There is a bizarre paradox in the culture of medicine: The system generates more data than ever, but questionable priorities are limiting our ability to effectively use it.
Rewarding physicians and hospitals for the value of care can dramatically improve care quality and lower costs. So why has the transition to this new model of care been so slow?
In order to see whether heart stents actually improved patients' lives, the VA health care system decided to ask them directly, before and after surgery. But does this approach work?
This month, early results from one of the key efforts to transform primary care were published, and the results were underwhelming. But here's what we can learn from the initiative.
People with insurance are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic condition than uninsured people. That means that as the number of insured grows, the health system will have to cope with an influx of patients newly diagnosed with conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
Penalty programs created under the Affordable Care Act are intended to improve quality of care at hospitals. But will they succeed?
The data on the much-lauded Patient Centered Medical Home approach, a cornerstone of ACA, shows that it is expensive, onerously bureaucratic, a drain on health care resources, especially for primary care providers, and a distraction from health care delivery.
Underwhelming results demonstrate that after all the money and effort invested in bureaucracy, Patient Centered Medical Homes do not contribute to actual patient care.
