Before I was a professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business or CEO at The Permanente Medical Group (Kaiser Permanente), I was a very proud, busy and highly satisfied plastic and reconstructive surgeon. Plastic surgery has for decades stood on the...
It is common, when going to the doctor with a medical problem, to imagine the worst-case scenario playing out. Last month, leading up to Halloween, subscribers of my Monthly Musings on American Healthcare were asked what scares them most as patients. Here are the...
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have been around for more than a decade—created with the idea that integrating care providers across settings (hospitals, primary care, specialty care, etc.) and aligning their financial incentives would lead to improved clinical...
With the higher transmissibility of the Delta variant, the herd immunity threshold will now require an estimated at 90% of Americans to be immune to the coronavirus. And that will require nearly all kids and teenagers to be vaccinated, which leads us to the results of...
It began as an acute illness, sometime about a decade ago. Doctors, who had for centuries belonged to a proud and rewarding profession, were suddenly reporting a series of alarming symptoms: exhaustion, frustration and extreme hopelessness. Surveys indicated that...
Not all physician specialties are created equal, at least not in the United States. The relative pecking order of American doctors has, for decades, placed primary care (internal and family medicine) below interventional specialties like cardiology, orthopedics and...
Covid-19 cases hit a six-month high in August with the most daily infections since February. At the time of this survey, the United States was once again reporting more than 100,000 new cases each day. I asked readers who they were holding MOST accountable for this...
In this survey, the third of the Fixing Healthcare franchise, we asked listeners: "Which of medicine’s cultural issues are most concerning to you?" Options were based on insights and topics from the eight guests featured on season five of the Fixing Healthcare...
For decades, physician researchers and surgical superstars have been advancing medical science at a rapid pace, pushing the boundaries of innovation far beyond what previous generations thought possible. Breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease,...
Inspired by the new season of Fixing Healthcare, this survey looked at the various parts of the healthcare system in search of solutions. It asked which key players are helping the cause of fixing healthcare and which ones are standing in the way of progress. Here are...