“AMGA is pleased that Dr. Berwick has been nominated to lead CMS because he brings vast knowledge of innovative healthcare delivery, including the benefits of integrated-care models like those found in AMGA member groups. We are confident that he will bring that expertise to bear in his demanding job at CMS.”—Donald Fisher, president and CEO of the American Medical Group Association
FULL STORY »
“Although Dr. Berwick has made contributions that have improved the quality of healthcare, he is a socialist in the truest sense of the word, because he wants government, not patients, to control our healthcare system. He has called government rationing the ‘only sensible approach to healthcare finance,' and he wants to pattern our healthcare system after the failing British model.”
FULL STORY »
She's played a president on television and a feminist fugitive in the movies. Now Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis is stepping into a new role related to healthcare. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Davis to the California Commission on the Status of Women. The nonpartisan agency advocates on behalf of women and girls on education, criminal justice and healthcare access issues such as reproductive choice.
FULL STORY »
The ceremony marking the inauguration of Karen Nichols as the 114th president and first female leader of the 42,000-member American Osteopathic Association was a little different from such banquets, thanks mostly to the fact that Nichols has a comedian for a nephew, Dave Thurston, and he served as emcee for the proceedings.A veteran of Chicago's Second City comedy troupe, Thurston recruited some of his friends to help introduce Nichols. So, instead of a droning recitation of her awards and achievements, these were sung to the tune of a disco favorite and a country classic.
FULL STORY »
In The Art of War, the famed Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu advised that, “The general who wins the battle makes many calculations.” Researchers at Duke University Medical Center may have employed that philosophy in their efforts to develop a new weapon in the war against the enemy bacteria methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The group has created a computer algorithm that aims to predict how MRSA is likely to mutate and develop antibiotic resistance.
FULL STORY »
“The healthcare industry could be on the verge of an efficiency revolution, because it is currently so far behind in applying operations management methodologies.” —Eugene Litvak, adjunct professor of operations management at the Harvard School of Public Health, in the New York Times on hospitals adopting efficient management techniques from other industries.
FULL STORY »
“There were no death panels in the bill ... and to encourage that kind of fear is just the lowest form of political leadership. It’s not leadership. It’s demagoguery. ... I think we have a lot of leaders that are following those (television and talk radio) personalities and not leading. What it takes to lead is to say, ‘You know, that’s just not right.’ ” —Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) on Sarah Palin’s claim about the health reform law.
FULL STORY »
Outliers has to admit to not being an expert in statistics. We barely made it through high school algebra, much less Adventures in Applied Regression Analysis, or whatever that class was our math whizzy college roommate took back in the day.
FULL STORY »
You have to draw the line somewhere, the saying goes, and medical practices in North Carolina are reportedly asking the Medical Group Management Association to redraw one of theirs.
FULL STORY »
It probably won’t catch on as a cultural phenomenon akin to “Guitar Hero,” but a physicians group is hoping a new video game will teach kids how to prepare for a natural disaster or other emergency.
FULL STORY »
By the Associated Press | July 16, 2010
| Basic Web
A southeast Michigan hospital has a message for cigarette-smoking patients who sneak out for a quick puff: Don't let the door hit you in the butt.
FULL STORY »
“The incentive for not admitting somebody and not keeping them for the full three days has actually grown even more as people anticipate the RAC audit.”—Carolyn Scanlan, CEO of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, commenting on the Medicare rule that requires a patient to have been hospitalized for 72 hours before Medicare will pay for nursing-home care.
FULL STORY »
“People are scared. … For the first time, a lot of doctors have thrown up their hands and said, ‘Don't fix it. Let the cuts go into place and see what happens.' If so many doctors end up dropping Medicare patients, then they will have to fix it.”—Conrad Flick, a board member of the American Medical Association, in the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, on Medicare's sustainable growth-rate formula.
FULL STORY »
“He’s universally regarded and a thoughtful guy who is not partisan. I think it’s more about ... the healthcare bill. You could nominate Gandhi to be head of CMS and that would be controversial right now.”—Former CMS Administrator Tom Scully in a McClatchy Newspapers story on Donald Berwick’s recess appointment to head the CMS.
FULL STORY »
And returning to the subject of politics, Outliers can’t help but note that one Kansas race is turning into a game of “I’m First! No, I’m First!” at least as far as bills seeking to repeal the new health reform law. Republican U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran’s main rival for a U.S. Senate seat from Kansas is challenging Moran’s right to call himself the first House member to introduce a bill to repeal the new federal health reform law.
FULL STORY »
And you thought the only health hazard from fireworks was that whole explosion thing. Outliers notes that health authorities say the night sky over Lincoln, Neb., on the Fourth of July was filled with more than just loud bangs and pretty colors. It was heavy with fireworks pollution.
FULL STORY »
Since Outliers reported on Tennessee congressional candidate Ron Kirkland’s disavowal of the federal subsidies the American Medical Group Association helped secure for physician electronic health-record purchases while he chaired the organization (June 28, p. 36), it seems only fair to bring another medical group association into the mix. It appears that a U.S. Senate candidate from Colorado, Jane Norton, is now stumbling in her attempts to explain her job description when she was employed by the Medical Group Management Association.
FULL STORY »
By the Associated Press | July 06, 2010
| Basic Web
Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of a Pope County doctor charged in a bombing outside the home of the state medical board chairman, a federal case that's expected to last at least a month
FULL STORY »
Every parent longs to give their offspring the best possible start in life and, according to the creators of BeautifulPeople.com—a dating site created exclusively for attractive men and women—that often means doing everything possible to up the odds of having good-looking kids. Beautiful People, which launched in 2002 and claims to have more than 600,000 members in 190 countries, has created its Beautiful Baby service, a discussion forum within its website that links would-be parents with physically appealing sperm and egg donors.
FULL STORY »
There is no denying that U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul is a man of vision, the Kentucky ophthalmologist graduated from the Duke University School of Medicine, owns his own practice and has contributed to Lions Club eye clinics and eyeglasses for charity programs. Some folks, however, don’t see eye to eye with the doctor over his claim of being “board certified.” The Louisville Courier-Journal has reported that Paul let his certification with the American Board of Ophthalmology, a member of the American Board of Medical Specialties, lapse in 2005.
FULL STORY »
When Outliers read that a group of Harvard University researchers had created a living, breathing lung-on-a-chip, all we could think was movie script. We can see the tale now: Committed scientists use human tissue and computer technology to develop the world’s first cyborg organ. Years later, cyborgs are roaming the streets of our cities and the terrain of our countryside.
FULL STORY »
John Harris: The Kaiser Foundation, right, say “Hey, I think you ought to make the governor the president of the Kaiser Foundation.” Right? Rod Blagojevich: Yeah. Harris: It has a board and it's gonna keep everything going, right? Blagojevich: Yeah. Harris: It's like when Elizabeth Dole was head of the Red Cross. Blagojevich: That's what, that's, that's something like that. Right. Harris: Something like that.Blagojevich: Right. How do we do homework on that?
FULL STORY »
But enough about Tennessee politics. How are things in Florida? Outliers knew that when Rick Scott decided to throw his name—and his personal fortune—into the race for governor there, it wouldn’t take long for the mud to start flying.
FULL STORY »
