Prepare for Comparative Effectiveness Research

February 8, 2014- By Steven E. Greer, MD

The HCC hosted a healthcare reform summit in 2009, after the ACA law was first announced by Read more »

Atul Gawande’s surgical checklist fails in real world study

March 15, 2014- By Steven E. Greer, MD

In 2009, Atul Gawande, MD, MPH and his large international team published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) an observational study that showed a significant reduction of death and “complications” after non-cardiac surgery. The World Health Organization (WHO) created the checklist used in the NEJM paper. After this non-randomized, non-controlled, observational study was published, entire nations adopted the surgical checklist system.

Now, in 2014, a population study drawing from Ontario surgical patient data, published in the NEJM, showed no significant benefit from the widespread adoption of the same WHO surgical safety checklist that Dr. Gawande popularized. This study was also observational, but it was stronger than the 2009 Gawande study in that it included the entire population within a region.

What went wrong? Read more »

Electronic medical records

The Healthcare Channel hosted a multimedia healthcare reform summit on May 1 in New York City. One topic was electronic medical records (EMR). Sir Michael Rawlins, Chairman of UK discussed how the UK has implemented EMR. In addition, Bruce Quinn, MD, PhD and former Medicare Director of California, Bruce Nudell, PhD, UBS equities analyst, and Kathy Buto of Johnson and Johnson discuss other aspects of EMR’s.