State-of-the-art principles and practices of medical economics

Summary. In an era of increasing constraints in health care expenditure, it has become necessary for the practising physician to utilise resources economically. Due to expenditure ceilings in many countries, the rational allocation of health care resources has become a central goal in health policy. Medical economics is the discipline which covers the issues of economic evaluation, policy and decision analysis and outcomes research. This paper discusses the fundamentals of this new type of research, highlighting the importance of such results in formulating health policy. Undoubtedly, medical economics will play a similar role as evidence-based medicine and clinical epidemiology in the continuous education within the medical community. This holds specially true for costly indications such as haemophilia and other coagulation disorders.     

Changing face of medical curricula

The changing role of medicine in society and the growing expectations patients have of their doctors means that the content and delivery of medical curricula also have to change. The focus of health care has shifted from episodic care of individuals in hospitals to promotion of health in the community, and from paternalism and anecdotal care to negotiated management based on evidence of effectiveness and safety. Medical training is becoming more student centred, with an emphasis on active learning rather than on the passive acquisition of knowledge, and on the assessment of clinical competence rather than on the ability to retain and recall unrelated facts. Rigid educational programmes are giving way to more adaptable and flexible ones, in which student feedback and patient participation have increasingly important roles. The implementation of sustained innovation in medical education continues to present challenges, especially in terms of providing institutional and individual incentives. However, a continuously evolving, high quality medical education system is needed to assure the continued delivery of high quality medicine.     

Women make strides in American medicine. Interview by Janice C. Simmons

The president of the American Medical Women's Association observes how the health care community needs to look at issues including maternity leave, day care and women in medical research.     

社区老年人卫生服务有赖于全科医疗

目的探讨社区老年人慢性病的防治和管理。方法对长风地区100位≥60岁老年人健康影响因素进行调查分析。结果老年人各种慢性病患病率为82%。平均每位老年人患病1.62种。老年人对社区卫生服务需求中较迫切的是就近医疗占65%,健康教育,上门服务各占42%与40%。结论要进一步在全科医疗实践中探索老年社区卫生服务模式。建立以老年人为中心,家庭为单位,社区为范围,社区服务中心为基础的全方位检测的基础服务系统。对老年人实施三级监护,提供三级卫生服务,开展老年人健康教育,健康促进,改变不良的生活方式,改善健康功能,提高生活质量,降低医疗保健费用。     

Community responsive medicine: defining an academic discipline.

Academic medicine is entering a period of introspection created by changing patterns of health and disease and changing patterns in reimbursement and health policy. To respond to existing health challenges, innovative strategies for health care delivery and education must be devised. The migration of medical education and health care delivery into centralized and frequently difficult-to-access campuses is being reviewed by payors, policy analysts, and purchasers of care. One proposed solution to this problem responds to the identified shortcomings in medical education and some of the failures of our health care delivery system. Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) and the related discipline of Community Responsive Medicine define health-oriented strategies that blend traditional primary care and public health. The classroom in Community Responsive Medicine is the community. The curriculum is defined by the elements and skills necessary to improve the health status of the target community. The model allows the student and resident to appreciate and experience the entire spectrum of health and disease and to understand the sequence of events that may lead to illness. Tertiary care is a critical curriculum component, but in Community Responsive Medicine the curriculum is balanced between the ambulatory and tertiary care settings. Community Responsive Medicine defines a role for new leadership that can create responsive educational and health care delivery systems accountable to the communities they serve.     

Nurse education: in need of radical change for PHC?

