Every week, MedCity News highlights the best of its MedCitizens: syndication partners and MedCity News readers who discuss life science current events on MedCityNews.com.
Now here’s the best of what YOU had to say:
Healthcare leaders are betting too much on limited impact of gamification. “Rather than making everything into a game, is there a way to get people to be intrinsically motivated to change their behavior in ways that allows them to stay healthier longer? This is a very tough problem. ‘Gamification’ is just a baby step toward a solution.”
Medicare redistributes the wealth from young workers to retirees. “Bryan Lawrence lays out the stark truth about Medicare: it’s a massive transfer of wealth from younger to older Americans. A typical American man who retired in 2011 would receive Medicare benefits of $170,000 over his lifetime, whereas he only paid in about $60,000 (adjusted for inflation and interest). Therefore he’s getting about 3x in benefits what he paid. If his spouse didn’t work she’d get about $190,000 in benefits without having paid in anything. Add it up and there’s a net transfer of $300,000 from young to old.”
Reversal agent for new blood thinners would solve a big problem: Fear. “The good news: Patients with heart disease have enjoyed great advances in stroke and heart attack prevention in the last few years. The bad news: most of these advances have involved novel new blood-thinning drugs.”
Integrative medicine – Part V: Busting Stress. “Integrative medicine does not avoid traditional ‘western’ medical approaches such as medications. But it does look at the whole person to determine if there are other parts to the ‘prescription’ that might be equally or even more valuable. The agenda is to maintain health and further develop wellness.”
Can you get a prompt appointment with your doctor? “It takes an average of 20.5 days to get an appointment with a physician, according to a study by Merritt Hawkins & Associates and related to me by the principals at ZocDoc, a startup company. That’s a long time. ZocDoc aims to fix that problem with a rapid appointment scheduled on line.”
By Deanna Pogorelc MedCity News
Deanna Pogorelc is a Cleveland-based reporter who writes obsessively about life science startups across the country, looking to technology transfer offices, startup incubators and investment funds to see what’s next in healthcare. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ball State University and previously covered business and education for a northeast Indiana newspaper.More posts by Author
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