I must say, I’m very proud of the American Academy of Family Physicians for continuing to make statements about over-testing under the Choosing Wisely campaign umbrella. The Academy is more known for making wussy statements and taking wussy actions — the RUC wimp out being the prime example. So I salute...
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Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a meaningful holiday season and that your personal family dramas were not too overwhelming. As many of you know, the suicide rate increases over the holiday season. Most suicide victims are depressed. A few have other mental health diagnoses, such as panic attacks or...
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A major study was just published in Lancet that addressed the issue of whether or not diabetes screening in primary care improves major health outcomes. This was a 10-year randomized controlled trial!! In other words, this study is the granddaddy of them all in terms of the rigor of its methods....
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I had some fun last week with a true patient care experience from one of my family physician colleagues. While the content was unusual and humorous, the case raises questions about the greater issue of support for the work of family physicians, and the lack thereof by all the payers, both...
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The following story is true. My imagination isn’t rich enough to make up this stuff. A colleague told me about this clinic encounter. A 60-year-old man came to clinic to talk about several issues. He had the insight to state that he was depressed. His parents died 5 years previously; therefore...
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A study about quality of life for patients with terminal cancer was reported by Medscape News. I won’t repeat the whole article here, but let me let you in on a few of their insights. Said the director of a Center of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, “Physicians who claim that there...
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This post will be a little longer than usual. If you’re not sure what a full-service family physician can do, this story’s for you. The following is the body of an email sent by one of our 3rd-year JPS family medicine RESIDENTS about his experiences working at a regional hospital in...
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A normally very respectable and reliable source of healthcare observations, the Center for Studying Health System Change (CSHSC), had a bad day recently. A report by one of its fellows for the Commonwealth Fund modeled “real-world” parameters found that if primary care physicians were paid more, Medicare could save 2%. Two...
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I was going to write a post about the spineless leadership of the AAFP and how they caved in to the RUC (relative value update committee — the ologist-dominated committee of the AMA that makes physician fee recommendations to CMS). Visualize the AAFP dog whimpering pathetically with its tail stuck firmly...
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About 15 years ago Taiwan officials went around the world learning about other countries’ health care systems so they could create one almost from scratch. They decided on universal coverage, but gave its citizens unfettered access to any doctor they wanted to see. Fortunately for the Taiwanese they continued to examine...
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