Inappropriate models of nursing and nursing education based on the western medical model and medical education impede the development of adequate national health service and primary health services. Nurses are an untapped resource for primary health care (PHC) along with non-nurse PHC workers. They have the potential to change the nature, quality and quantity of PHC services to a much greater extent then investment in reform of medical education. Nursing's large numbers, position as health care providers, and their power in the community, district, and national explaining why radical nurse's education changes can have the greatest impact. The nursing education experience is the basis for the theoretical discussion of what developing countries need from the nurse. Questions of concern are what is the reality for most nurses in the 3rd World and how can nursing education be changed to prepare nurses to meet community needs. Nurses can provide clinical skills accessible to the community and respectful approaches and attitudes toward the impoverished. Nurses currently are geographically, socially, and psychologically removed from the community in need. Those working in rural PHC are ill-equipped by training and adjust poorly to conditions that don't meet ideal settings. However, in spite of the limitations of PHC training, these nurses may still be desired as the chosen provider over non-PHC trained personnel. Nursing education can be changed by changing content and process. The content must encompass an understanding of the social, economic, and political issues affecting health and health services, their clients, and themselves. Detailed situation and community needs must be incorporated into all curricula. Specialties need to be identified and a determination made about the suitability and number needed of comprehensively trained professional nurses with a hospital orientation. The author recommends limiting hospital nursing. Colonization has brought with it many disadvantages for health care. Authoritarian education which produced passive, subservient and uncritical nurses is not appropriate. An adult education approach with a new guard of educators equipped to train active PHC workers, educational policies which support educational innovation, and practical hands-on-learning is needed. The changes are necessary to produce confident, supportive community oriented nurses.     

Health insurance and payment systems for severe acute pancreatitis

The medical insurance system of Japan is based on the Universal Medical Care System guaranteed by the provision of the Article 25 of the Constitution of Japan, which states that “All the people shall have the right to live a healthy, cultural and minimum standard of life.” The health insurance system of Japan comprises the medical insurance system and the health care system for the long-lived. Medical care insurance includes the employees’ health insurance (Social Insurance) that covers employees of private companies and their families and community insurance (National Health Insurance) that covers the self-employed. Each medical insurance system has its own medical care system for the retired and their families. The health care system for the long-lived covers people of over 75 years of age (over 65 years in people with a certain handicap). There is also a system under which all or part of the medical expenses is reimbursed by public expenditure or the cost of medical care not covered by health insurance is paid by the government. This system is referred to collectively as the “the public payment system of medical expenses.” To support the realization of the purpose of this system, there is a treatment research enterprise for specified diseases (intractable diseases). Because of the high mortality rate, acute pancreatitis is specified as an intractable disease for the purpose of reducing its mortality rate, and treatment expenses of patients are paid in full by the government dating back to the day when the application was made for a certificate verifying that he or she has severe acute pancreatitis.     

广西边贸地区卖淫妇女健康风险减少干预效果评价

目的探索在边境地区卖淫妇女中开展预防性病艾滋病和生殖健康知识、信息的传播,提高她们防病意识,减少由于提供卖淫引起的健康风险.方法建立妇女健康中心,通过出访到服务场所对卖淫妇女进行多种形式的健康教育、咨询服务和促进避孕套的使用,定性访谈和问卷调查以评估干预效果.结果通过项目干预活动的开展,卖淫妇女性病艾滋病知识水平、患病意识及正确的求医行为逐年有了不同程度的提高.读过项目提供资料的卖淫妇女知识水平、患病意识及行为改变上明显高于未读过资料的卖淫妇女.结论经过干预项目活动的开展,卖淫妇女的知识水平、患病意识和行为可发生不同程度的改变,表明在服务场所进行健康风险干预是可行的、有效的.     

Graduate primary care training: a collaborative alternative for family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics

The Residency Program in Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center is a collaborative, integrated training program for primary care pediatricians, internists, and family physicians within one interdisciplinary organization. Since 1970 we have trained more than 200 physicians, prepared them for board certification in their specialty, emphasized the psychosocial aspects and social determinants of health and illness, and shared a faculty, curriculum, and commitment to provide medical care for inner-city, underserved populations. We discuss the program's history and curriculum, administrative and academic structure, shared "cross-track" faculty units (psychosocial; social medicine; and research, education, and evaluation), and graduates' practice outcomes. The interdisciplinary character of the Residency Program in Social Medicine helps physicians successfully serve the underserved and exemplifies that interdisciplinary medical education succeeds when interdisciplinary health care teams are organized for optimal patient care. Only the federal government has the perspective and power to foster more interdisciplinary collaboration and strengthen primary care education in a period of shrinking resources.     

