Health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions [1]. Health literacy is important because it affects a individual’s ability to manage personal health: to navigate the healthcare system, share health history with healthcare providers, engage in self-care and manage chronic disease, and understand concepts such as probability and risk.
Avastin, the FDA and Breast Cancer Patient Survival
December 14, 2010 | by
The impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will be front and center later this week when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decides whether to revoke marketing clearance of the cancer drug Avastin for breast malignancies.
On one side, you have critics of the FDA accusing them of rationing healthcare while on the other side, you have comparative effectiveness research showing that there’s no statistically meaningful difference in the survival of patients receiving Avastin plus chemotherapy compared to chemotherapy alone.
Grand Rounds: the Impact of Healthcare Reform
December 7, 2010 | by
Welcome to Grand Rounds: the Impact of Healthcare Reform.
There’s a revolution occurring on the Web: those “authoritative” articles written on traditional, static websites are being replaced with blogs, wikis and online social networks. In the sphere of health, medicine and information technology, this “real-time Web” consists of many who are professionals in the field; their posts are listed below. In the digital age, these are the characteristics of new media: recent, relevant, reachable and reliable.
For this edition of Grand Rounds, Vol. 7 No. 11, we’re focusing on the impact of healthcare reform: what are the changes to healthcare delivery, utilization, quality, costs (either as a provider or a patient) and outcomes. After all, these changes affect everyone, whether you’re a patient, a healthcare provider or a biomedical researcher.
Healthcare Spending After the Recession
May 12, 2009 | by
Yesterday, the American Medical Association (AMA) and five other major groups representing doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and union members delivered a letter to President Obama pledging to cut the U.S. growth rate for healthcare spending by 1.5 percent each year from 2010 through 2019 [1]. The coalition’s efforts are intended to supplement upcoming legislation aimed at decreasing healthcare costs for families, businesses and the government.
The savings — an estimated $2 trillion over the next decade — would come from changes in the public-private partnership and include:
- Administrative standardization, simplification and transparency.
- Aligning quality and efficiency incentives among providers to reduce over- and under-use of healthcare.
- Encouraging coordinated care and adherence to evidence-based best practices and therapies.
- Reducing the cost of doing business by developing technology and regulatory reform.
Although the proposed health expenditure savings is small, experts say it’s significant [2]. The very fact that health industry leaders have stepped forward to voluntarily restrain costs is itself encouraging; these are the same groups that opposed the healthcare reforms proposed by President Clinton in the 1990s.
I.O.U.S.A. One Nation Under Stress and In Debt
January 11, 2009 | by
I.O.U.S.A. is a documentary directed by Patrick Creadon that examines the rapidly growing U.S. national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival; last summer, it was screened at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions last summer, earning significant acclaim from critics and audiences alike [1].
This weekend, I.O.U.S.A. is making its television debut on CNN. You can catch it this afternoon, Sunday, January 10th at 3 p.m. EST. The broadcast will be hosted by Ali Velshi and Christine Romans, co-anchors of CNN’s weekend business roundtable program Your $$$$$.
I wrote about Healthcare Costs and the Looming U.S. Budget Crisis last summer here on Highlight HEALTH. I.O.U.S.A. follows now former Comptroller General David Walker and Robert Bixby, Executive Director of the Concord Coalition, on their cross-country Fiscal Wake-Up Tour to talk to the American people about the country’s debt problem. The movie further underscores the need for immediate reform of Americas major entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
According to the I.O.U.S.A. movie website [2]:
Wake up, America! We’re on the brink of a financial meltdown. I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions.
Throughout history, the American government has found it nearly impossible to spend only what has been raised through taxes. Wielding candid interviews with both average American taxpayers and government officials, Sundance veteran Patrick Creadon (Wordplay) helps demystify the nation’s financial practices and policies. The film follows former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker as he crisscrosses the country explaining America’s unsustainable fiscal policies to its citizens.
With surgical precision, Creadon interweaves archival footage and economic data to paint a vivid and alarming profile of America’s current economic situation. The ultimate power of I.O.U.S.A. is that the film moves beyond doomsday rhetoric to proffer potential financial scenarios and propose solutions about how we can recreate a fiscally sound nation for future generations.
Creadon uses candid interviews and his featured subjects include Warren Buffett, Alan Greenspan, Paul O’Neill, Robert Rubin, and Paul Volcker, along with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s own David Walker and Bob Bixby of the Concord Coalition, a Foundation grantee.
Pointedly topical and consummately nonpartisan, I.O.U.S.A. drives home the message that the only time for America’s financial future is now.
If you’re concerned about America’s impending financial disaster, you owe it to yourself (and your children) to see this movie.
References
- ‘I.O.U.S.A.’ Makes TV Debut on CNN. Documentary.org 2009 Jan.
- About the Movie. I.O.U.S.A. the Movie. Accessed 2009 Jan 11th.
