The American Board of Internal Medicine is on a mission to curtail unnecessary medical testing, suggesting that physicians order too much and thus drive up the cost of care.Dr. Christine K. Cassel, president and CEO of the ABIM claims to be looking at the big picture. “The campaign is not about rationing or withholding proper [...]

Digital modeling software company Geomagic is getting a real-world touch by acquiring two business units of Sensable Technologies, a company whose healthcare work can be found in medical simulations.Geomagic, a Morrisville, North Carolina company, develops computer-aided design and modeling software. The Sensable acquisition brings to Geomagic Sensable’s 3-D modeling and haptics businesses. Haptics technologies give [...]

Younger physicians take after their older counterparts in at least two ways: They dislike federal health reform and they’re pessimistic about the future of U.S. healthcare, according to a new survey.A national survey of 500 physicians 40 years of age and younger showed that 49 percent believe federal health reform will have a negative impact [...]

A pilot project from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation will funnel extra cash to primary care practices from both the federal government and private insurers.The federal government has selected seven regions across the nation to participate in the pilot program, including the Cincinnati and Dayton area in Southern Ohio. Officials with Cincinnati’s The [...]

This is a guest post by Barbra Rabson, Executive Director of Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP), on the occasion of the release of MHQP’s latest clinical quality report.As Massachusetts policymakers debate what can be done to tame rising health care costs, let’s not forget that the overriding goal must be to improve the health and [...]

Cleveland Clinic is contributing educational materials to a daily quiz that’s designed to test internists and family medicine physicians on their knowledge of medicine and practice-related issues.The “SmartestDoc” quiz from MDLinx, a website for physicians that’s supported by pharmaceutical advertising, consists of five daily questions. Each month, the physician with the most points from the [...]

Slightly over a year ago, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation of a large number of institutions regarding concerns that implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) procedures were performed for reasons outside of the criteria set forth in Medicare’s National Coverage Decision (NCD). This investigation occurred just after Al-Khatib and others published a report January [...]

By 2015, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, the U.S. health care system will be short approximately 30,000 primary care doctors. Yet, everything we read says that primary care physicians are the linchpins of the new (really rediscovered) coordinated care models being talked about by health care policy cognoscenti. What gives? Since the [...]

After a warm week of unusually warm weather in Chicago, a cool front descended on the city this weekend and in many ways, seemed to descend onthe American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions this year as well. The mood seemed almost somber on Day 1. Perhaps it was the lack of locals attending the meeting [...]

First he spent years leading a company that contributed to the nation’s high cholesterol problem, and now he’s launched his own company to help employers help their employees manage it.Activate Healthcare LLC, founded in 2009 by former Steak ‘n Shake CEO Peter Dunn, is one of several young Indiana companies that provide on-site health-and-wellness clinics [...]