S.H.A.R.E.

This paper presents a Canadian community hospital program for reducing health care costs and improving patient care associated with substance abuse. A case study is presented that illustrates the workings of the S.H.A.R.E. program, including medical staff education, patient identification and assessment, and referral to community treatment services.     

Departments of medicine and international health

There is an emerging role in international health for departments of medicine that care to accept the challenge. Supervised medical rotations in the developing world and the care of culturally distinct immigrant populations provide unique opportunities to expand the scope of medical education while emphasizing a sensitive and humanistic approach to health care. The restraints imposed by diminished laboratory support and limited availability of drugs can foster reliance on diagnostic skills and the essential elements of therapy. Medical schools may elect to become involved in international health, but they must do so without becoming exploitative. Rotations of students, residents, and faculty in both directions should lead to productive interaction at both the clinical and research levels, for all participants.     

Improving Asthma Research in an Inner-City Latino Neighborhood with Community Health Workers

This study tests the feasibility of a partnership between an academic medical center and community health workers to perform mutually beneficial research investigating asthma in an urban Latino neighborhood. Community heath workers participated in the study design, instrument development, implementation, and analysis. The 103 participants recruited by the community health workers were primarily Mexican with very low education and acculturation levels. After the 1-year enrollment period, the community health workers described the challenges of data collection and gave explanations for the access to care outcomes. This academic-community partnership showed that community health workers can be effective research partners.     

社区医疗保健服务需求定量调查分析

为了解社区居民对社区医疗保健的需求状况 ,探讨改变人们不良生活方式的运行机制 ,在定性调查基础上从安贞地区随机抽取 2 0 0个家庭 ,安华地区抽取 160个家庭的 360位 2 5～ 65岁居民进行需求调查。结果表明 :82 .5%以上居民认为需要建立社区医疗服务门诊 ,希望得到健康咨询服务、健康体检服务、提供家庭医疗服务、家庭病床服务、急救服务、就医指导。 70 %居民希望对家庭成员健康进行管理 ,50 .5%愿意自费参加社区医疗保健服务。Logistic分析结果显示 ,居民是否愿意自费参加社区医疗保健仅与家庭人均月收入有关。而性别、年龄、公费医疗情况、文化程度与此无关。另外 ,不参加医疗保健主要原因是不希望额外花钱 ,占各种原因的 30 .7% ,其次是不知道效果如何、身体好没必要参加、有其它保健途径 ,分别占 2 0 .7% ,2 0 .7% ,2 1.3% ,不知原因的占 6.6%。说明居民对社区家庭医疗保健服务存在较高比例的需求 ,开展此项服务有其可行性。但人们的经济水平可能是自费保健的阻力因素     

Improving Asthma Research in an Inner-City Latino Neighborhood with Community Health Workers

This study tests the feasibility of a partnership between an academic medical center and community health workers to perform mutually beneficial research investigating asthma in an urban Latino neighborhood. Community heath workers participated in the study design, instrument development, implementation, and analysis. The 103 participants recruited by the community health workers were primarily Mexican with very low education and acculturation levels. After the 1-year enrollment period, the community health workers described the challenges of data collection and gave explanations for the access to care outcomes. This academic-community partnership showed that community health workers can be effective research partners.     

