Are Doctors Afraid To Touch Patients?

Mike Magee Where do I begin? When I read the JAMA title last week, “Banning the handshake from the health care setting”, my immediate reaction was, “Seriously, have we gone this far?” Then I read the dispassionate opening, “The handshake represents a deeply established social custom. In recent years, however, there has been increasing recognition […]

What Does “Patient-Centered” Really Mean?

MICHAEL MILLENSON Health Commentary contributor, Michael Millenson, recently published an important paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine titled “New Roles and Rules for Patient-Centered Care”. It provides abundant food for thought, and it deserves a careful reading. Here are a few excerpts: THE GOAL: “Certainly, ‘patient-centered care’ was not the goal originally pursued […]

This Week’s Presidential Healthcare Summit: Is It About Money or Satisfaction?

Mike Magee Today is the Healthcare Summit in Washington. There will be a great deal of discussion about efficiency, effectiveness and holding down the cost of health care. Money and time spent were also the topic of a JAMA article this week focused on declining physician work hours in concert with declining physician reimbursement over […]

Has Techmanity Become a Major Component of Advanced Health Professionalism?

Here’s the question: Can technology advance compassion, understanding, partnership and professionalism? Parallel studies of large cohorts of patients and their physicians in the late 90’s in the U.S., U.K., Germany, South Africa, Japan and Canada revealed consistent agreement on the primary definers of a successful patient-physician relationship. They were compassion, understanding and partnership. Patients also […]

Real Health Advertising

Direct-to-Consumer marketing has its benefitsOver the years, I’ve been on all sides of health care, including a stint directing the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative (PMHI). In this role, I worked to leverage the knowledge, assets and resources of a Fortune 10 company to advantage the broader interests of health consumers and the professionals who cared […]

Incontinence in Women

A surprisingly common problem Incontinence– the loss of bladder control – affects about 25 million Americans, but you don’t hear much about it. While 55% of women in their 80s have the problem, nearly 30% of women in their 30s experience some loss of bladder control at least once a month. Believe it or not, […]

Candidates Should Read Dr. David Reuben’s Article

Better care for older persons means better care for all of us Dr. David Reuben from UCLA penned an article in JAMA in December, 2007 that all Presidential candidates should read. In two concise pages he shares six principles that he sees as essential in providing "optimal health care delivery for older persons with chronic disease." […]

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