The American Medical Association Recognizes Shared Decision Making

Readers of the Disease Management Care Blog may be surprised to learn that the American Medical Association "recognizes" shared decision making.  A document recommending precisely that is available for your reading pleasure here.

Its a good review of the topic and makes for interesting reading. While the DMCB knew that the term "shared decision making" was specifically mentioned in the Affordable Care Act, it didnt know that there was an group called the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS) Collaboration that is developing and piloting standards.  It also didnt know that there is an academic entity in Canada called the Ottawa Health Research Institute (OHRI) that is devoted to research on the topic.  The one area in which the Americans seem to still be leading, however, is commercializing the concept.

The AMA also recognizes that shared decision making can make the physician-patient relationship stronger, opposes any effort to link it to insurance coverage and supports more pilot programs.

This makes the DMCB happy to be an AMA member.

The Medical Home News Question The DMCB Answers Other

The Disease Management Care Blog is happy to serve on the National Advisory Board of Medical Home News.  MHN has important insights and updates on the implementation of Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH).  It also regularly poises a "Thought Leaders Corner"question and prints answers from the PCMH community.

The December 12 issue question was:

What is the single most important issue to overcome in terms of widespread implementation of the medical home model?
A growing shortage of PCPs?
Lack of payer commitment to reimburse care coordination?
Lack of incentives to adopt/implement EHRs?
Lack of sufficient team culture being taught?
Other?

The Disease Management Care Blog naturally answered "other...."

"While I used to think the most important issue was finding generalizable approach to care (template) and an accompanying business model that has consistently been shown to reduce health care costs in a clinically and statistically significant manner, I’m changing my mind. 

The most important issue is the emerging link between accountable care organizations and the medical home to the exclusion of all other approaches to care.  The medical home has had its victories, but much of the published high quality research is from highly integrated settings and even then, it’s unclear if the avoided claims expense is greater than all the indirect and direct costs. We still don’t know if the medical home can succeed in the other kinds of networks being established by ACOs. 

As a result, if ACOs stumble and prove to be an unsuccessful reprise of the 1990s style physician-hospital initiatives, the medical home could be taken down before we know if it can work in non-academic, non-Medicaid community settings. 

This promising baby could be thrown out with the bathwater."

If, despite the DMCBs participation, youre interested in subscribing to MHN, getting your boss to pay for it or giving a years worth of issues as a fitting holiday present, more information can be found here.

Life Insurance No Medical Exam From Insurance Globe

Insurance Globe is dedicated to helping you find the best life insurance for your situation. On their website you will be able to compare term life insurance quotes and return of premium life insurance quotes instantly from America’s top life insurance companies. They also provide you with custom whole life, universal life and survivorship life insurance quotes. Whatever your situation is, they will find you The Right Insurance at the Right Price.

At Insurance Globe, their goal is to provide you with the necessary information to make the right decision on your life insurance. They are a completely independent insurance agency, which allows them to provide you with the most unbiased life insurance comparisons on the internet. Once you fill out their quote form, you will immediately receive a price comparison of the most competitive life insurance products. They are committed to providing a database which includes every term product for which we can obtain information. Provided that they are able to obtain the rates for a term insurance product there is no reason for Insurance Globe not to include that information.

Insurance Globe provides life insurance quotes for the following types of life insurance including Term Life Insurance, Universal Life Insurance, Return of Premium Life Insurance, Instant Issue Online Life Insurance, Senior and Final Expense Life Insurance, Children’s Life Insurance, Second to Die or Survivorship Life Insurance, Whole Life Insurance and Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance, Life Insurance No Medical Exam.

Their qualified life insurance agents are also available by phone to answer any questions you may have. They will walk you through the different types of life insurance and customize your insurance to fit your needs, health and lifestyle. Once you feel comfortable and are ready to make a decision, they will guide you through the application process. InsuranceGlobe.net is owned by Insurance Globe Partners, LLC. Their Insurance Globe’s Life Insurance No medical Exam is a type of life insurance that builds cash value. In that, the cash value can be invested in a wide variety of separate accounts, similar to mutual funds, and the choice of which of the available separate accounts to use is entirely up to the contract owner.

The life Insurance universal is a type of permanent life insurance, because the death benefit will be paid if the insured dies any time as long as there is sufficient cash value to pay the costs of insurance in the policy. With most if not all, unlike whole life, there is no endowment age which for whole life is typically 100. This is yet another key advantage of this insurance over Whole Life. With a typical whole life policy, the death benefit is limited to the face amount specified in the policy, and at endowment age, the face amount is all that is paid out. Thus with either death or endowment, the insurance company keeps any cash value built up over the years.

However, some participating whole life policies offer riders which specify that any dividends paid on the policy be used to purchase "paid up additions" to the policy which increase both the cash value and the death benefit over time. With this Life Insurance Universal policy, the death benefit is the face amount plus the buildup of any cash value that occurs beyond any amount being used to fund the current cost of insurance.

