school of public health

The Harvard School of Public Health released the results of a poll by Bob Blendon and his team that asked Americans about their views on avian flu. The results are not particularly surprising. The majority (57 percent) say they are worried about the possibility of an avian flu pandemic. An equally large number (68 percent) say they would stay at home with their children if a pandemic did break out. That, the polls authors concede, would likely be bad news for the economy. The …

A state panel in Connecticut ruled that HMOs must disclose information about their billing practices. The state's Freedom of Information Commission ruled that four HMOs that run Medicaid networks perform a governmental function and thus are subject to disclosure laws. The companies involved are Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut, Community Health Network of Connecticut, Health Net of Connecticut and WellCare of Connecticut. The dispute arose after Yale School of Public …

A study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that pay-for-performance may not performing quite as well in real life as some health policy wonks had predicted. The two-year study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health compared the use of pay-for-performance at physician practices affiliated with PacifiCare in California with practices in the Pacific Northwest which do not use incentive programs. Clinical quality scores for …

A new study by a professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill looks at the impact of Hurricane Katrina on physicians in the southeast. About 6,000 doctors in 10 counties and parishes in Mississippi and Louisiana have been displaced as a consequence of Hurricane Katrina. That, as far as anybody can guess, makes the storm responsible for the largest mass displacement of physicians ever in the US. Study author Dr. Thomas Ricketts of the UNC School of Public Health said he thinks …

A report by the Medical Group Management Association offers more evidence suggesting that small group practices are trailing large ones when it comes to adopting EMR technology. The report, which was co-authored by researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, finds a precise correlation between adoption rates and group practice size. Those with less than five physicians had a 12 percent adoption rate, while it was 19.5 percent for those with more than 20 …

FEMA came under attack from state officials in Louisiana and politicians in Washington for what some critics described as a failure to prepare an adequate response plan for New Orleans in the event of a major disaster. Local officials said no plan existed for a breakdown of the levee system protecting the low-lying city. Others questioned the failure to plan for a full evacuation and a lack of protection for key assets, including hospitals. FEMA, the federal agency responsible for …

The good news is that racial disparities in access to medical care are shrinking for many procedures, a new study finds. The bad news, according to research by a team from the Harvard School of Public Health and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is that blacks still do not have the same access to more complex -- and expensive -- procedures as whites. Three studies appearing in the Journal look at the issue. Story

Two new studies which appear today in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest modest success in the national effort to improve outcomes by setting benchmarks for the treatment of pneumonia, heart attacks and congestive heart failure. One study from JCAHO looked at three measures and found modest to significant improvement over a two-year period. The other study from Harvard School of Public Health compared teaching and non-teaching hospitals, and non-profit and for-profit on …

Up to 100,000 Americans die every year due to preventable medical errors, a new study out today in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds. That finding echoes the conclusion of the landmark 2000 Institute of Medicine report which first brought the issue to the industry's attention. Plenty of progress has been made, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, but nationwide the death rate remains essentially unchanged. Researchers blame the …