In 2005, Drs. Woolf and Johnson released a provocative work: “The Break-Even Point: When Medical Advances Are Less Important Than Improving the Fidelity With Which They Are Delivered“. This conceptual frame of reference, when applied to health research funding, highlights the huge disconnect between current NIH funding and actual improvement of America’s health.
An Unhealthy Relationship: Perceived Health Status vs. Health Expenditures
October 6th, 2009Self-perceived health status, tracked by the CDC, is correlated with increased morbidity and early mortality risk. The Robert Graham Center examined the relationship between health status and US health spending: hardly what the doctor ordered. Read the rest of this entry »
Why an Independent Research Organization? The Paradigm of the University Research Department
October 1st, 2009At the recent HRSA Workforce Meeting in DC, Edward O’Neil from UCSF described the life-cycle of paradigms: beginning as effective tools, peaking by making things work and providing coherence, then limiting possibilities, and eventually, failing completely. The paradigm of university-based academic research has reached, and perhaps surpassed, the limiting stage for health systems/policy research.
Medicare Access
August 28th, 2009Are doctors turning away Medicare patients? A claims-based analysis of new Medicare visits by primary care physicians, 1996-2006.