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Insurance Globe is dedicated to helping you find the best life insurance for your situation. On their website you will be able to compare term life insurance quotes and return of premium life insurance quotes instantly from America’s top life insurance companies. Their Insurance Globe’s Life Insurance no medical exam http://www.insuranceglobe.net/ is a type of life insurance that builds cash value.

Article Source: Life Insurance No Medical Exam From Insurance Globe

Author : Jack

Urgent Care Center Offers Professional Medical Care

Urgent care has rapidly gained immense popularity in the health care industry. Urgent care proves to be convenient and appropriate for those who do not get a timely appointment at a primary care physician office and are suffering from injuries that are of an acute nature. With the help of urgent care the patients can have easy access to quality medicine.

An urgent medical condition is a non life threatening one but it does require immediate attention. The services available at medical care centers are generally not offered by primary care physician offices such as x-ray facilities, control nose bleeds, treatment of minor fractures, etc. Moreover there are numerous advantages of visiting such centers such as you do not need to wait for hours in the long lines at hospital-based emergency rooms. The other advantage is flexible timings. You can visit urgent care clinics as per your convenience. There are also several clinics that available 24/7 or on-call. In most of the cases no appointment is necessary. The services offered by urgent care center are affordable as compared to a visit at the hospital emergency room. If you are facing non-life threatening issues such as fever, earaches, coughs, wheezing, broken bones, sore throat, sprains, etc you can opt for a reliable medical care center.

From advance diagnostic testing, to a specialist follow up, a reliable medical care center offers unparalleled services. The trusted urgent care center has also an aftercare team that focuses at providing you with appropriate care you need in a timely manner. The board certified emergency medicine physicians at the center takes best possible care of the patients. The informed medical providers offer quality medicine to the patients.

Finding a reliable walk-in clinic is imperative as a good clinic helps you get through a difficult period in an appropriate way. In order to find out a trusted urgent care clinic you can browse the internet. While searching online you can come across numerous clinics offering several kinds of services. You can go through the websites and can read the services, treatments offered. Also read the customers testimonials as you can get an idea of the kind of service offered. Visiting yellow page directory is also a good option. Online discussion forums can also help you in providing useful information regarding the urgent care center. You can also ask from friends and family members.

Before selecting an urgent medical care center ensure that it is staffed with highly trained and board?certified physicians in emergency medicine. Ensure that whether the center deals with a variety of health issues or not. Also make sure whether the walk-in clinic has highly knowledgeable physicians and has necessary equipments that are needed to perform specific procedures like x-rays, etc. Another thing to be considered is the qualification of the staff and whether they are certified so as to provide the services. Make sure that they are licensed. It is also advisable to check the equipments and ensure that they are the latest. It is better to look in for a state-of-the-art facility.

Article by : Patricia Susan

Article Source : Urgent Care Center Offers Professional Medical Care

Medical Imaging Techniques That Require X Ray Aprons

The controlled use of radiation in medicine has made it possible to treat and diagnose many different problems without requiring invasive and traumatic surgery. These machines have increased the accuracy of some medical procedures and have allowed a more complete understanding of the systems within the body. High levels of exposure to radiation can be harmful. Most of the devices that are used in medicine do not emit enough energy to cause any problems in patients. One issue that does arise, however, is when a medical professional must operate these machines for hours every day for multiple patients. This is why doctors and nurses must wear x-ray aprons for protection when using some of the equipment.

Computed Tomography (CT)

This is one of the most frequently used diagnostic techniques in larger hospitals. A CT scanner sends x-rays from a rotating generator that spins around the body. The beams are received by a special device that constructs a two-dimensional (2D) image of a single slice of the body. The scanner or the patient is then slowly moved so that multiple sequential images can be taken. A computer can then combine these slices so that doctors can have an accurate three-dimensional (3D) view of the structures inside of the body. X-ray aprons are necessary for anyone operating this machine because of the high amount of energy that is scattered around the room while scanning takes place.

Angiography

Angiography is a type of imaging that is used to see exactly how blood is moving through the body in real time. The process involves injecting a special contrast agent into the veins or arteries that can then be viewed through fluoroscopy or other techniques that use x-rays to quickly image the area being examined. It is very important for medical professionals who are performing this procedure to wear x-ray aprons, because the imaging technique is sending many bursts of energy out every minute. Angiography is unlike some other procedures because the doctors must actually be in the room and next to the patient in order to inject the contrasting agent and to possibly insert stents for treatment.

X-Rays

Standard x-rays are used to take static 2D images of a single part of the body. This can be used to detect broken bones, fractures or irregularities in dense tissue. These machines tend to have a broad radiation scattering pattern, so medical professionals need to wear x-ray aprons for protection against the ambient radiation. It is not uncommon for hospitals to provide patients with x-ray aprons as well to protect areas of the body that are not being x-rayed.

Article by : Jeremy P Stanfords

Article Source : Medical Imaging Techniques That Require X-Ray Aprons