Today’s Top Story
Supreme Court decision could affect authority of professional regulatory boards.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners illegally suppressed competition when it told non-dentists to stop offering teeth-whitening services. The case holds antitrust implications for state professional regulatory bodies, including state medical and disciplinary boards, which, in response, may alter their membership or seek increased state supervision. The court was asked to decide if a state regulatory board should be exempt from federal antitrust laws under the state action doctrine if its members are “market participants,” elected by other market participants. Lawyers for the board had argued that, as a state agency, it should be granted immunity from antitrust laws. However, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission argued that the board should not be immune, as the state did not actively supervise the board’s activities. Read more in Modern Healthcare…(registration may be required)
Read more in HealthLeaders Media…
Other News
CMS extends 2014 reporting deadline for EHR Incentive Program.
According to Medpage Today, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has extended the deadline for healthcare providers to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program 2014 reporting year. Eligible professionals now have until 11:59 pm ET on March 20, 2015. The agency also extended until March 20 the deadline for certain types of data submission for the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) program. Read more…
Is it possible to objectively assess surgical skills?
A perspective piece published in the Feb. 24 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association looks at issues surrounding efforts to objectively assess surgical skills. The writer notes that surgical skills are often acquired through an apprenticeship-based system, which tends to be subjective, inconsistent, and focused primarily on nontechnical skills. Although systematic processes exist to assess competency during training, certification, and recertification, the apprenticeship system may lead to high variability in surgical performance across surgical specialties and could potentially compromise patient care. One expert quoted in the article notes that it is difficult to acquire objective competency information to enable reliable analysis. In addition, confidentiality issues may complicate information gathering if such data were to be made public and admissible in court. Read more…
Study: ICD-10-based comorbidity measures not linked to patient-reported outcomes 1 year after THA.
Findings from a Swedish study published online in the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research suggest that ICD-10-based comorbidity measures may have little association with patient-reported outcomes after total hip arthroplasty (THA). The authors reviewed data on 22,263 patients who underwent THA between 2002 and 2007. At 1-year follow-up, they found that ICD-10-based comorbidity measures added little predictive value to the models for EuroQol-5d index, EuroQol visual analog scale (VAS), pain VAS, and satisfaction VAS). They found that overall, Charnley classification and the preoperative scores were the strongest predictors of measures of postoperative health-related quality of life, postoperative pain, and postoperative satisfaction with surgical outcome. Read the abstract…
Study: C. difficile linked to approximately 29,000 deaths during 2011.
According to a study funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in the Feb. 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Clostridium difficile was associated with nearly half a million infections and about 29,000 deaths in the United States during 2011. The research team performed active population- and laboratory-based surveillance across 10 geographic areas to identify cases of C. difficile infection among patients aged 1 year or older. They identified 15,461 cases of C. difficile infection, 65.8 percent of which were healthcare-associated, but only 24.2 percent had onset during hospitalization. After adjustment for predictors of disease incidence, the research team projected the number of incident C. difficile infections to be 453,000. Females, white race, and age 65 years or older were associated with increased likelihood of C. difficile infection. The research team estimated the number of deaths to be 29,300 (range 16,500 to 42,100). Read more…
Read the complete study…
Study: Insurance expansion associated with increased access to elective surgical care, especially among minorities.
Data from a study published online in the journal The BMJ suggest that insurance expansion may help reduce race and ethnic disparities in elective surgical care. The researchers reviewed information on knee and hip arthroplasty procedures performed in Massachusetts before and after implementation of that state’s healthcare reform law, and compared that data against a control cohort of patients from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. They found that, during the 2.5 years prior to reform, the number of procedures per 10,000 in Massachusetts was lower among Hispanic people than black people or white people. During the 2.5 years after insurance expansion, the rate of knee and hip arthroplasty procedures increased 22.4 percent overall, with reform in Massachusetts associated with an increase of 4.7 percent. That increase was significantly higher among Hispanic people and black people than among white people. Overall, lower income was not associated with larger increases in procedure use. In addition, the share of knee and hip arthroplasty procedures performed in safety net hospitals in Massachusetts decreased after healthcare reform, with a larger reduction among Hispanic people compared to white people, and among low income residents compared to high income residents. Read more…
Read the abstract…
New AAOS Now podcast on reducing infection risk in total shoulder arthroplasty.
AAOS Now has released an audio interview in which Jeffrey L. Lovallo, MD, speaks with AAOS Now Electronic Content Specialist Peter Pollack, about the use of intraoperative, intraarticular injection of gentamicin to reduce infection risk in total shoulder arthroplasty. Listen to the current podcast (MP3)…
Other podcasts are available by clicking on “podcast” in the left navigation column of the AAOS Now home page. View all AAOS Now podcasts…
Apply now to take part in the ORS/OREF/AAOS New Investigator Workshop.
April 3 is the last day to apply to take part in the 2015 ORS/OREF/AAOS New Investigator Workshop. Through this workshop, new investigators develop skills strategies to successfully secure funding for clinical, translational, and basic science research. Attendees will meet senior investigators who have served on National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections and manage successful research programs funded by the NIH, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and private foundations. Attendees who elect to submit a draft research plan will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with an experienced musculoskeletal researcher who provides mentoring, discusses funding strategies, and offers recommendations for a successful academic career. The program is open to junior faculty, post-doctoral researchers, clinical fellows, and residents with a commitment to pursuing an academic research career. Basic science and clinical investigators (PhD, MD, MS) with or without training awards are also invited to attend. The workshop is scheduled to take place May 15-16, 2015, in Rosemont, Ill. Learn more and submit your application…
