Attorney General Maura Healey Leads Healthcare Reform
As a member of the Advisory Council to the Health Policy Commission in Massachusetts, I was very interested in following the internet broadcast of the annual HPC Cost Trends Hearings early in October. At the core of the presentations was a debate about healthcare...
Learning from South Africa
Several years ago I was fascinated by Dr. Atul Gawande’s discussion of ignorance and  incompetence. He argued that we in healthcare are no longer ignorant. We know quite a bit about pathology, pharmacology, diagnostics, and various therapeutic techniques. On my visit...
Sustainable Universal Coverage
Last month CMS announced the results of the efforts of the Pioneer and MSSP (Medicare Shared Savings Program) ACOs for 2014. The headline made for compelling reading: Medicare ACOs Provide Improved Care While Slowing Cost Growth in 2014. This suggests that sustainable...
D. F. Wallace, Burnout, and Healthcare
What does David Foster Wallace have to tell us about burnout? More than most healthcare professionals might think. The publicity for The End of the Tour, a new film starring Jason Segel as Wallace, has reminded me of the message I took away from the first Wallace book...
The Older Americans Act
Recently the New England Journal of Medicine published a great article in the “Perspective” section, “The Older Americans Act at 50”.  Unfortunately the article is available online only to those who are subscribers, so I will try to give a very brief overview of its...
Golden Age of Medicare and Medicaid
Medicare and Medicaid are now fifty years old. I suspect they are the two programs that much of the healthcare establishment still loves to hate the most. Lyndon Johnson’s  signing on July 30, 1965 of  the Social Security Amendments of 1965, created two landmark...
Community Engagement and Prevention
We all agree on the  need for “physician engagement.” I rarely attend a meeting of physicians where someone doesn’t say that the problem with healthcare is that patients are passive, non-compliant and demanding and that a more effective form of “patient engagement” is...
The Triple Aim Before its Time
Lately I have been thinking again about the prescience of one of my most important mentors, Dr. Robert Ebert, who was Dean of Harvard Medical School when I was a student there. In my last blog post I cited a talk Dr. Ebert gave in 1967 at Simmons College, and I...
Health Disparities and the Triple Aim
Last Saturday morning I was thinking about health disparities as I prepared to give a keynote speech at the Whittier Street Clinic’s Men’s Health Summit and Grand Opening Ceremony.  I have recently joined their Health and Wellness Foundation Board and the...Case Study – Elizabeth Mcarthy
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