Health Affairs

On April 29, 2012, four days after his 74th birthday, Larry Lewin (pictured below) died from complications of an underlying cancer. The funeral was May 1 and his wife, Marion asked me to speak briefly about his professional life. What follows is adapted from those remarks. It will be obvious that anyone who knew Larry... Read the rest of this entry »

A belated tip of the hat to Hank Stern’s  Health Wonk Review at Insure Blog. Hank offers a nice collection of posts, including Diane Meier’s Health Affairs Blog post on Amy Berman’s Narrative Matters essay and overcoming barriers to palliative care. Happy reading!  

Editor’s note: You can hear Amy Berman discuss her April Health Affairs Narrative Matters essay at the recent release event for the April issue. You can also join Amy tomorrow (May 1) at noon for live online chat hosted by the Washington Post, which will also be publishing an abridged version of her essay. In... Read the rest of this entry »

You are increasingly being held accountable for the outcomes of the health care you deliver. Pay for performance; shared savings in ACOs; public report cards…the list of strategies to monitor and measure the effects of your efforts is lengthening. Many of you seem dismayed by the increased weight accorded to the patient experience of care... Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past decade, it has become popular to invoke the term “strategy” in global health.  For many NGOs operating in developing world contexts, strategy is synonymous with “vision.”  For others, strategy is the set of operating activities that meet a defined goal.  And for others, still, strategy represents the ex-post principles invoked to justify... Read the rest of this entry »

The most-read Health Affairs Blog post for January was Tim Jost’s examination of the first set of briefs filed before the Supreme Court in the litigation over the Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. The full top-ten list for the month also includes Jerald Winakur’s post on disruptions experienced by many patients during care transitions... Read the rest of this entry »

November 9, 2011. Time fell back three days ago, leaving me one less hour of daylight to enjoy on a gorgeous Indian summer Wednesday. I’m the attending physician on a busy family medicine inpatient service, and it’s been a long week of patient care and meetings. I rush out of the hospital somewhere near 5 pm,... Read the rest of this entry »

At a recent symposium concerning both saving money and improving patient care, Health Affairs Editor-in Chief Susan Dentzer stated, “It is well established now that one can in fact improve the quality of health care and reduce the costs at the same time.”  This is exactly the principle behind the growing movement toward patient-centered care. ... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: The January 2012 issue of Health Affairs is a thematic volume titled “Confronting The Growing Diabetes Crisis.” Ariella was a different child, thin and shy, when I first met her about a year and a half ago, just after her 6th birthday. Her mother had noted her thirst and hunger, and, despite this... Read the rest of this entry »

In June of 2011, I flew to Washington, D.C. to say good-bye to my friend, Alvin.  I wanted to be there with him and his family during his peaceful passage from this life.  Unfortunately, his end was not peaceful.  It was a nightmare because he, like too many patients being transferred from one level of... Read the rest of this entry »

In the December Health Affairs Narrative Matters essay, multiple sclerosis patient Maran Wolston describes how she lost trust in her physician when she found out he was receiving payments from drug companies. Wolston says she was fortunate to be able to look up these payments in a Minnesota state database, and she applauds the establishment of... Read the rest of this entry »

Productivity at a breast care center is laudable, but not if interactions with scared or vulnerable patients lose the individualized human touch, writes Colleen Fogarty in the November Health Affairs Narrative Matters essay. Fogarty, a physician who practices at a federally qualified health center, describes her mammogram and follow-up care at a respected, high-volume breast... Read the rest of this entry »

Three dental clinics and two dental hygienists serve the 40,000 Lakota Sioux residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in North Dakota, an area the size of Connecticut. By comparison, at a typical private dental clinic, there is one hygienist for every 2,000 people, writes Maxine Brings Him Back-Janis in the Narrative Matters section of... Read the rest of this entry »

In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of 9-11, Health Affairs has added a new recording to its free collection of Narrative Matters essay podcasts on iTunes U.  “Mosaics And Misery,” a poem written on September 14, 2011, was inspired by the New York Presbyterian Hospital emergency department staff members waiting for the arrival of the injured... Read the rest of this entry »

In 2001, we experienced the unimaginable. In 2011, we know we need to expect the unexpected. Over the past decade, we learned a lot of hard lessons about what it means to be adequately prepared for diseases, disasters and bioterrorism. We’ve made smart, strategic investments, and there’s been a lot of progress to show for... Read the rest of this entry »

In the newest Health Affairs Narrative Matters essay, prominent journalist Eleanor Clift writes about her husband Tom Brazaitis and his death from metastatic cancer at age 64. Clift describes the multiple ways in which she and her husband benefited from hospice care, in which Brazaitis spent the last four months of his life. Clift uses... Read the rest of this entry »

The women recounted how their lives had been saved as they pleaded for the Food and Drug Administration not to withdraw approval for Avastin as a treatment for advanced breast cancer. They did so even without evidence that it provides benefit and with evidence that it confers risks. Their efforts were ultimately not successful: the... Read the rest of this entry »

On Monday, the federal government and the nation marked Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Day. In a statement noting the occasion, Health And Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said: “We have a responsibility to help Americans who have lived through trauma, especially our nation’s service men and women who may be dealing with PTSD.  We... Read the rest of this entry »

Health Affairs today adds a new Medical Education recording to its free collection of Narrative Matters essays on iTunes U. The account was written by Fitzhugh Mullan, a physician and clinical professor of pediatrics and public health at the George Washington University and the original editor of the “Narrative Matters” section. The essay, “Me And... Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Ogg’s Narrative Matters essay in the January issue of Health Affairs “powerfully illustrates the realities of the current long-term care environment,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said yesterday at a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing.  Pallone, the panel’s senior Democrat, entered the essay into the hearing record. Ogg suffers from primary progressive multiple... Read the rest of this entry »