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Psychology Around the Net: October 1, 2016
Ah, October, my absolute favorite month. How I’ve missed thee. This year, I get to start off my favorite month at a wedding later today, watching two sweet friends marry and begin their lives together. Speaking of marriage, let’s take a look at some of this week’s latest in mental health topics such as surviving a marriage with a special needs child as well as how the “selfie culture” is affecting young women’s mental health, today’s most common personality type, how your body reacts to food when you’re stressed, and more. Young Women ‘Highest Mental Health Risk’...
Source: World of Psychology - October 1, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Alicia Sparks Tags: Aging Marriage and Divorce Memory and Perception Mental Health and Wellness Personality Psychology Around the Net Research Self-Esteem Stress Technology Women's Issues anxiety Depression Diet discrimination Eating envious Source Type: blogs

The cost-effectiveness of prenatal screening for Down syndrome
Because the British National Health Service is a governmental single-payer system decisions about what is covered in that system involve public discussion. That leads to public discussion of ethical issues that frequently manage to avoid the public eye in the US. A recent article in the Daily Mail talks about an issue that is being debated by the British NHS. They are currently deciding whether... // Read More » (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - September 28, 2016 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Steve Phillips Tags: Health Care Allocation / Access / Public Health bioethics Culture / Ethnicity / Gender / Disability end of life Health Care Practice human dignity syndicated Source Type: blogs

What ’s wrong with socialized medicine, and what we can learn from the NHS
This article says that the NHS is in trouble, and needs to learn some new tricks in order to stay effective. It turns out that Britain only spends 7.3 percent of its gross domestic product on healthcare which is significantly below average for its peers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and plans to cut that expenditure to 6.6 percent in the next year. Because their population, like ours, is aging, costs of care are actually rising so already pinched services are being further curtailed. Because of the high costs of caring for patients with complications, some local health comm...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 26, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/janice-boughton" rel="tag" > Janice Boughton, MD < /a > Tags: Policy Health reform Medicare Source Type: blogs

How To Think About Health Technology Assessment: A Response To Goldman And Coauthors
From 3,000 miles away—on the other side of the Atlantic and more precisely from England—it is hard not to sense a note of frustration in the Health Affairs Blog post by Dana Goldman, Sam Nussbaum, and Mark Linthicum: “We need health technology assessment. Only we can’t have it. Because we are us. But we need it. But we can’t have it. So what do we do?” It is also hard not to offer sympathy, not least because every country that has what the three authors dub “full” health technology assessment (also referred to here as “HTA”) finds it endlessly controversial. But at least some of the dilemma that...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 15, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Nicholas Timmins Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Innovation Featured Health IT Europe health technology assessment National Health Service Source Type: blogs

Rapid Biomedical Innovation Calls For Similar Innovation In Pricing And Value Measurement
Advances in foundational science, technology, and clinical knowledge are driving a revolution in patient care. Minimally invasive surgery has reduced rates of post-surgical complications, reduced hospitalization, and dramatically accelerated recovery; direct-acting antivirals have brought a cure for hepatitis C; and novel immunotherapies have brought the promise of increased survival to late-stage cancer patients. The list goes on. At the same time, spending on these innovative drugs and devices has increased dramatically. Between 1980 and 2010, overall personal health care expenditures in the US grew nearly four-fold, dri...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 15, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Dana Goldman, Samuel Nussbaum and Mark Linthicum Tags: Drugs and Medical Innovation Featured Comparative Effectiveness health technology assessment National Health Service National Institute for Health and Care Excellence PCORI Source Type: blogs

Policy-Makers Should Boost Digital Health
Healthcare systems can become more sustainable with the help of disruptive health technologies through changing the building-blocks of the system: the patients and the doctors. Such a bottom-up method should also be facilitated by policy-makers. Healthcare is unsustainable. That simple, but powerful statement is true in many countries around the globe. According to OECD projections, in Europe, public expenditure on health and long-term care in OECD countries is set to increase from around 6% of GDP today to almost 9% of GDP in 2030 and as much as 14% by 2060, unless governments can contain costs. The international organi...
Source: The Medical Futurist - September 8, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Healthcare Design future gc4 healthcare policy healthcare systems Innovation Medicine policy-making Source Type: blogs

New joints: private providers and rising demand in the English National Health Service
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) - This paper explores how NHS reforms to allow for entry of private providers has affected demand for elective surgical procedures. The study found that for elective hip replacements, at least seven per cent of publicly-funded procedures were conducted by private hospitals. Using clinical audit data, the report finds that these additional procedures are not substitutions from privately-funded procedures but that they represent new surgeries.ReportIFS publication (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - August 29, 2016 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: Competition and choice Source Type: blogs

