Monthly Archives: September 2010

An overwhelming majority of respondents(physicians, 91%) reported believing that physicians order more diagnostic tests and procedures than are needed in order to protect themselves from malpractice suits.     Source:  Physicians’ Views on Defensive Medicine A National Survey.

Americans spend twice as much as residents of other developed countries on healthcare, but get lower quality, less efficiency and have the least equitable system.   Source: Reuters

Consumers want more help from their doctors in finding relevant health information on the web, but their doctors are often failing to deliver, according to new research by consumer engagement specialist Kyp and Opinion Research Corporation.  According to the study;

• 76% of respondents search the internet for health information

• only 22% use the web as their first port of call after they suspect a health problem – seemingly because of the confusing number of online sources.

• Even in the 18-34 demographic, more than half (55%) report that “there is just too much choice” and that they “simply don’t know where to turn for the best advice.

Source: Medical Marketing & Media

The presence of one’s near and dear ones on an online social network doesn’t stop people from being wary of the network itself, according to the findings of a Vision Critical survey.  Respondents to the polling (fielded online in March) were asked how trustworthy they think online social networks are.

• Few of the U.S. respondents said they regard such networks as “completely trustworthy” (5 percent) or “very trustworthy” (11 percent).

• Thirty-five percent rated them “fairly trustworthy.”

• Nearly half said they’re “not very” (32 percent) or “not at all” (17 percent) trustworthy.  Source: Adweek May 25th, 2010

About 57% of men have visited the doctor within the past year, compared with about 74% of women, according to surveys by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Black and Hispanic men are even less likely than white men to have routine checkups. At the same time, men are hospitalized at significantly higher rates than women for preventable conditions such as congestive heart failure and complications of diabetes and pneumonia that can be prevented with a vaccination. Source: Wall Street Journal

One-third to one-half of all patients do not take medication as prescribed, and up to one-quarter never fill prescriptions at all, experts say. Such lapses fuel more than $100 billion dollars in health costs annually because those patients often get sicker. Source: New York Times

Studies show that nearly 9 out of 10 adults may lack the skills needed to manage their health and prevent disease

Source: 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Study.

The number of physicians who were “rep-accessible,” defined as meeting with at least 70% of salespeople who come calling, dropped by 18% from last year, according to sales and marketing consultants ZS Associates.  In a report out today, the firm says 58% of prescribing doctors now fall into that rep-friendly category, down from 71% in the previous survey. The proportion of physicians who see fewer than 30% of reps who visit now sits at 9%, up from 6% in the last survey. Source: Wall Street Journal

If Americans reduced their salt intake to the recommended maximum amount, hypertension cases could be cut by 11 million with a savings of $18 billion in healthcare costs and 312,000 years of life gained.   Source: LA Times.

Figures from the National Center for Health Statistics showed 34% of American adults age 20 and older were obese in 2007-08 while 68% were considered overweight or obese. In children ages 2 through 19, 17% were considered obese while 32% were considered overweight. Broadly, the figures are similar to rates seen in 1999-2000.

A University of Chicago study estimates that Americans with diabetes will increase from 24 million people to about 44 million people by 2034, with direct health care costs increasing from $116 billion a year to $336 billion a year. This is a tremendous cost to our economy and a painful reality for millions of Americans.  Source: Forbes.

A survey, released in November 2009, found 86% of U.S. physicians use the Internet to gather health, medical or prescription drug information.  That number echoes other surveys showing large numbers of physicians relying on the Internet for health information. A study earlier in 2009 by Manhattan Research put the number at 89%.  Of physicians who use the Internet for health information, 92% said they accessed it from their office, while 21% said they did so with a patient in the examination room. Meanwhile, 88% said they looked for health information online from home, while 59% reported doing so from a mobile device. Physicians who responded to the survey could give more than one answer about their Internet use. Source: American Medical News.

Nearly half of women seeking health answers online do so first, before talking to their doctors or family members, according to a Harris Interactive poll, conducted on behalf of iVillage, an online community for women.  The online survey of 2,608 adults, 1,342 of whom were women, found that anonymity and the ability to share common experiences with other members of an online community are what drives 49% of the women respondents to look online first. About half that, 25%, said they would go to a doctor first. Source: American Medical News