HealthCommentary

Exploring Human Potential

Uncoupling Scientific Progress From Human Progress: How Did We Arrive At This Place? A Three Part Series.

Source: studentblogs.med.ed.ac.uk Mike Magee A fundamental principle in human physiology and homeostasis is the negative feedback loop. When the body produces too much of something, a negative signal is transmitted back to the source which limits further production until peripheral over-production declines. These systems of checks and balances have evolved over the millennia to protect us […]

The Future of Physician Prescribing: An Historical Perspective

Mike Magee The right to prescribe medicines has been a privilege granted by our society with near exclusivity to physicians. It has been actively protected from encroachment by physician organizations usually on the basis that the physicians education and training is clearly superior to others and translates into better prescribing decisions. This privilege has also […]

The Three Pillars of the Medical-Industrial Complex – and the Physician. Part 5. Decoupling Research.

VIEW ENTIRE SERIES Mike Magee Historically, for a century since the Flexner report, some 40 premier academic health systems have been the masters and the model for American health delivery, constantly reinforcing the three-prong definition of the ideal senior level “thought leader” and successful academic physician – researcher, teacher, clinician. But in 2009, AHA president, […]

The Three Pillars of the Medical-Industrial Complex – and the Physician. Part 4. Inside the White House – Cost vs. Coverage.

VIEW ENTIRE SERIES Mike Magee When President Obama entered office in 2008, and made the political assessment that it was now or never for health care reform, he saw waste and excess everywhere he looked. As New York Times columnist, Steven Brill, explained in 2015, he found: an $86 billion expenditure annually for ineffective treatments […]

The Three Pillars of the Medical-Industrial Complex and the Physician. Part 3. Rapid Cost Escalation.

VIEW ENTIRE SERIES Mike Magee As we have seen, by the time the 1990’s arrived, prospects for the premier academic health systems were looking questionable. The educational enterprise was increasingly underfunded. Inpatient reimbursement continued to decline alongside admissions and length of stay. The massive faculty hirings of the 70’s and 80’s now left the institutions […]

The 3 Pillars of the Medical-Industrial Complex and the Physician. Part 2. Evolution of The Hospitals and Insurers.

VIEW ENTIRE SERIES Mike Magee In Part 1 of this 5 part series, I described the financial power and stakes of the pharmaceutical, health insurance and hospital industries, as revealed in the “givebacks” they granted to the Affordable Care Act in return for policy concessions to the Obama White House. In Part 2, I explore […]

The Three Pillars of the Medical-Industrial Complex and the Physician. Part I. The Financials.

VIEW ENTIRE SERIES Mike Magee Despite the fact that last week Paul Ryan, on behalf of the Republican party, unveiled their alternative to Obamacare, the likelihood that the President’s signature legislation, and the cascade of transformative changes it has unleashed, will be overturned is slim to none. This is because it has pointed America in […]

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