AUSSIE DOCS TO GET IPADS!
In Australia's Victoria, the new Labour head of the province detailed elaborate plans to improve the health care system. But the one detail that caught everyone's eye was his plan to provide an iPad for every doctor working in the public hospital system. Interestingly, though Apple is famous for its closed systems, of all the portable devices out there, it works best with the varied medical information systems that populate most hospitals.
WHY DON'T NURSES HAVE A BIGGER VOICE IN HEALTH CARE REFORM?
In the New York Times, a nurse writes a passionate essay about the state of health care and the many challenges facing it in the future: primarily, the sheer numbers of people entering the system while so many health professionals are leaving the system via retirement. And with all the debates, why don't nurses have a place at the table?
Nurses currently form the largest sector of health care providers, with more than three million currently registered; but few have led or even been involved in the formal policy discussions regarding the future care of patients. To address this discrepancy, the Institute of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation assembled a national panel of health care experts that has been meeting for the last two years to discuss the role of nurses in transforming the current health care system. Their final report was published last month with no less ambitious a title than “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.”
Read the article to find out what this report determined about how nurses can play a vital role that takes full use of their skills and importance.
"GOD HELP YOU, YOU'RE ON DIALYSIS!"
The Atlantic Monthly has an in-depth article about dialysis, treatment which is provided to everyone by law and is the closest the US has come yet to universal health care. The piece details the many problems highlighted by the history of dialysis, which raise many questions for anyone advocating for a private OR a public solution to health care. Here's the sobering intro:
Every year, more than 100,000 Americans start dialysis. One in four of them will die within 12 months—a fatality rate that is one of the worst in the industrialized world. Oh, and dialysis arguably costs more here than anywhere else. Although taxpayers cover most of the bill, the government has kept confidential clinic data that could help patients make better decisions. How did our first foray into near-universal coverage, begun four decades ago with such great hope, turn out this way? And what lessons does it hold for the future of health-care reform?
