3 Innovations in Health Care

There are several innovations in the world of healthcare that have extended our life expectancy and
made every day life and medicine much easier and efficient. However, there are also certain innovations that are largely unseen by the average citizen and sometimes not even by fellow medical professionals. These uncredited innovations are making small yet important improvements to everyday medicine. Here are 3 such improvements to the world of medicine:

1. Innovations in cardiac care

Thanks to improvements to how patients are diagnosed and treated for coronary heart disease, death rates have dropped 38% within the last decade. These improvements were largely quiet, incremental and had no spotlight shined on them but a 38% drop in 10 years is an amazing feat.

Hospitals as well as doctors had begun implementing methods that streamlined the process of diagnosing and treating heart disease. EKGs, for example, can now be performed on location by a paramedic when they reach a patient and transmit the data to the ER. Prior to this, an EKG could only be performed after the ambulance arrived at the ER but it is well known that timely response and treatment is critical.

On the more administrative side of things, lawyers have also streamlined the document and consent form process.

2. Leveraging technology and data to improve kidney transplant matching

This innovation came from the field of Economics, where Stanford professor of economics, Al Roth, worked on “matching markets.” This was cleverly adapted to matching donors and recipients of kidneys, sometimes creating a large and intricate web of donation and receipt of these vital organs.

For example, if a family member needs a kidney transplant and you wish to donate but aren’t a match, the hospitals can find someone in need of a kidney with whom you are a match while finding a match for your family member. This way, both people who intended to donate a kidney, donated a kidney and helped two people who desperately needed a donation. 

Sometimes this exchange gets a lot more intricate and has saved many lives.

3. Rise in popularity of “Direct Pay” to Physicians

This is more of a trend than a physical innovation but direct pay physicians are gaining popularity around the country. What this entails is the follow: Patients pay a flat fee monthly to their physician and that gives them unlimited access to them. This could be by phone or email, and they can have routine services like check ups, treatments for cuts and burns, infections, shots, and other exams. Since every American is required to have some level of health insurance under law, and since the monthly fee tends to be very affordable, patients can save money on medical insurance by only getting services that cover surgeries and hospital stays.

Through direct pay, physicians can spend more time with a patient. With normal medical insurance, doctors typical spend no more than 15 minutes with a patient.

from Dr. David Hillam | Health Care http://ift.tt/1NqmmSJ

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1NuhGuu