Whether a man's low-risk prostate cancer gets treated with surveillance, surgery or another method may have more to do with his doctor than his health, according to a new study. Urologists who had been practicing for more years and those who treated more advanced cases of the disease were less likely to use a wait-and-see approach to manage low-risk prostate cancer, researchers found. "The physician a patient sees can influence their treatment fate," said Dr. Karen Hoffman. "Physicians play an important role in whether or not men with low-risk prostate cancer are managed with observation or treatment."
Many kids are not taking their prescribed medications, or take an incorrect dose, due to weaknesses in the chain from prescribing to filling prescriptions to administering medication, according to a new review of past studies. Between five and 27 percent of all pediatric medication orders result in children being prescribed or taking the wrong amount of the drug, and medication errors lead to approximately 7,000 deaths each year, the authors note. There are ways to fix the problem, but they will require cooperation between doctors, pharmacists and families, said lead author Dr. Michael L. Rinke, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in Bronx, New York.
Nearly 95 percent of U.S. physicians accept gifts, meals, payments, travel and other services from companies that make the drugs and medical products they prescribe, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. This has been a common practice for decades, and studies show it affects doctors' prescribing decisions. Starting in September the federal government will make available an exhaustive online database of payments to U.S. physicians and hospitals, under a section of the health-care overhaul passed in 2010. The measure, known as the Sunshine Act, requires most makers of drugs and medical supplies to report all payments, gifts and other services worth $10 or more that they provide to health professionals.
Independence Blue Cross, the Philadelphia region’s largest health insurer, said Monday its accountable-care organization payment model is yielding tangible results. According to IBC, about 90 percent of region’s health care delivery systems are participating in the ACO payment model. Accountable Care Organizations are typically groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health-care providers that work together to provide coordinated quality care to patients. The IBC accountable care payment model requires health-care providers, typically a hospital and its affiliated primary-care doctors and specialists, to establish an ACO-like entity that shares responsibility with the insurer for improving clinical performance and cost efficiency for the care delivered to patients.
Starting July 15, nurse practitioners in Kentucky who have completed a four-year collaboration with a physician will be allowed to prescribe routine medications without a doctor’s involvement, a major shift that could help improve consumers’ access to care. The law that makes this possible passed after five years of legislative debate. Nurse practitioners are fighting in other states for more authority to treat patients at a time of rising concern over the impact of the federal health law. As more Americans get insurance, there may be shortages of primary care doctors, especially in states like Kentucky that have many rural areas.
An obstetrician is found dead in his bathtub; gunshot wound to the head. An anesthesiologist dies of an overdose in a hospital closet. A family doctor is hit by a train. An internist at a medical conference jumps from his hotel balcony to his death. All true stories. What are patients to do? When they call for appointments, patients are told they can't see their doctor. Ever. The standard line: "We are sorry, but your doctor died suddenly." In most towns, news spreads fast no matter how veiled the euphemisms.