The measures are part of a drive to ensure people have access to quality information that will enable them to make informed choices about their overall care.

Patients and health and social care professionals will be able to access quality information through NHS Choices which currently details 13 long-term conditions (asthma, bowel cancer, CKD, COPD, coronary heart disease, depression, dementia, diabetes, heart failure, osteoarthritis, Read more »

Ah, a perfect question for comparative effectiveness research.

Surgeon Jeffrey Parks takes a look at a study looking at breast MRIs during the pre-operative workup of patients with breast cancer.

Essentially, surgical outcomes were not improved, and worse, “leads to a higher rate of unnecessary mastectomy, and is extremely expensive (about $1600 a pop, out of pocket).”

Although there are specific cases where a breast Read more »

Every adult patient with the disease will be given a personal folder, My Kidney Care Plan, which will also allow them to discuss in detail their needs and concerns with a specialist nurse or GP.

It is hoped that the personal folder will empower patients to manage their own condition, as well as improving standards of care for kidney disease.

Dr O’Donoghue, said: ‘This is a new, holistic approach to patients Read more »

If both patients and doctors don’t accept the changes required of their behavior, no amount of comparative effectiveness studies will cut health care spending.

Two prominent medical journalists write as much in their respective blogs.

First, the NY Times’ Tara Parker-Pope notes that patients have to realize that, yes, they should demand the best care possible. However, that means, “we will have to accept that ‘best’ doesn’t Read more »

Oxfordshire GP Dr Richard Lehman and Yale University professor Harlan Krumholz say that reducing the lowest QOF target for HbA1c from 7.5% to 7% for 2009/10 incentivises an outdated treatment strategy.

Evidence from the ACCORD and ADVANCE studies suggests that tight glycaemic control in established type-2 diabetes has little benefit and can be harmful, they say.

In addition, pursuing the target could mean patients are transferred Read more »

Here’s what happens when you give so much attention and influence to such a crude instrument.

Following quality measures can make or break a hospital’s reputation, especially if they are being widely advertised. Patients often make health care choices based on whether doctors following quality measures.

However, as these measures are currently constructed, they often ignore the nuance surrounding many cases.

Emergency Read more »

Patients on Medicare and Medicaid tend to utilize the health care system more frequently.

Combined with the fact that an increasing number of physicians are closing their doors to such patients, the so-called “safety net” clinics and hospitals are finding themselves with much more work than they can handle.

In this case in California, one such clinic was seriously considering shutting its doors to Medicare.

A physician Read more »

The study found that half the GPs involved said they had been able to reduce prescribed medication and the same number that their patients needed less frequent referral to hospital.

Two-fifths of patients reported an improvement in symptoms, 81% said their general health had improved and 55% that they had been able to reduce their use of painkillers.

The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health was closely involved Read more »

No, they don’t.

In many cases, drug companies like to leave sample medications for doctors to dispense. In most cases, they are for heavily publicized medications, and are often expensive or on a high co-pay tier. So although these medications may initially be “free,” when patients ask for a refill, they will eventually pay more for their treatment course.

Matthew Mintz, in his piece where he gives tips for patients on saving Read more »

More patients are being referred to as consumers, and some don’t agree with the connotation.

“That puts a bigger emphasis on how much profit the patient can make a company, which can lead to less-than-optimal decisions on behalf of the patient later on,” says diabetes blogger Manny Hernandez.

However, patients are now encouraged to advocate on their own behalf, and entities like high deductible health plans and health savings Read more »