Commentaries

Okay, we admit it – even we are becoming a bit jaded with all of the attention being paid to meaningful use. So we thought we’d give ourselves and our readers a break this month and instead write about a topic that gets far too little attention: optimization.

This is the concept of using electronic health records in ways that actually fulfill their... »

Dr. Hani N. Sabbah

Nearly a decade after the first in-man trial to test the efficacy and safety of using stem cells to treat acute myocardial infarction, and after numerous other small phase II clinical trials, we still don’t know which stem cell type to use, what patient population to target, or the most appropriate delivery approach.

Three recent... »

Visitors to my office often ask about the secret to maintaining "such a marvelous" 11-person staff. "You must pay them a fortune," they say.

Yes, they are compensated fairly; but that’s not why they stay. I know for a fact that many of them have turned down higher salaries at big clinics. Staff turnover is essentially nonexistent. (My... »

Fifteen years ago the FDA established a registry for clinical trials (www.clinicaltrials.gov) so that scientific investigators and the general public would have a ready source of information about medical research – planned, ongoing, and completed. In 2004 the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) announced that their journals would... »

By now, you’ve certainly heard the news: The "meaningful use" freight train has continued rolling forward and has finally arrived at the proposed criteria for stage 2. The specifics are available online for review and comment, and already – even in the pages of this newspaper – the medical world is abuzz with speculation about what they’ll really... »

I recently attended the second live learning session of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) Innovation Advisors Program. I joined 72 other advisors in this first cohort, who were selected from a pool of 920 applicants from around the United States. The learning session ended with the viewing of a talk, "Escape Fire." The... »

My last few columns have covered various techniques for assuring that you are paid for what you do. However, despite your best efforts, there will always be a few deadbeats whom you will need to pursue. For the record, I’m speaking not about patients who fall on hard times and are unable to pay, but those who are able to pay and do not.

The worst kinds of... »