Can DIY Medicine Tame Rampaging Healthcare Costs?

Less is more. The new mantra for medicine.

Simon M. Helfgott, MD, is associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

References

1. Brill S. America’s Bitter Pill. Money, Politics, Backroom Deals and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System. Random House. New York 2015.
2. Auletta K. Blood, simpler: One woman’s drive to revolutionize medical testing. The New Yorker. 2014 Dec 15. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/15/blood-simpler.
3. Theranos. https://www.theranos.com/test-menu?ref=our_solution.
4. Burton TM, Gormley B. FDA signals easier rule on genetic tests. The Wall Street Journal. 2015 Feb 21. http://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-signals-easier-rule-on-genetic-tests-1424468927.
5. Rosenthal E. In need of a new hip, but priced out of the U.S. The New York Times. 2013 Aug 3. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/health/for-medical-tourists-simple-math.html?_r=0.
6. Medical Tourism Statistics & Facts. Patients Beyond Borders. 2014 Jul 6. http://www.patientsbeyondborders.com/medical-tourism-statistics-facts.
7. Walmart, Lowe’s enter bundled pay deal with four health systems. The Advisory Board Co. 2013 Oct 9. http://www.advisory.com/Daily-Briefing/2013/10/09/Walmart-Lowes-enter-bundled-pay-deal-with-four-health-systems.
8. Ranard BL, Yoonhee PH, Meisel ZF, et al. Crowdsourcing—harnessing the masses to advance health and medicine, a systematic review. J Gen Intern Med. 2014 Jan;29(1):187–203.
9. Arnold C. Can the crowd solve medical mysteries? NOVA Next. 2014 Aug 20. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/crowdsourcing-medical-diagnoses.
10. Sanders L. Think like a doctor: Swept off her feet solved. The New York Times. 2015 Feb12. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/think-like-a-doctor-swept-off-her-feet-solved.
11. Jena AB, Prasad V, Goldman DP, et al. Mortality and treatment patterns among patients hospitalized with acute cardiovascular conditions during dates of national cardiology meetings. JAMA Intern Med. 2015 Feb 1;175(2):237–244.

Correction

An error was introduced in the editing process to Figure 3 GiACTA Study Schema, in “Giant Cell Arteritis” (The Rheumatologist, March 2015). Tocilizumab should have been represented by the acronym TCZ, and there was a mistake in the dosing schedule. To see the correct version of the figure, visit http://www.the-rheumatologist.org/details/article/7577501/Giant_Cell_Arteritis_Challenging_to_Diagnose_Manage.html. We regret the error.