Marketing 101
Brilliant graphic, courtesy of @Brilliant_Ads
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How I Became a Fan of One of My Fans
A number of years ago, I wrote a book – You’re Stronger Than You Think – which explores the surprising resilience of people with chronic illness and disability. I’ve done a bunch of research on the topic, but in the book I wrote not only about such research, but also about real people, who overcame…
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Here's How a Great Doctor Helps Her Patient Make a Cost-Conscious Treatment Decision
Sometimes in my research on physician/patient communication, I come across a doctor who is so good with her patients, I have to share their bedside manner with you. The most recent example is a (to remain unnamed) oncologist in the Northeastern United States who practically gave a primer on shared decision making when caring for…
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More Coverage of Our Research on Out-Of-Pocket Cost Conversations
Here is a nice summary of our research, published by an excellent reporter at The American Journal of Managed Care: A new qualitative study of clinical meetings between physicians and patients pointed out certain behavioral concerns that stand in the way of helping patients navigate out-of-pocket spending. The study, published in Health Affairs and led…
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Physicians Can't Stop Overtreating Diabetes And Hypertension
Aggressive control of blood pressure has saved millions of lives, and has prevented millions of people from experiencing heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure, among other things. Admittedly, controlling blood pressure is not the sexy part of medical care, but when primary care doctors like me help people get their blood pressure under control, we…
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Watch Out for Those Deductibles!
Lots of folks in the U.S. are finding themselves with health insurance coverage that requires them to pay lots of money, in their deductible, before insurance kicks in. Here is a nice piece in Cancer Today Magazine on the topic: Tammy Pope had already exceeded her health insurance plan’s $5,000 deductible for 2015 by August….
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More Coverage of Our Out-Of-Pocket Expenses Research
My colleagues and I have been doing lots of research lately on how physicians and patients discuss out-of-pocket expenses during clinic encounters. One of our recent publications has been getting lots of attention, with this being the latest example. I thought I would share it with you: Recent qualitative findings published in Health Affairs showed that physicians…
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Is It Rational for Breast Cancer Patients to Have Bilateral Mastectomies?
Warning: I am not writing about Angelina Jolie. I am not asking whether women like Jolie, with a strong family histories of breast cancer and known genetic mutations, should consider having bilateral mastectomies. Women like Jolie face extremely high lifetime risks of breast cancer, and thus must make difficult decisions about whether to receive prophylactic…
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Thoughts on Shared Decision Making
I recently gave a talk about shared decision making at the annual conference for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Here is a nice write-up of that talk. For those of you silly enough not to travel to Florida to hear me pontificate! After listening to the treatment alternatives—surveillance, or active treatment with surgery and radiation—a…