| Time to Call the Doctor in Your Pocket? |
| Thursday, Februay 19, 2009 - A new initiative was launched at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona this week that aims to take advantage of the ubiquity of mobile phones to help foster better healthcare around the world. Several weeks ago we heard about how cell phones can be used to test for diseases when labs and clinics aren't available. The Rockefeller Foundation, the UN Foundation and The Vodafone Foundation announced the Mobile Health (mHealth) Alliance this week in Barcelona, a new initiative that hopes to put cell phones to better use and expand the availability of care. Quoting Terry Kramer, strategy director at British operator Vodafone, the AFP reports, "When you consider that there are 2.2 billion mobile phones in the developing world, 305 million computers but only 11 million hospital beds you can instantly see how mobiles can create effective solutions to address health care challenges." Forrester analyst Elizabeth Boehm said, "One of the main challenges, in mobile health, is that people who are most in need of health care are usually more aged, so they don't use the mobile or they're not comfortable with it." One of the goals of the mHealth Alliance is to change that. Mobile phones are capable of monitoring blood glucose, administering tests, reminding patients when to take their medicines, and used as alternative means to contact healthcare professionals to provide care over-the-phone when they aren't available in person. The mHealth Alliance is charged with increasing the awareness of how these tools can be put to better use. |
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Physicians Increasingly Support a Single-Payer National Health Insurance System
Laurie Barclay, MD
| February 13, 2009 — US physicians increasingly support a single-payer national health insurance system, according to the results of a survey reported online January 29 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. “Many politicians may mistakenly believe that single-payer national health insurance lacks support among key stakeholders such as doctors,” lead author Danny McCormick, from Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), said in a news release. “Our finding that support for single-payer national health insurance now approaches that of tax-based incremental reforms suggests that a Medicare-for-all-type plan may be more politically viable than conventional wisdom suggests.” The goal of this US nationally representative mail survey was to evaluate physician opinion regarding financing options for expanding coverage for and access to healthcare. Between March 2007 and October 2007, US physicians involved in direct patient care were asked to rate their support for reform options such as financial incentives to encourage people to buy health insurance and single-payer national health insurance, as well as to rate their views of several aspects of access to healthcare. Of 3300 physicians sent the survey, 1675 (50.8%) responded; 49% prefer either tax incentives or penalties to promote the purchase of health insurance; 42% prefer a government-run, taxpayer-financed single-payer national health insurance program, which increased from 26% in a study 5 years previously; and only 9% prefer the current, employer-based financing system. Regarding access to healthcare, 89% of physicians surveyed believe that all Americans should receive needed medical care regardless of ability to pay; 33% believe that the uninsured currently have access to needed care; and 19.3% believe that even the insured lack access to needed care. Opinions regarding access were independently associated with support for single-payer national health insurance. "Surveys show that a majority of Americans support a single-payer system. It's not surprising that increasing numbers of doctors do,” said coauthor David Bor, MD, also from Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance. “Single payer is the only proposal that can cover all Americans, for all needed care, without driving up healthcare costs. National health insurance would eliminate the massive administrative costs and hassles imposed by our current multiplicity of private insurers.” Limitations of this study include modest response rate; the possibility that physicians strongly interested in health policy issues may have been more likely to respond; lack of generalizability to all physicians’ views; and possible misinterpretation of question meaning or bias related to question wording and response option content. “Although a plurality of physicians favored incremental health care reform proposals based on the use of tax credits and penalties, a substantial proportion of physicians preferred an entirely different health care financing system — a government-run, taxpayer-financed single-payer [national health insurance] program,” the study authors write. “Physicians play a central role in the health care system and these views could be influential in reforming the financing of the American health care system.” The Department of Medicine at the Cambridge Hospital funded this study. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. J Gen Intern Med. Published online January 29, 2009. |
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Medical Meetings' Attendance Up in 2008
Medical Meetings' Attendance Up in 2008
Feb 18, 2009 2:38 PM
Despite the recession, professional attendance at healthcare meetings grew 1 percent in 2008 over the previous year, according to the Healthcare Convention and Exhibitors Association’s 2009 State of the Industry Report and Market Trend Watch.
The report, which analyzes data from over 24,000 healthcare meetings in the United States, also found that the number of healthcare exhibits increased 2 percent in 2008 over 2007. Net square footage, however, decreased 2 percent last year. Some planners have said that exhibitors aren’t pulling booths, but they are reducing their size in this economic downturn.
On attendance, there were some interesting trends related to national and state meetings. Professional attendance at national healthcare meetings rose 5 percent in 2008. In contrast, state meetings reported a 4 percent decline in professional attendance last year.
“The convention marketing mix remains vitally important to overall strategic marketing objectives, even through the changes of the past year,” said Eric Allen, executive vice president at HCEA, in a press release.
Healthcare meetings represent about 24 percent of all meetings in the United States, making it the largest single segment. For more information on the report findings, visit www.HCEA.org.
http://meetingsnet.com/medicalmeetings/news/medical_meeting_attendance_0209/
Feb 18, 2009 2:38 PM
Despite the recession, professional attendance at healthcare meetings grew 1 percent in 2008 over the previous year, according to the Healthcare Convention and Exhibitors Association’s 2009 State of the Industry Report and Market Trend Watch.
The report, which analyzes data from over 24,000 healthcare meetings in the United States, also found that the number of healthcare exhibits increased 2 percent in 2008 over 2007. Net square footage, however, decreased 2 percent last year. Some planners have said that exhibitors aren’t pulling booths, but they are reducing their size in this economic downturn.
On attendance, there were some interesting trends related to national and state meetings. Professional attendance at national healthcare meetings rose 5 percent in 2008. In contrast, state meetings reported a 4 percent decline in professional attendance last year.
“The convention marketing mix remains vitally important to overall strategic marketing objectives, even through the changes of the past year,” said Eric Allen, executive vice president at HCEA, in a press release.
Healthcare meetings represent about 24 percent of all meetings in the United States, making it the largest single segment. For more information on the report findings, visit www.HCEA.org.
http://meetingsnet.com/medicalmeetings/news/medical_meeting_attendance_0209/
Sunday, February 8, 2009
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