NYT: Technology can improve healthcare

The New York Times has an article titled, "Technology can improve healthcare." This is actually an interesting topic because some would argue that recent advances in technology have done a disservice to the health care industry. Expensive tests may be diagnosing certain diseases earlier, but they are also being misused by many and this is causing health care costs to soar. Additionally, the misuse of high-tech scans like CT scans are increasing exposure to radiation and also leading to unnecessary diagnostic procedures when "incidentalomas" are found on imaging studies. So, how do you maintain a healthy balance?

I'm hoping that more focus will be placed on the use of technology to improve the overall health care system. We need better ways to diagnose and treat diseases. We also need better ways to educate patients and improve communication among health care professionals. Advances in health IT ought to improve patient care by reducing medical errors and improving the way patient data gets accessed. Plus, technology is making it easier for physicians to practice evidence-based medicine if they're using the right types of clinical decision support tools in their daily practice.

So, although we live in a country where we have access to some of the greatest advances in technology, we need to make sure that we're not misusing these resources. There's a fine line between empowering the patient vs. giving them resources so they can self-diagnose and self-treat serious conditions. I get nervous when people tell me that they're self-diagnosing all these conditions by researching things on the Internet.

"The Doctor’s Failure to Cut Costs" by Dr. Pauline Chen in the NY Times

In the NY Times, Dr. Pauline Chen writes an interesting article titled, "The Doctor’s Failure to Cut Costs." She interviews Dr. Howard Brody, professor of family medicine and director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Dr. Brody recently wrote an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, titled, "Medicine's Ethical Responsibility for Health Care Reform — The Top Five List"

So, is it all about money? No. But, listen to this response from Dr. Brody:

When you combine this love affair with high technology with a reimbursement system that pays so much more for technology — and less for thinking and sitting and talking with patients — you end up with an expensive kind of medicine, which, when practiced by doctors, puts more money into their pockets...
In actual fact, there’s such a low chance that technology will help all these patients.

I agree that the misuse of technology is contributing to soaring health care costs. There are some organizations that even promote "executive health" programs that include expensive medical tests and diagnostic studies (not necessarily based on evidence, but based on strategies that will profit the hospital systems).  I believe that technology can significantly improve the world of medicine and public health, but only if it's used properly.

Pharmaceutical Industry Raises Drug Prices by 9%

According to this story on the NY Times, Professor Schondelmeyer found that prices for the name-brand drugs most widely used by the Medicare population rose by 9.3 percent in the last year. Professor Stephen W. Schondelmeyer is a pharmaceutical economics professor at the University of Minnesota.

We know that it costs billions of dollars to research and develop a drug. Those costs are not trivial. We also know that the pharmaceutical industry is a for-profit industry and certain compounds end up being very profitable. Where is the balance? How do we ensure that new drugs are being discovered and that patients are receiving adequate and affordable treatment?

Health Effects of Texting in Teens

Do you text? I'm not a huge fan of texting, but I tweet like crazy (however, most of my tweets are automated). Teenagers and other young people have taken texting to an entirely new level by creating a language of acronyms that can only be understood for those who are familiar with texting. According to the Nielsen Company, teens sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008. Wow!

The NY Times has an article on the health effects of texting. Physicians and psychologists are worried about anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation. That doesn't sound good, does it? The article quotes Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who is director of the Initiative on Technology and Self at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Here's a snippet of the quote: "Among the jobs of adolescence are to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to become the person you decide you want to be," she said. "Texting hits directly at both those jobs."

Frequent typing on tiny thumb keyboards can also cause BlackBerry thumb.

Living and Dying in an Iron Lung

What's an iron lung? Take a look at the picture. It's obviously not something you transplant into your body. According to the NY Times, Martha Mason lived in this "iron lung" for over 60 years and recently died at the age of 71. She was parlayed from polio and her life depended on this machine.

Mason had quite a life and even wrote a book while living in this life-saving contraption. She also appeared on several documentaries. Advances in Medical technology have significantly improved the quality of life for people who are unable to breathe independently. Image source: NY Times