Jan
1
Here’s a nice bit of detective work done by Dr. Michael Kleerekoper who blogs over at Endocrine Today. He noticed an op ed piece in Sunday’s New York Times that quoted a source saying President-Elect Obama claimed he could save $80B a year by pushing preventive medicine. So, he set out to find examples of ways that preventive medicine could save the patient pain and the healthcare group money by reducing fractures.
He found three cases and lots of money at stake, as much as $9,000 per patient fracture.
The concluding sentence rings familiar with what we’ve seen in other areas of medicine.
Our next priority would seem to be improving patient adherence to therapy that prevents adverse health outcomes but does not make them feel better today.
Tim’s Takeaway: Dr. Kleerekoper identifies the central challenge. How do we communicate with patients so that they regularly take actions that work only in the long run. It’s not as futile as it might seem. In fact, there are case studies in marketing (Listerine and home security systems come to mind) where companies have had success doing this. It does take creativity though.