telemedicine – Medical Lessons

In Defense of Primary Care, and of Sub-Sub-Sub-Specialists

March 31, 2011March 28, 2019 Elaine Schattner, MD

An article in the March 24 NEJM called Specialization, Subspecialization, and Subsubspecialization in Internal Medicine might have some heads shaking: Isn’t there a shortage of primary care physicians? The sounding-board piece considers the recent decision of the American Board of Internal Medicine to issue certificates in two new fields: (1) hospice and palliative care and (2) advanced heart failure and plans in-the-works for official credentialing in other, relatively narrow fields like addiction and obesity.

The essay caught my attention because I do think it’s true that we need more well-trained specialists

Posted in Essential Lessons, Future of Medicine, health care costs, health care delivery, Medical Education, PolicyTagged expertise, health care costs, medical specialties, physician shortage, primary care, subspecialties, telemedicine, value of expertiseLeave a Comment

Radiologists’ Experience Matters in Mammography Outcomes

February 24, 2011July 13, 2016 Elaine Schattner, MD

There’s a new study out on mammography with important implications for breast cancer screening. The main result is that when radiologists review more mammograms per year, the rate of false positives declines. The stated purpose of the research,* published in the journal Radiology, was to see how radiologists’ interpretive volume – essentially the number of […]

Posted in Breast Cancer, cancer screening, Diagnosis, health care delivery, Oncology (cancer), Under the RadarTagged breast cancer screening, Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium, false positives, mammography, radiology, telemedicine, value of expertise, Women's Health8 Comments

Skyping Medicine

January 8, 2010February 24, 2011 Elaine Schattner M.D.

Yesterday, Dr. Pauline Chen reported in the New York Times on virtual visits, a little-used approach for providing care to patients hundreds or thousands of miles apart from their physicians.

Telemedicine depends on satellite technology and data transfer. It’s a theoretical and possibly real health benefit of the World Wide Web, that giant, not-new-anymore health resource that’s transforming medicine in more ways than we know.

Posted in Communication, Diagnosis, Future of Medicine, Health IT, Patient-Doctor RelationshipTagged communicating in medicine, Future of Medicine, health, internet medicine, IT, med tech, patient-doctor relationship, physician shortage, technology, telemedicine1 Comment

Medical Lessons

Medical Lessons

In Defense of Primary Care, and of Sub-Sub-Sub-Specialists

Radiologists’ Experience Matters in Mammography Outcomes

Skyping Medicine

About the Author

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