A few months ago, we told you about a Peace Corps initiative that sends doctors and nurses abroad to teach and train local health workers—a sort of Peace Corps for Doctors. They're not alone: Lots of health care professionals are now traveling abroad to help countries build better health care systems instead of simply giving on-the-spot medical care or dealing with emergencies. We came across Ambereen Sleemi on Twitter (@globalgyno) while she was traveling in Haiti. She's setting up a partnership there to train Haitian doctors in gynecology.
With $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts set to take effect on Friday and predictions of economic disruption, much of official Washington is focused on the "blame game." Publicly, there has been no sign that Congress or administration officials has made any progress on averting these cuts or finding common ground on tackling the country's fiscal problems. But there are small signs that Democrats and Republicans are beginning to wrestle with the issue of what role Medicare should play in deficit reduction. Three Capitol Hill committees with jurisdiction over health care have scheduled hearings this week to examine Medicare's current benefit design and to review provisions in the 2010 health care law aimed at making the program more efficient.
A bureaucracy-centric governing philosophy is spreading in healthcare, and with it comes heavy reliance on "experts" to determine how to curb costs outside the normal legislative and democratic process. This was embodied at the national level by the Affordable Care Act, and most recently at the state level in a new Massachusetts growth-capping law. Yet the unintended consequences of using this method to reform health care have not been fully explored.
Dr. C. Everett Koop, who was widely regarded as the most influential surgeon general in American history and played a crucial role in changing public attitudes about smoking, died on Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H. He was 96. In 1981, Dr. Koop had never served in public office when President Ronald Reagan appointed him surgeon general of the United States. By the time he stepped down in 1989, he had become a household name, a rare distinction for a public health administrator.
Directors from a Central Pa. health system and its parent company have signed a nonbinding letter of intent to negotiate an affiliation with UPMC, according to a news release. Altoona Regional Health System, under parent company Central Pennsylvania Health Services Corporation, and UPMC have agreed to conditions of a prospective affiliation and will enter a due diligence period, Altoona Regional spokesman Dave Cuzzolina said. The final step would be the signing of a definitive affiliation agreement, he said.
The operating room, once an exclusive club for male surgeons, is becoming more welcoming to female surgeons. But the experiences of local doctors suggest that full gender equality has not yet arrived. The explicit gender discrimination alleged in a high-profile lawsuit settled for $7 million this month against Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and its former chief of surgery is rare in Boston hospitals, according to 10 female surgeons interviewed by the Globe. Still, female surgeons can experience subtler obstacles, including pressure to behave a certain way and conflicting family responsibilities.