Posted on February 3rd, 2009 by ffortin
The Worcester District Medical Society's member forum on retail-based health clinics outlined the clinics' potential impact on physicians and some strategies that physicians can use to respond to their entrance in Massachusetts. William Ryder, regulatory and legislative counsel for the MMS, summarized the two-year struggle by a coalition of concerned providers to ensure that retail [...]
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Posted on July 31st, 2007 by ffortin
In July 2006, the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission, the agency that buys health insurance for all Massachusetts state employees, launched the Clinical Performance Improvement Initiative. This project compiles information on how individual physicians score against various cost and quality standards, then assigns lower co-pays to physicians who score well against the standards. The program has [...]
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Posted on June 5th, 2007 by ffortin
Forty-three million Americans report that a doctor told them they have arthritis or other rheumatic conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control, arthritis is the leading cause of disability in the United States, limiting the activities of more than 16 million adults. In Massachusetts, some 1.2 million people have the condition – nearly 26 [...]
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Posted on June 5th, 2007 by ffortin
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that gradually destroys a person’s memory, ability to learn, reason, make judgments, communicate and carry out daily activities. It is the most common form of dementias, a group of conditions that destroys brain cells and leads to diminished mental function. And it’s a disease with enormous impact on [...]
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Posted on June 5th, 2007 by ffortin
Vaccines are some of medicine’s best preventive measures. Some, like the Salk and Sabine vaccines for polio, have eradicated debilitating diseases altogether. Some prevent illness for all ages, like flu vaccines. And many have erased childhood diseases, like mumps, measles, and chickenpox. New ones – like Gardasil for cervical cancer – are added to our [...]
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Posted on April 2nd, 2007 by ffortin
Obesity is now a national medical problem. Data compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics show that 30 percent of U.S. adults 20 years of age and older—over 60 million people – are obese. Also alarming is the fact that the percentage of young people who are overweight has more than tripled since 1980. [...]
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