By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA From KevinMD’s medical blog, in a recent post, Kevin Pho, MD answers the question, “Is the doctor-patient relationship really more sacrosanct than the nurse-patient relationship?” posed by Theresa Brown from the Well Blog, The New York Times Health Blog. The answer is “clearly no” writes Pho. Physicians have the ultimate responsibility for treatment decisions, but because nurses spend so much more time with hospital patients than doctors do, we…
Read More...Technology Is Not The Reason For Cost Escalation in Health Care – It Is How We Misuse It
Guest post by Stephen C. Schimpff, MD We are often told that the reason for the high cost of medical care is all of our new technologies and drugs. There is an element of truth in that but when used correctly, new technologies save lives and improve the quality of patient care and often improve safety. But technologies used inappropriately increase costs while not improving quality and may adversely impact safety. Here is a patient…
Read More...The World’s First Twitter Chat for Doctors
Guest post by Phil Baumann Hashtag for Twitter Chat for Doctors is #MDChat Physicians are an important part our society, possessing a wide array of knowledge and experience and insight into the human condition. The public value of this collective reservoir of talent is priceless. As the pace of our world quickens and the demand for information rises, needs for easily accessible commons for physicians to air their perspectives – from health to technology to…
Read More...Patient Engagement: Health IT, What Microsoft Health Users Group Exchange Means for you
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA How important is Health IT to you and should you care? At the Microsoft Health Users Group Exchange this month at the Microsoft Corporate Campus in Redmond, WA, patient engagement was the overall theme. Whether presenters were talking about “Cloud Computing,” “Care Coordination,” or “Population Health Management,” empowering the patient was the paradigm. “At the end of the day, we’re all patients,” Bill Crounse, MD, keynote speaker and Senior…
Read More...Empowered Patient: Bring a Family Member or Friend with you to Your Doctor’s Appointment
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Should you bring a family member or friend with you when a patient has a doctor’s appointment? That is a question explored on a recent post on KevinMD by guest blogger, Diana E. Lee, a chronic migraine patient who blogs at Somebody Heal Me. “Most of the resources I’ve read about how to prepare for a doctor’s appointment recommend bringing a loved one with you so that person can…
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