JAMA Commentaries Discuss Physician Increases, Assessment Of Care

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 24 Jan 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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"Does Having More Physicians Lead to Better Health System Performance?," Journal of the American Medical Association: In the JAMA commentary, David Goodman of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and Kevin Grumbach of the University of California-San Francisco Department of Family and Community Medicine discuss whether an increase in physicians nationwide would improve the U.S. health care system. The authors suggest that federal funds would be better spent on expanding coverage to uninsured children and overhauling Medicare physician payments rather than on expanding the physician work force (Goodman/Grumbach, JAMA, 1/23).

"Assessing Quality of Care: Knowledge Matters," JAMA: The JAMA commentary, by Eric Holmboe of the American Board of Internal Medicine and colleagues, examines various factors that affect clinical judgment, as well as the relationship between medical knowledge and quality and how the secure examination component of specialty board certification complements physician performance measures. The authors also discuss the effects that poor clinical judgment can have on patient care (Holmboe et al., JAMA, 1/23).

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