Today’s Top Story
Less than half of U.S. physicians own their own practices.
AMA Wire reports that, for the first time, less than half of physicians own their own practices. Researchers reviewed information from American Medical Association Physician Practice Benchmark Surveys of physicians who provide at least 20 hours of patient care per week, are not employed by the federal government, and practice in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. They found that in 2016, 47.1 percent of respondents were practice owners, 47.1 percent were employed, and 5.9 percent were independent contractors. Read more…
Read the report (PDF)…
Other News
Study: Scoliosis severity index could help identify progressive AIS
A study published in the June 1 issue of the journal Spine attempts to identify an early detectable severity index for progressive adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). The authors followed 65 adolescent patients with mild AIS (Cobb Angle between 10° and 20°) from first examination to treatment decision, with 26 patients considered stable at the end of growth and 39 patients planning to use a brace due to progression. The authors used 3D quantitative description of scoliosis curves based on calibrated biplanar radiographs and compared them against 30 severe scoliosis curves (Cobb Angle >35°), 17 scoliosis curves before bracing (Cobb Angle >29°) and 53 spines of nonscoliosis participants. They performed a predictive discriminant analysis to assess similarity of mild scoliosis curves either to those of scoliosis or nonscoliosis spines, yielding a severity index at first examination, which was compared with clinical outcome. They found that 53 of 65 predictions (82 percent) were in agreement with actual clinical outcome, and 89 percent of curves predicted to be progressive proved accurate. Read the abstract…
Study: Decreased thoracic paravertebral muscle size linked to increased mortality for older hip fracture patients.
Findings from a study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology suggest that, among older adults with hip fracture, decreased thoracic paravertebral muscle size and attenuation as measured on routine computed tomography scans may be linked to increased mortality risk. The researchers reviewed data on 274 patients with a mean age of 81.3 years. After adjustment for demographic variables, American Society of Anesthesiologists classification, and Charlson comorbidity index, they found that increased likelihood of mortality within 10 years was significantly associated with decreased thoracic muscle size and a nonsignificant trend toward decreased lumbar muscle size and attenuation. Read the abstract…
Survey examines trends in back pain treatment.
A survey conducted by NPR and Tuven Health Analytics looks at trends in treatment of back pain. Researchers surveyed 3,002 respondents and found that 51 percent indicated they had suffered from back pain in the past year. Of those, 58 percent said they sought medical treatment, although 55 percent said they treated the pain themselves. In addition, 45 percent indicated their back pain had reduced, 25 percent said it stayed the same, 25 percent said it went away completely, and 5 percent said it increased. The researchers found that the most-prescribed (40 percent) medical treatment was prescription painkillers, followed by exercise/physical therapy (31 percent), injections (20 percent), massage (17 percent), steroids (17 percent), over-the-counter painkillers (13 percent), and surgery (12 percent). Read more (PDF)…
The American College of Surgeons recently published a clinical practice guideline on noninvasive treatment of low back pain. Read more…
Studies look at physicians and ED charges.
Two recently published studies address the issue of physicians and emergency department (ED) charges. In the first, published online in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers retrospectively analyzed Medicare Part B claims from 12,337 emergency medicine physicians and 57,607 internal medicine physicians and found that emergency medicine physicians had an overall markup ratio of 4.4 (340 percent excess charges), while internal medicine physicians had an overall markup ratio of 2.1 (110 percent excess charges). Read more…
Read the abstract…
The second study, published in the June issue of The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, surveyed 441 currently practicing emergency medicine healthcare professionals with various levels of training regarding their understanding of care costs for three common presentations to the ED (abdominal pain, dyspnea, and sore throat). They found that correct costs were determined by 43.0 percent, 32.0 percent, and 40.1 percent of participants, respectively. Read more…
Read the complete study…
AAOS Now is now available in the AAOS Access app!
Beginning with the June 2017 issue, AAOS Now is available on iOS and Android devices through the AAOS Access app. AAOS Access is available in the App Store and Google Play. The app also delivers your eBooks, videos, and other educational content. Read more…
Call for volunteers: Emerging Professionals Committee.
Aug. 1 is the last day to submit your application for a position on the Emerging Professionals Committee. The Emerging Professionals Committee Review researches and oversees programming to engage medical students, residents, post graduates, and candidate members of AAOS. The following positions are available:
- Member (one opening)
- Candidate member (one opening)
- Resident member (one opening)
Applicants for the member position must be active fellows or associate members osteopathic; applicants for the candidate member position must be candidate members of AAOS; applicants for the resident member position must be PGY-2, PGY-3, or PGY-4. Learn more and submit your application…(member login required)
