Category: Public Health & Policy

A fellow physician to Governor Northam: You must resign

Governor Ralph Northam is my governor. I voted for this man. I shook his hand. He works across the street from me. He fights to end the opioid epidemic. He fights for women’s rights. He expanded Medicaid in Virginia. He has enacted programs that will c…

Why would any woman discourage a man’s advocacy or support?

A male interventional radiologist who is active in the #HeForShe campaign recently told me that he is being pressured to stop advocating for women. My first instinct was the biggest sigh and eyeroll of my life followed by thoughts of locker room peer p…

How one insurer’s mistake wrecked a practice’s quality score

To do the math right, you have to get your numerator and denominator correct, or else things just don’t work. Recently, in the midst of a large patient safety and quality improvement project trying to bridge gaps in breast cancer screening among …

Imagine viewing health care from space

Instead of driving on the highway, let’s imagine you drove upwards from wherever you are. You’ll reach space in about an hour. On your way up, you’ll begin to see everything differently. Cities, roads, and trees slowly blur out to make way for a new ki…

Quality is more than documentation designed to meet billing and data metrics

As I walk into the well-upholstered elevator lobby of the hospital and make my way toward the stairs for another night of covering the ICU, I am again inundated with plaques, advertisements and a six-foot-tall cardboard cutout depicting an executive in…

What advocacy means to this physician

Patients first Patient care brings me enormous satisfaction. Nearly 40 years ago, when I chose medicine as a career, this was a driving force. Within moments of patients coming into my office, they often share aspects of their life history known only t…

What advocacy means to this physician

Patients first Patient care brings me enormous satisfaction. Nearly 40 years ago, when I chose medicine as a career, this was a driving force. Within moments of patients coming into my office, they often share aspects of their life history known only t…

Are clinically integrated networks a cure for checkbox medicine?

Years ago, I was contacted by a health plan about an elderly nursing home patient who had not been screened for osteoporosis. While brittle bones are a big problem in skilled nursing settings, the real problem for this health plan was its low HEDIS sco…

Get ready for health care disruption

Just like you, I’m trying to make sense of the world around me. But there are no templates for the bridge that health care’s building for its future. All we can do is listen to weak signals and amplify them. Recently (and finally), CVS boug…

Get ready for health care disruption

Just like you, I’m trying to make sense of the world around me. But there are no templates for the bridge that health care’s building for its future. All we can do is listen to weak signals and amplify them. Recently (and finally), CVS boug…