Tracking Medicine: A Researcher's Quest to Understand Health Care

Contents......Page 18
PART I: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM OF UNWARRANTED VARIATION......Page 22
1. In Health Care, Geography Is Destiny......Page 24
2. The Vermont Experience......Page 35
PART II: SURGICAL VARIATION: UNDERSTANDING PREFERENCE-SENSITIVE CARE......Page 48
3. Tonsillectomy and Medical Opinion......Page 50
4. Interpreting the Pattern of Surgical Variation......Page 59
5. Understanding the Market for Preference-Sensitive Surgery......Page 75
6. Learning What Works and What Patients Want......Page 87
7. The Birth and Near Death of Comparative Effectiveness Research......Page 110
PART III: MEDICAL VARIATION: UNDERSTANDING SUPPLY-SENSITIVE CARE......Page 136
8. Understanding Supply-Sensitive Care......Page 140
9. Chronic Illness and Practice Variation......Page 162
10. Is More Better?......Page 177
11. Are “America’s Best Hospitals” Really the Best?......Page 191
12. The Top Ten Reasons Why We Need to Reform the Way We Manage Chronic Illness......Page 210
PART IV: PATHWAYS TO REFORM......Page 228
13. Promoting Organized Care and Reducing Overuse......Page 230
14. Establishing Shared Decision Making and Informed Patient Choice......Page 246
15. Five Ways to Control Costs and Accelerate Health Care Reform......Page 263
16. The Challenge of Practice Variations......Page 279
Epilogue......Page 286
Appendix on Methods......Page 292
Glossary......Page 304
Notes and References......Page 308
B......Page 330
C......Page 331
D......Page 332
H......Page 333
I......Page 334
M......Page 335
O......Page 336
P......Page 337
S......Page 338
T......Page 339
Y......Page 340