Tag: health care reform

Naomi Hardy Naomi Hardy (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer

The Commonwealth Medical College

Naomi Hardy is an MD-MPH student at The Commonwealth Medical College. She completed her BS in Neuroscience and Biology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. As a student of public health, she is committed to increasing awareness of the need to foster not only the health of each patient but also the health of the community.




The Messy Business of Health Care

Published by Naomi Hardy

No one can deny the heavy price tag of health care in the United States — in fact, we have the priciest health care in the world. Some might jump to the conclusion that this would mean we also have the best health care, since increased spending means increased capacity to provide a higher quality of care, right? But according to the World Health Organization (WHO), we consistently fall short when compared to other nations in areas like life expectancy or speed of health services.

Privilege and Policy, or Why We’re Always Angry with Congress

Published by Aishwarya Rajagopalan

Congress can be frustrating. Beyond political affiliations and tactical alliances, navigating the actual policies created by Congress can be challenging. This causes many people, medical students included, to write off policy as “boring” or “irrelevant” to their careers. For medical students, nothing could be further from the truth. Everything from services covered by Medicare and Medicaid insurance policies to the types of research funded at the NIH are influenced in one way or another by policy. Inevitably, policy does not always reflect the realities of practice. One of the factors contributing to this disparity may be privilege.

Gun Safety: A Florida Invasion on the Doctor-Patient Relationship

Published by Ryan Denu

You’re working at a pediatric primary care clinic and enter the room of a five-year-old boy and his mother for a routine physical. You ask about the child’s general health the past year, his diet, exercise, among other things. Then you start to ask questions relating to the patient’s safety, such as his use of seat belts and helmets, and you start to ask about guns in the home. But then, alarms start to go off …

Interview with Dr. Zubin Damania

Published by Kevin Wang

What is it like being a superstar comedian in medicine, recovering from burnout, and starting a new model of health care delivery in Las Vegas? More importantly, what do Gangnam Style and Tupac Shakur have to do with medicine? I had a chance to sit down with Dr. Zubin Damania, a former hospitalist, comedian and rapper at ZDoggMD, and now co-founder of Turntable Health, a new revolution in health care delivery.

Germany: A Model for What Health Care Should Be?

Published by Ghady Rahhal

It’s fairly safe to say that the debate surrounding health care in the United States is long from over. During President Barack Obama’s first term, he fought to implement a new health care system that is projected to shave hundreds of billions off medical costs over the first decade. Once President Obama’s second term comes to an end, many Republican candidates have sworn to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if elected into office. Why …

Match Magic: Why the NRMP Match Needs to Disappear

Published by Amy Ho

Becoming a doctor takes time, but those outside of medicine do not always realize how convoluted the process can be. Central to the perversion is the National Resident Matching Program (or “the Match”). After college and the two years of classroom-based training in medical school, students are ushered into clinical training through third year core rotations in predetermined specialties. In the spring of their third year, students must decide on their career specialty, often without …

A Health Care System Alternative in the United States

Published by Joginder Singh

“Drain commissioner! What the heck is a drain commissioner? And why do the drains need a commissioner?” I had recently moved to a rural county in the United States to work as a physical therapist, and as I read through the advertisements in the local paper for electoral offices, this one particularly intrigued me. As a young boy growing up in India, I remember electoral politics being an ever-present topic of discussion at home. So, …

SaveGME: Graduate Medical Education is Imperative for Physician Training, Patient Care and Public Health

Published by Manik Aggarwal

Every current fourth-year medical student in the country marked March 17, 2014 and March 21, 2014 on their calendars a long time ago. The first date tells students if they matched into residency and if they will begin their training program this July. The second date tells students where they will ultimately live, breathe and work for the next three to seven years as a member of the hospital’s housestaff. My personal journey to March …

Medicare SGR Repeal and What It Means for Our Future

Published by Ryan Denu

Here’s the problem: Medicare’s physician payment formula has not been working. Since 1992, Medicare has reimbursed physicians on a fee-for-service basis. In 1997, Congress implemented the sustainable growth rate (SGR) to control Medicare spending and make sure that growth in physician reimbursement does not exceed growth in the gross domestic product (GDP). This is problematic because the cost of medical care in the United States has increased faster than its GDP. In fact, health care …

The SGR: What Happens in Washington, D.C. Now Could Affect the Rest of Your Career

Published by Mark Kashtan

If you’ve happened across any political news outlets in the past month or two you may have seen some headlines about something called “SGR.” Perhaps more likely, you may remember in years past hearing political pundits or reporters talking about a “doc fix.” In fact, both of these are the same thing, and if you’ve heard those terms thrown about more than once it might be because the issue has come up at least once a year …

Take Back the Conversation on End-of-Life Care

Published by Amol Utrankar

The epicenter of the debate surrounding costs and utilization of health care is on end-of-life care. A full one-third of Medicare expenditures are spent on chronic illness patients in the last two years of life. For perspective, consider this graph: our costs of care are comparable to those of European countries for the first five decades of life, but we spend twice as much on people in their sixties, thrice as much on people in their seventies, and over four …

Medical Students: The Anti-Millionaires

Published by Daniel Coleman

A few months ago, CBS Moneywatch published an article entitled “$1 million mistake: Becoming a doctor.” Aside from the possibility that devoting one’s life to helping others might be considered a mistake, I was struck by the “$1 million” figure. Was it actually that much? I mean, $1 million is a lot of money. When I was younger, millionaires seemed a rarefied breed. They drove expensive cars and had houses with names like “Le Troquet” or “Brandywine Vale.” The …

Daniel Coleman Daniel Coleman (5 Posts)

Medical Student Editor

Georgetown University School of Medicine

Daniel graduated from Tufts University in 2004. His subsequent pursuits included everything from cell cycle research to manufacturing shampoo. Medically, his interests lie in emergency and wilderness medicine, infectious disease, and health care sustainability. Daniel is medical student at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Class of 2017.