WIHI - A Podcast from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Date: January 13, 2011   Featuring: Neil Baker, MD, IHI Faculty and Improvement Advisor; Improvement Consultant, Neil Baker Consulting Lawrence Shapiro, MD, Managed Care Medical Director, Palo Alto Medical Foundation Here’s something most clinical and quality leaders agree with: a lot of specialty care isn’t always necessary or beneficial. What’s more, there’s tremendous variation across the US in the use of specialist services — variation that tends to be driven by the volume of what’s available, not the health needs of a community’s residents. Meanwhile, in the trenches of decision making and with state-of-the-art interventions available to diagnose and treat diseases of all sorts, doctors and patients want what’s best, and potentially lifesaving. We applaud the oncologist who’s carefully helping a patient with cancer weigh treatment options; we respect the cardiologist who’s prescribing someone who’s had a heart attack the best medications to prevent a recurrence; we want the C-section for the pregn