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"The American Psychiatric Association (APA) practice guidelines are developed by expert work groups using an explicit methodology that includes rigorous review of available evidence, broad peer review of iterative drafts, and formal approval by the APA"

Natural Standard Herbal Pharmacotherapy: An Evidence-Based Approach is now available for purchase. The book provides practical guidance on the use of herbal therapies for medical conditions. This reference tool will be an essential part of herbal pharmacy core curricula for all healthcare disciplines. Chapters are organized by medical condition and present supportive evidence, including potential mechanisms of action and dosing, for selected herbal therapies. The chapters also include integrative therapy plans to help clinicians quickly assess patient needs and create cohesive treatment plans. In addition, adjunct therapies, including herbs, supplements and modalities, that are commonly used in combination with primary treatments are discussed. Case studies, which summarize efficacy, safety, dosing and interactions for high-utilization products, help prepare healthcare providers for patient counseling in clinical practice. Review questions, similar to those on national board exams, allow readers to evaluate their learning and identify areas for further study. The book also includes several appendices, which provide information about lab values as well as the safety, interactions and pharmacokinetics of select herbs.

Dr. Fisher is a professor of medicine and of community and family medicine, Dr. Bynum an assistant professor of medicine and of community and family medicine, and Dr. Skinner a professor of economics and of community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH, where Dr. Fisher also directs the Center for Health Policy Research, Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

Patient Centered Learning: The solution is to permit alternatives to rigid institutions, utilize free internet programs, and have medical students assist practicing physicians by assisting practicing physicians in taking patient histories. These students would offer valuable, free services to doctors. At the same time, they would have a vivid learning experience by spending several hours each day interacting with actual patients. The Cost Of Medical Education Would Be Negligible. The expense of healthcare is directly proportional to the cost of the doctor's education. With the institutional bottleneck gone, there would be a greater number of doctors, and the cost of healthcare would plummet.

Every time you need to use health care in today's world, a gauntlet of obstacles stands between you and the service. Not much different than visiting Dr. Hippocrates, way back when...

"Lancet 2010: There is a U-shaped relationship between glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and mortality in people with diabetes, say researchers, meaning that intensive glucose-lowering therapy could be as harmful as uncontrolled hyperglycemia.\n\nWriting in The Lancet, Craig Currie and team (Cardiff University, UK) conclude that if their findings are confirmed, then diabetes guidelines may need to be revised to include a lower as well as an upper HbA1c threshold.\n\nCurrie's team used the UK General Practice Research Database from November 1986 to November 2008 to obtain data on two cohorts of patients aged 50 years and older with Type 2 diabetes.\n\nThe patients comprised 27,965 individuals whose treatment had been intensified from oral monotherapy to combination therapy with oral blood-glucose lowering agents, and 20,005 who had changed to insulin-containing regimens."

"Hop up on the table, Honey." mThat's how an x-ray technician addressed my 89-year-old mother-in-law in 2001, when we took her for knee x-rays. Mom, who had advanced osteoporosis and arthritis as well as confusion and heart problems, had long since given up hopping. When it became obvious that she needed assistance, the technician grabbed her arm -- as if pulling on another sore appendage would magically raise the rest of her onto the table. It didn't. This incident has become our personal mantra for expressing what is wrong with America's health care system. Having helped our four parents during their final years and having both had cancer ourselves as well as other medical problems, we have had experiences with five nursing homes, two personal care facilities and a half dozen hospitals. We've lost count of the doctors, drugstores and health insurance plans. All of us have had health insurance, though some policies were better than others. Nonetheless, we have experienced incident after incident demonstrating the waste, ignorance and apathy which is rampant in the system. Unable to list them all, I have been heretofore reluctant to write about a handful of them lest the reader be persuaded that the problem is with only that hospital, only that nursing home or only that doctor. There is, however, an increasing crisis of confusion, mismanagement and ill-preparedness which is at the core of our healthcare system. We are all familiar at least with the trend line if not the specifics for healthcare costs. According to WhiteHouse.gov, "The United States spends over $2.2 trillion on health care each year-almost $8,000 per person." That's sixteen percent of the economy. Healthcare costs are projected to increase to almost twenty percent ($4 trillion a year) by 2017. Meanwhile forty-six million Americans are without health insurance (14,000 more each day), premiums and co-pays are rising and more reasons are used to refuse coverage both to those willing to pay and thos

"Hop up on the table, Honey." mThat's how an x-ray technician addressed my 89-year-old mother-in-law in 2001, when we took her for knee x-rays. Mom, who had advanced osteoporosis and arthritis as well as confusion and heart problems, had long since given up hopping. When it became obvious that she needed assistance, the technician grabbed her arm -- as if pulling on another sore appendage would magically raise the rest of her onto the table. It didn't. This incident has become our personal mantra for expressing what is wrong with America's health care system. Having helped our four parents during their final years and having both had cancer ourselves as well as other medical problems, we have had experiences with five nursing homes, two personal care facilities and a half dozen hospitals. We've lost count of the doctors, drugstores and health insurance plans. All of us have had health insurance, though some policies were better than others. Nonetheless, we have experienced incident after incident demonstrating the waste, ignorance and apathy which is rampant in the system. Unable to list them all, I have been heretofore reluctant to write about a handful of them lest the reader be persuaded that the problem is with only that hospital, only that nursing home or only that doctor. There is, however, an increasing crisis of confusion, mismanagement and ill-preparedness which is at the core of our healthcare system. We are all familiar at least with the trend line if not the specifics for healthcare costs. According to WhiteHouse.gov, "The United States spends over $2.2 trillion on health care each year-almost $8,000 per person." That's sixteen percent of the economy. Healthcare costs are projected to increase to almost twenty percent ($4 trillion a year) by 2017. Meanwhile forty-six million Americans are without health insurance (14,000 more each day), premiums and co-pays are rising and more reasons are used to refuse coverage both to those willing to pay and thos

Understanding High Value Care and Reducing Unwarranted Variation in Health Care Delivery: A Collaborative Project of the Mayo Clinic, Intermountain Health Care and The Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences

"I think it is safe to say that no physician is optimistic about the future of medicine at this point," one participant wrote. Others seemed downright hopeless...the practice of medicine continually gets worse and worse, more intolerable, more onerous, with absolutely no hope or reason for any optimism either in the near or remote future."

Important epidemiologic concepts and common biostatistical terms to help clinicians translate medical research into everyday practice.

A medical village expands on the concept of a patient's medical home to include providers outside of the "home" practice (hospitals, specialists, etc.). The medical village will rely on several important concepts, including collaborative and coordinated care and shared responsibility: PCP-to-specialist, specialist-to-PCP and specialist-to-specialist.

Gaceta Sanitaria Vol.21 Núm. 06. Gaceta Sanitaria. ISSN:0213-9111 | Free full text (English)

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) represent a critical step away from volume-driven health care payment and toward better health and better care at lower cost.

Downloadable slideshows from this November 2007 conference. For report PDFs: (1) http://is.gd/3AoNu (2) http://is.gd/3AoXG