It Looks Like Labor and The News Limited Papers Have Noticed The ADHA. They Are Not Convinced Yet!
This article appeared on Sunday.A New Debate DebacleSamantha MaidenNational Political EditorSunday August 21, 2016A controversial former Journalist who created an “error strewn” database of British patients’ personal medical information has now been put in charge of Australia’s health records.Labor has warned the appointment of Tim Kelsey as the new CEO of Australia’s Digital Health Agency has raised the spectre of another census night style debacle .Mr Kelsey had a trailblazing career in the UK as the first national director of Patients and Information for the National Health Service and chair of the National In...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - August 25, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David More MB PhD FACHI Source Type: blogs

“ What Doctors Don ’ t Tell You ” about homeopathy?
We in the US certainly have our share of pure quackery; there’s no denying it. After all, we have to take “credit” for inflicting the likes of Joe Mercola, the ever-libeling conspiracy crank and hilariously off=base scientist wannabe Mike Adams, Gary Null, Robert O. Young, and many others on the world. Unfortunately, we sometimes export… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 17, 2016 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Politics Quackery homeopathy Lynn McTaggart National Health Service WDDTY What Doctors Don't Tell You Source Type: blogs

Audiologists Partner With Mental Health Professionals
Audiologists and mental health professionals in an area outside Manchester, England, are working together to provide patients with early diagnosis for both hearing and memory issues. Audiologists in Bury, Oldham and the Rochdale borough can now perform basic memory screenings on patients. In turn, the audiologists give mental health professionals at the local memory clinic tips on recognizing hearing issues.  This interprofessional exchange offers patients a chance at faster referrals, which can lead clients to earlier treatment. In an article from Rochdale Online, Helen Lilley, who works for the Manchester area’s Na...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - July 20, 2016 Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Shelley D. Hutchins Tags: Audiology News Hearing Assistive Technology hearing loss Source Type: blogs

Somewhere between the extremes: The ideal health system for America
This is my 12th year as a physician in the United States. I was born in London, grew up in Berkshire, and decided to become a doctor when I was a teenager. I remember being asked what I thought about the National Health Service (or NHS, the UK’s government-run health system) during my medical school interview. That question is almost a rite of passage for anyone applying to medical school in the UK. My answer was an idealistic one, probably identical to what most people in England — if not Europe — would say. Health care is a birthright. The NHS is a wonderful concept and immensely fair and just. Nobody shou...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 7, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Policy Health reform Source Type: blogs

5 things we can learn from the NHS doctor strike
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service has been facing something of a crisis over the last several months. For those of you unfamiliar with what’s been happening (the issue hasn’t really gained any media traction here in the U.S.), a majority of the country’s 55,000 junior doctors have been holding regular strikes. In the U.K., the way in which doctors train is very different from the U.S., with often over a decade spent as a “junior doctor” before reaching attending level. So-called junior doctors, therefore, deliver most of the nation’s frontline care. What’s the dispute all about? In a nutshell, th...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 5, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Hospital Source Type: blogs

Health Affairs Forum: Global Health
Please join us on Tuesday, June 14, when Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil will host the next in a series of fora spotlighting the journal’s work in the field of global health and a multi-year partnership with the World Innovation Summit for Health. Building upon our September 2014 thematic issue, “Advancing Global Health Policy,” and the April 2013 volume, “The Triple Aim Goes Global,” the program on June 14 will explore major issues confronting the global health community. A highlight of the event will be a discussion of international health policy—led by Weil—among Victor...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 1, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Tracy Gnadinger Tags: Elsewhere@ Health Affairs cancer care Global Health Health Affairs events Innovation Patient Safety universal health coverage Source Type: blogs

UK’s Version of EFPIA Disclosure: Bred with the Sunshine Act in Mind
Recently, we wrote about the transparency and disclosure changes coming to Europe, and promised a more in-depth view of the United Kingdom system. As we mentioned, beginning June 30, 2016, patients will be able to find out if their physician, pharmacist, or other healthcare professional has received payments from a pharmaceutical company. The payments include payments for attending a medical event to acting as an advisor to a company, and will be listed on a publicly searchable database, Disclosure UK. The database will be hosted by the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). While this move was prompted b...
Source: Policy and Medicine - April 12, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs

You can’t compare health care to the airline industry. Here’s why.
There’s been a lot of talk for quite some time in health care quality improvement circles about why health care can’t be as safe as airline travel. Some of the reasons behind asking this question are very valid, as there are many things health care can learn from the aviation industry. Others, however, are complete fallacy; because on so many levels, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Over recent weeks, I’ve heard the debate resurface again, with the same quality improvement thought leaders using the same old arguments, without being grounded in the reality of frontline medicine. Slowly but surely, patient safe...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 4, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Hospital Source Type: blogs