The evidence continues to build on how little electronic medical records (EMRs) contribute to healthcare. A Cochrane review of on-screen computer reminders found that physicians’ practices (process measures, medication ordering, vaccinations, and test ordering) improved by 4% and patients’ surrogate health measures (blood pressure or cholesterol levels) improved by 3%. Another...
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Since I started the blog American Healthscare, I’ve written nearly 80 posts trying to raise awareness about how inefficient and expensive our healthcare system is, how this reality harms the rest of our economy, which ironically leads to worse health. This is on top of the four years I spent writing...
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A colleague of mine, Jennifer Devoe, MD, PhD from the Oregon Health Sciences University, and I had a paper published in the Annals of Family Medicine this week. We basically found that the recession and recent slowdown of health insurance premium inflation pushes out the point that the cost of a...
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I talked about patient satisfaction last week, but I thought I’d extend the theme one more week. A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine analyzed data from the National Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. This is where AHRQ (a federal agency) interviews a representative sample of Americans periodically to keep track...
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I’ve just come back from my semi-annual renewal in my belief that family medicine is the foundational solution to make healthcare more affordable in America: the interim session of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians. The most important activity at these meetings is the networking: the chance to bounce ideas and...
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