Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Sadiq Y. Patel, Haiden A. Huskamp, Austin B. Frakt, David Auerbach, Hannah T. Neprash, Michael L. Barnett, Hannah O. James, Ateev Mehrotra
Summary: Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) are playing an increasingly important role in the healthcare workforce. However, due to indirect billing practices, much of the care they provide is not reflected in claims data. By using prescriptions to identify indirectly billed visits, it was found that the number of such visits has been increasing over the years. Eliminating indirect billing could result in significant cost savings for Medicare, particularly impacting smaller primary care practices.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Narimasa Kumagai
Summary: This study examined the impact of COVID-19 on the utilization of outpatient services in Japan. The findings showed that the number of physician visits declined during the first state of emergency declaration, but decreased over time. The closure of preschools and specific precautions significantly affected healthcare costs for preschool children.
FRONTIERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH
(2021)
Article
Primary Health Care
Arch G. Mainous III, Zhigang Xie, Samuel B. Dickmann, James F. Medley, Young -Rock Hong
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the association between continuity of care and recording of obesity and receipt of weight-loss treatment plan. The results showed that only 30.6% of objectively obese patients had their obesity recorded, and continuity of care was not significantly related to recording of obesity but did significantly increase the likelihood of treatment for obesity. Greater emphasis on managing obesity in primary care visits seems warranted.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF FAMILY MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Mary A. Gerend, Russell Bradbury, Jeffrey S. Harman, George Rust
Summary: It was found in the study that thousands of cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer screenings are conducted each year in the USA among individuals older than the age thresholds recommended by routine screening guidelines. Factors such as patients' age, race/ethnicity, and physicians' specialty may influence the value of cancer screening.
JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Theodore Peng, Nathaniel Gleason, Ralph Gonzales
Summary: The study found that telephone follow-up visits provide an efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional office-based follow-up visits, with high levels of patient satisfaction. This suggests a potential shift towards mobilizing health plans to cover telephone follow-up visits.
TELEMEDICINE AND E-HEALTH
(2021)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Bruce E. Landon, Jukka-Pekka Onnela, Laurie Meneades, A. James O'Malley, Nancy L. Keating
Summary: This study examines differences in specialist referral patterns by race among Medicare beneficiaries, showing that Black patients are shared with fewer specialists by primary care physicians compared to White patients.
Article
Oncology
Rui Fu, Rinku Sutradhar, Qing Li, Timothy P. Hanna, Kelvin K. W. Chan, Natalie Coburn, Julie Hallet, Antoine Eskander
Summary: Little is known about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on diagnostic imaging and physician visits at cancer diagnosis. This study from Ontario, Canada, found that the volume of scans decreased at the start of the pandemic but gradually increased afterwards, with ultrasound experiencing the highest decrease and fastest increase. In-person visits dropped significantly, but virtual visits rose dramatically. However, in-person visits increased over time while virtual visits remained stable.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wanling Zeng, Hong Chang Tan, Huang Fang Zheng, Amanda Rui Lin Lam, Kok Keong Teo, Chieh Suai Tan, Jean -Paul Kovalik, Sujoy Ghosh, Xiao Hui Xin
Summary: This study aimed to explore the satisfaction of patienst with DKD visiting TCM physicians and its association with socio-economic characteristics. Findings suggest that ethnicity, types of housing, previous TCM experience, and duration of follow-up with TCM physicians may affect the satisfaction scores of DKD patients.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Xiaochu Hu, Sarah Conrad, Michael Dill
Summary: This research examines the relationship between the gender composition of medical specialties and physicians' workplace harassment experience. It found that women physicians are at a higher risk of workplace harassment than men, and a greater representation of women in a specialty is associated with fewer harassment experiences and narrower gender gaps in harassment.
JOURNAL OF WOMENS HEALTH
(2023)
Article
Surgery
Andres Guerra, Joe M. Feinglass, Matthew C. Chia, Ashley K. Vavra
Summary: This study evaluated patient outcomes after endovascular aortic interventions performed for non ruptured aortic aneurysms by physician specialties. The results showed differences in practice patterns among specialties performing the procedures, suggesting opportunities for collaboration to optimize the quality of care.
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Kunihiro Nishimura, Kuniaki Ogasawara, Takanari Kitazono, Koji Iihara
Summary: This study examined the correlation between physician volume and in-hospital mortality rates for stroke patients. The results showed that a higher number of stroke care physicians was associated with reduced mortality rates for all types of stroke. The volume threshold of board-certified physicians varies depending on the specialty and stroke type.
CIRCULATION JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Maya T. Harrington, Jordan R. Pollock, Jack M. Haglin, Kent R. Richter, Naresh P. Patel
Summary: Between 2010 and 2018, there was an increase in the number of office visits and total hours billed by neurosurgeons to Medicare. However, Medicare paid less per office visit, denied higher amounts of payments, and reimbursed a decreasing percentage of charges submitted by neurosurgeons.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
John Burkhardt, Stephen DesJardins, Larry Gruppen
Summary: The study found that female and underrepresented minority students had different interests in medical specialties at matriculation, with minorities showing more interest in obstetrics/gynecology and surgery. However, by graduation, women were more inclined towards obstetrics/gynecology and pediatrics, while underrepresented minority students were more likely to choose internal medicine. Female students showed relatively stable preferences in medical specialties from matriculation to graduation, while underrepresented minority students' specialty plans shifted over time.
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Debiao Li, Xiaoqiang Chen, Siping Chen
Summary: It is difficult for patients without medical knowledge to choose a capable physician based on nontransparent medical information, especially in specialty care. To address this problem, we propose a novel physician matching index (PMI) obtained by an analytical framework integrated with an improved multi-disease pre-diagnosing Bayesian network (BN) model. The proposed PMI can rectify misdiagnosis and guide patients in choosing physicians more appropriately based on patient preferences. Our case study in the ear, nose, and throat department demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Emily Rhodes, Claire Kendall, Robert Talarico, Elizabeth Muggah, Caroline Gerin-Lajoie, Christopher Simon, Taylor McFadden, Daniel Myran, Manish M. Sood, Peter Tanuseputro
Summary: In this retrospective cohort study, the enrollment with a PCP practice and frequency of visits were found to be lower among physicians compared with a matched general population of nonphysicians. Further understanding of individual, system, and medical cultural factors associated with these results is needed.