Luxury primary care,academic medical centers,and the erosion of science and professional ethics

Medical schools and teaching hospitals have been hit particularly hard by the financial crisis affecting health care in the United States. To compete financially, many academic medical centers have recruited wealthy foreign patients and established luxury primary care clinics. At these clinics, patients are offered tests supported by little evidence of their clinical and/or cost effectiveness, which erodes the scientific underpinnings of medical practice. Given widespread disparities in health, wealth, and access to care, as well as growing cynicism and dissatisfaction with medicine among trainees, the promotion by these institutions of an overt, two-tiered system of care, which exacerbates inequities and injustice, erodes professional ethics. Academic medical centers should divert their intellectual and financial resources away from luxury primary care and toward more equitable and just programs designed to promote individual, community, and global health. The public and its legislators should, in turn, provide adequate funds to enable this. Ways for academic medicine to facilitate this largesse are discussed.     

Innovative generalist programs Academic health care centers respond to the shortage of generalist physicians

Academic health care centers increasingly are exploring innovative ways to increase the supply of generalist physicians. The authors review successful innovations at representative academic health centers in the areas of recruitment and admissions, undergraduate medical education, residency training, and practice support. Lessons learned focus on those areas that have demonstrated improvements in the number and quality of physicians trained in family practice, general pediatrics, and general internal medicine. Successful recruitment of generalism-oriented applicants requires identification and tracking of rural, minority, and other special groups of students at the high school and college levels. Academic health care centers that provide early, sustained, community-based, ambulatory experiences for medical students and residents encourage trainees to maintain and choose generalist careers. Finally, academic health care centers that link with community providers and with state government encourage the retention of generalist physicians through continuing education and teaching networks.     

The desk directory of social resources: a physicians' reference guide to social and community services for the aged

Physicians not only have a responsibility for the diagnosis and management of illness in the aged but also must address the patient's emotional needs, functional status, and psychosocial problems. The Institute of Medicine Report on Geriatric Medical Education has emphasized the need to train physicians to understand how the social components of care enhance the course and outcome of treatment. A physician's reference guide to social and community services should be developed to provide information that will enable clinicians to integrate medical and community health services into their practice.     

Innovative generalist programs

Academic health care centers increasingly are exploring innovative ways to increase the supply of generalist physicians. The authors review successful innovations at representative academic health centers in the areas of recruitment and admissions, undergraduate medical education, residency training, and practice support. Lessons learned focus on those areas that have demonstrated improvements in the number and quality of physicians trained in family practice, general pediatrics, and general internal medicine. Successful recruitment of generalism-oriented applicants requires identification and tracking of rural, minority, and other special groups of students at the high school and college levels. Academic health care centers that provide early, sustained, community-based, ambulatory experiences for medical students and residents encourage trainees to maintain and choose generalist careers. Finally, academic health care centers that link with community providers and with state government encourage the retention of generalist physicians through continuing education and teaching networks.     

Medical readers' theater: relevance to geriatrics medical education

Medical Readers' Theater (MRT) is an innovative and simple way of helping medical students to reflect on difficult-to-discuss topics in geriatrics medical education, such as aging stereotypes, disability and loss of independence, sexuality, assisted living, relationships with adult children, and end-of-life issues. The authors describe a required MRT experience involving third-year medical students on their Family Medicine clerkship and volunteer residents from a nearby continuing care retirement community. Evaluation of the program shows positive benefits to student and senior participants in terms of greater awareness of each other's perspectives and improved communication.     

Abortion and medical education in Mexico

Medical education in Mexico has significant deficiencies in the area of sexual and reproductive health and does not offer students the information needed for dealing with abortion as a relevant problem in the professional practice of medicine. Medical education does not offer options for the clinical training of future physicians in integrated models for abortion care, which include the use of safe and effective technologies as well as a range of services to respond to women's needs. These limitations are especially relevant in countries such as Mexico where unsafe abortion continues to be a significant public health problem. In addition, the legal context for abortion has begun to change during the current decade; therefore, the search for alternatives to incorporate a broad approach to abortion in medical school programs is a task that cannot be postponed.