Just a few weeks ago, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) issued a report, “A Transformational Effort on Patient Safety.” This was both a “surprise” and “not a surprise” to me …
Category: Public Health & Policy
Air quality alert: Reducing our carbon footprint in health care
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD. Do no harm. We learn this throughout our medical education and training, and in practice it is a keystone for clinical decision making. This principle continues to inspi…
The pros and cons of whole life insurance for high-income earners
According to the American Council of Life Insurers, permanent insurance is the most common type of life insurance purchased in the U.S. today. There is a variety of permanent life insurance available, but traditional whole life insurance is the most po…
Pediatricians grapple with guns in America, from Band-Aids to bullets
“My best friend was murdered while we were walking home from school.” The once lively thirteen-year-old boy now slumped in the chair across from me, his words spilling out with newfound heaviness. As I looked at him during what was supposed…
Health care wins, losses, and lessons
Albert Einstein determined that time is relative. And when it comes to health care, five years can be both a long and a short amount of time. In August 2018, I launched the Fixing Healthcare podcast. At the time, the medium felt like the perfect audito…
Unveiling excessive medical billing and greed
Recent op-eds have questioned medical billing and doctors’ pay, as both seemed high. Medical “greed” has become more apparent in the past two decades and has been well highlighted by two of my Dartmouth MPH Professors, Elliot Fisher, …
Chronic health issues and homelessness
In 2022, over 500,000 people in the United States found themselves homeless, without a permanent shelter to offer a sense of stability in their lives. This poses a far-reaching problem for the individuals who find themselves in this situation, but also…
The impact of certificate of need laws on rural health care
Rural communities have a problem. Their health care options continue to shrink, as medical facilities close or consolidate. The trend has accelerated in recent years, but Westfield Memorial Hospital in Western New York wants to expand. The tiny facilit…
Transparency, not charity: a real solution to America’s medical debt crisis
A recent act of kindness from Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has gone viral for its creative method of tackling medical debt. It involves the church paying off $3.3 million in medical debt belonging to 3,355 local families – …
“System-ness”: the key to successful health care transformation
Value-based health care, the holy grail of American medicine, has three parts: excellent clinical quality, convenient access, and affordability for all. And as with the holy grail of medieval legend, the quest for value-based care has been filled with …
