Author: Kathy Stroffolino

September 4 & 5, 2012, The Manor on Golden Pond, Holderness, NH

Published by Kathy Stroffolino
Non Required Reading/Listening: O’Connell Kerry Two Arms, Two Choices: If Only I’d Known Then What I Know Now Health Affairs, 31, no.8 (2012):1895-1899.doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2011.1158. Journal Club I: [Sirovich] Wilt TJ etal.“Radical Prostatectomy versus Observation for Localized Prostate Cancer” NEJM 2012;367:203-13 and “Questioning Surgery for Early Prostate Cancer” NY Times, Tara Parker-Pope, July 18, 2012 AUA Responds to New Prostate Cancer Intervention vs Observation Trial (PIVOT) Data. [Colla] Kaestner R, Lo Sasso AT “Does Seeing the Doctor More Often Keep You Out of the Hospital? NBER Working Paper. [Fowler] Bluming AZ, Tavris C “Hormone Replacement Therapy: Real Concerns and False Alarms” The Cancer Journal 2009;15(2):93-104. [Skinner] Mathews AW, “Same Doctor Visit, Double the Cost,” Wall Street Journal (August 27, 2012). [Goodney] De Bruyne B and others, “Fractional Flow Reserve-Guided PCI versus Medical Therapy in Stable Coronary Disease,” and Boden W, “Which is More Enduring: FAME or COURAGE?” NEJM (August 28, 2012). Research Report II: [Lewis] Lewis VA, BK Larson, AB McClurg, RG Boswell, ES Fisher, “The Promise And Peril Of Accountable Care For Vulnerable Populations: A Framework For Overcoming Obstacles,” Health Affairs (August 2012). Research Report III: [Baker] “The Big Picture on the Imaging Slowdown” (reading: Lee DW and F Levy, “The Sharp Slowdown In Growth Of Medical Imaging: An Early Analysis Suggests Combination Of Policies Was The Cause,” Health Affairs, July 2012). Journal Club II: [Bynum] Chen LM, Render M, Sales A, Kennedy EH, Wiltala W, Hafer TP “Intensive Care Unit Admitting Patterns in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System” Arch Intern Med Published on line July 23, 2012. [Skinner] Health Care: An Alternate Economic Universe Posted By Jeff Goldsmith On August 23, 2012 @ 2:09 pm Health Affairs Blog – http://healthaffairs.org/blog [Staiger] Grytten, J, Monkerud, L, Sørensen R, Adoption of Diagnostic Technology and Variation in Caesarean Section Rates: A Test of the (more…)

Renwal Grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for our Program Project “Causes and Consequences of Healthcare Efficiency”

Published by Kathy Stroffolino
The major goal of this project is to improve understanding of the causes and consequences of regional variations in health care intensity, which could have important implications for the health and well–being of the elderly, for addressing health disparities and for the financial health of the Medicare trust funds. In the next project period, Skinner and colleagues will seek to shed light on the following key clinical and policy questions: 1. Who can reasonably be held accountable for the care of high–need patients? 2. Can the value of pharmaceutical treatments in Medicare Part D be improved? 3. Is better surgical quality more costly? 4. How can we identify efficient health care providers — and are Canadian providers less efficient than those in the U.S? 5. Can we measure health outcomes reliably enough to use in rewarding efficient providers? (more…)