September 27th, 2015
Podcast 185: A Spirited Discussion on Medicare’s ‘Doc Fix’ Fix for Reimbursement
A group of physicians, economists, and medical students gathered on Medstro to talk about Medicare’s solution to the decades-old “doc fix” problem — it’s how you get paid for caring for Medicare patients. The chat was occasioned by an essay in the New England Journal of Medicine by Meredith Rosenthal, an economist and a close observer […]
July 11th, 2015
Podcast 179: Pradaxa (dabigatran) reversal near?
Running time: 20 minutes The anticoagulant dabigatran, marketed in the U.S. as Pradaxa, has always had the problem that, although it’s more convenient to use, there’s no sure way to stop its effect if the patient has a major bleed. Now, a monoclonal antibody fragment called idarucizumab (pronounced i-DARE-you-scis-ooh-mab) shows promise as a reversal agent. In an […]
May 14th, 2012
Podcast 155: What’s wrong with U.S. healthcare and what will save it?
Dr. Arnold Relman, longtime observer of the U.S. healthcare system and editor emeritus of the New England Journal of Medicine, proposes two major reforms: First, private insurance companies should leave the healthcare field, and second, physicians should organize into multispecialty practices. His proposals, just published in BMJ, grow out of his alarmed observation — some 30 […]
January 20th, 2012
Podcast 142: Really, why are you ordering that test?
The American College of Physicians wants to encourage high-value, cost-conscious care. And so they convened a consensus panel of physicians to list tests that they considered overused or inappropriately used in certain circumstances. One example would be the use of MRI for breast screening in normal-risk patients; another is the use of imaging studies in […]
September 16th, 2011
Podcast 130: If you’re a clinician concerned about health costs, wash your hands — don’t just wring them
Health Affairs has a study in which a few simple, but rigorously followed patient-care procedures in a pediatric ICU dropped infection rates, mortality, lengths of hospital stay, and total costs. Sound too good to be true? Well, it wasn’t exactly easy, but the results were real and measurable. Listen in and see whether this could […]
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