Today's Selection Of Opinions And Editorials

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Dentistry;  Compliance;  IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 02 Jul 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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Comparative-Effectiveness Research - Implications of the Federal Coordinating Council's Report The New England Journal Of Medicine
Comparative patient-centered information is essential to translating new discoveries into better health outcomes, accelerating the application of beneficial innovations, and delivering the right treatment to the right patient at the right time (Conway and Clancy, 6/30).

Parsing The Health Reform Arguments The Wall Street Journal
Some of the shibboleths we've heard in recent weeks don't make much sense. … Here is how one humble economist sees some of the main arguments (Newman, 7/1).

Health Reform Should Encourage Patients To Follow Doctors' Orders Des Moines Register
Providing incentives for adherence can greatly help these chronic-disease sufferers to better manage their disease and become healthier, resulting in significant cost savings (Wangerin, 7/1).

What Should Dental Health Care Look Like In A Reformed Health System? Roll Call
While Congress wrestles with some intractable problems - chief among them 46 million uninsured and skyrocketing costs - our lawmakers should take note of the fact that one component of our health care system works relatively well: the delivery of oral health care (Volk, 6/30).

Health Reform Should Tackle The Rising Threat Of Hospital Infections Roll Call
[Health care-associated infections] and antibiotic resistance aren't the only ailments of the American health care system, but they are the lowest-hanging fruit that benefit patients and cut health care costs. Addressing this problem should be an easy decision for Congress and this administration (Laxminarayan and Septimus, 6/30).

The Case For Public Ownership Of Patient Data The Journal Of The American Medical Association (subscription)
Patients and the public have a strong claim to access aggregate patient data. Patients supply the information. Data are collected because patients and the public finance medical care through fees, insurance premiums, and taxes. Private parties should not profit to the detriment of patients and the public by restricting their access to the data (Rodwin, 7/1).

This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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