Author Thomas H. Lee, MD, writes that the problem with medicine is people like him: primarily men, in their 50s and beyond, who learned medicine when it was more about art and less about money. “We were taught to go to the hospital before dawn, stay until our patients were stable, focus on the needs of each patient before us, and not worry about

Regardless of the effects of health-care reform, the United States cannot continue on the current health-care track, given deep, multiyear federal budget deficits. It is simply not sustainable, at a cost of more than 16% of the gross domestic product (GDP)¹; in comparison, socialized medicine in the United Kingdom claims a mere 8% of its GDP. To

In a coincidence worth noting, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776, the year that our nation-to-be declared its independence from what was then the Kingdom of Great Britain. In that work, Smith argued that the colonies were not worth the cost of keeping them. Nonetheless, Smith’s ideas and US commerce, including the health-care

To further its aim of extending subspecialty radiology services to community hospitals, Franklin & Seidelmann Subspecialty Radiology, Beachwood, Ohio, recently announced the creation of a new company called Radisphere National Radiology Group. True to its name, the group will have a national scope, with the ability to provide radiology services to

Gabe Graham, CPAThe emergence of PACS has given practices a chance to expand their business and boost revenue by tapping the rural hospital market. Before adding clients to their own networks, however, groups must pay attention to projected costs and potential profits, according to Gabe Graham, CPA, a financial consultant at Medical Management

As the potential role of informatics in transforming health care gains national attention, how are IT tools for imaging and image management evolving to improve clinical efficiency and bolster quality of care? ImagingBiz spoke with Aaron Waitz, vice president of product development for FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA, Stamford, Connecticut, on the

In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Harold C. Sox, MD, chair of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee to set national priorities for comparative-effectiveness research (CER), and colleagues¹ proposed a process through which the government could begin to fund research to improve medical decision making. The authors

In addition to extending coverage to an estimated 31 million US residents, the recently passed HR 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has ensured a future for comparative-effectiveness research (CER) by legislating funding, at $500 million per year, for the indefinite future. The stimulus bill launched the CER initiative with seed