. While 62% of the elderly receive and influenza vaccination at a traditional doctor’s office or an HMO, individuals in younger age groups are utilizing other centers of care. For individuals…
For non-economists, mental_floss’ book Condensed Knowledge: A deliciously Irreverent Guide to Feeling Smart Again has brief bio’s on 6 of the most famous economists. Each person’s contribution to economics is sucinctly described in a non-technical manner. Click here to see the excerpt. The six economists chosen are: Adam Smith David Ricardo John Maynard Keynes Joseph…
Which hospitals are the innovators of 2007? Joe Paduda points us to to the Fierce Healthcare website which lists the top 10 hopsital innovators of 2007. Two of the top ten include St. Joseph’s Hospital in West Bend, WI and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Mr. Paduda is not overly impressed by the innovation…
An interesting article from Slate discusses an NBER working paper by Paul Oyer (“The Macro-Foundations of Microeconomics: Initial Labor Market Conditions and Long-Term Outcomes for Economists“). Oyer wonders whether or not initial job placement at a high ranking university affects long-term job prospects. Of course, the problem with this analysis is that graduate students with…
The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Getting Green blog.
To follow up on Monday’s post, I take a few quotations from Rachel Werner and David Asch’s paper (“The Unintended Consequences“) in the March 9, 2005 edition of JAMA. First, I look at the unintended consequence of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) report cards in a number of U.S. states: In Pennsylvania, which also introduced…
From The Onion… Internet Opens Up Whole New World Of Illness For Local Hypochondriac “All her life, Janet Hartley has suffered from a host of ill-defined viruses and inexplicable aches and pains, diagnosing herself with everything from diabetes to cancer. But ever since discovering such online medical resources as WebMD, drkoop.com, and Yahoo! Health, the…
There is an interesting article in the NYT Magazine (“Self-Nonmedication“) about the anti-depressant drugs pharmaceuticals. The author stops taking Effexor and experiences anti-depressant withdrawl discontinuation syndrome.
Are quality based incentive programs the solution for improving physician quality without increasing cost? While I believe that measuring quality is an important avenue by which quality can be improved, it is not a magic bullet. A study by Gilmore, et al. (HSR 2007) looks at a pay-for-performance scheme developed in Hawaii. The authors look…