— Kay Redfield Jamison, Night Falls Fast

DIATHERIX Technology Offers Faster Diagnoses, Decreases Costs

 A series of video presentations encouraging Tennessee healthcare providers to adopt electronic health record (EHR) technology is now available for viewing by physicians, other healthcare providers, and patients across the state...                                                    

WASHINGTON, DC—Greater use of genetic testing would occur if physicians had the necessary tools, according to a new study by UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) Center for Health Reform & Modernization...

Myth: Arthritis is an inevitable part of aging, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Fact: While aging and genetics play a role in developing osteoarthritis (OA), the most common form of arthritis, behavioral choices are a much larger factor in the development and progression to disability of this chronic condition. In addition, 300,000 children have...

Scope of practice … three small words that invoke passionate responses within the practice setting.

Belmont Opens Admissions for New Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree

Belmont University’s Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing recently announced the start of a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program, which begins fall 2012...

WASHINGTON, DC—Demand for primary care has outpaced supply nationwide, leaving many communities with primary care providers who are absent, unaffordable or inaccessible because of distance, special healthcare needs, insurance status, or cultural barriers...

While shortages of doctors and nurses are well documented, the shortage of professionals in allied health is also causing recruiting headaches for hospitals, clinics and group practices...

• 35 percent are worried about retaining top talent,
• 39 percent are worried about their ability to pay competitive wages,
• 10 percent are worried they don’t have enough money to recruit talent, and...

 A $5 Copay? Not Anymore

By any measure, healthcare is one of America’s fastest-growing industries, and that means the competition for qualified employees at all levels has never been greater...

Alive Hospice Names O’Neal New CEO

Veteran healthcare executive Anna-Gene O’Neal took the reigns at Alive Hospice as CEO on April 1. She has oversight of the nonprofit agency’s hospice care,..

Tasha Wilbert-Starks is a prime example of how early exposure to science, math and the medical sciences helps grow a doctor and, in Wilbert-Starks’ case, a primary-care physician...

Unusual partnership unveils next generation PCMH model

Last February, shortly after Brad Wilson took over as CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC), he and UNC Health Care System CEO Bill Roper, MD, MPH,..

“The biggest threat that we have today is the stability of the public health system itself,” declared Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP(E), executive director of the American Public Health Association...

Medical professionals call congressional 10-month delay on SGR cuts “another patch” for “ticking time bomb” of deeper Medicare cuts in 2013

In theory, all providers would say they offer patient-centered care. In practice, however, there is often a disconnect when it comes to how care is actually delivered in the United States...

Summit Medical Associates Earns Level 3 PCMH Recognition

Like many practice managers, Summit Medical Associates Administrator Patsy Brown would say the practice has always been patient centered...

 While politicians and courts continue to loudly debate the theoretical merits of various aspects of healthcare reform, a growing number of private stakeholders and industry organizations have quietly begun moving forward with concrete steps to transform the nation’s healthcare delivery system...

“There’s not one person who would disagree with you that there’s a relationship between the mind and the physical body. Yet the reality is that we don’t practice that way; we practice in isolation.”...

Delivering Comprehensive Care for More than Four Decades

Necessity is the motherhood of invention, and what Matthew Walker, Sr., MD, needed was a place for his Meharry Medical College students to train. At the same time,...

While American medicine is coming to the realization that healthcare’s future depends on quality primary care, Bruce Alan Wallstedt , MD, realized that truth years ago, when he chose family medicine as his profession...

Genetic Diagnostics Firm Moves to Cool Springs Life Science Center

NextGxDx, a healthcare information technology company providing physicians online access to a searchable database of genetic tests,...

Providers Focus on Prescription Drug Addiction, Abuse

It’s a difficult balance to strike. Physicians certainly don’t want patients to suffer needlessly when medications exist to successfully diminish pain and manage symptoms...

In any interaction with the government, communication is essential and keeping meticulous records is the key to assure a fair outcome...

LHC Delegation: Day 1

What will be the outcome of the Supreme Court's review of PPACA? How much will the 2012 election influence healthcare policy? What's next? More ... 

Surviving cancer represents only one facet of disease’s consequences for young adults

When oncologists deliver the diagnosis of cancer to young adults, the overwhelming weight of the disease takes a toll on patients. The rush to treatment is immediate;...

AHA Section advocates on behalf of women & children

Representing the nation’s hospitals, health systems and networks, the American Hospital Association (AHA) has long been a vocal advocate on numerous fronts ranging from health reform and the reevaluation of...

Each March, patient safety steps into the national spotlight during the annual awareness week. For providers across the country, however, the safe delivery of care is an ongoing battle day in and day out...

Tennessee Center for Patient Safety Makes Strides Statewide

In 2007, the Tennessee Hospital Association established the Tennessee Center for Patient Safety with funding primarily from the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Foundation...

Wrap-up from Recent TATS Meeting

Leadership Health Care, an initiative of the Nashville Health Care Council, is finalizing plans for its 10^th annual Delegation to Washington, D.C. on March 21-22...

Analysts Share ‘Mixed Bag’ Views on Various Sectors

The Nashville Health Care Council’s annual panel discussion, Wall Street's View on Prospects for the Health Care Industry, attracted nearly 600 to the Nashville Convention Center last month to gain insight into top...

Saint Thomas Hospital is in the process of unveiling the Unity System, the first fully-integrated neurosurgical center in North America. Currently, the only other system similar to this one is in Singapore...

When it comes to healthcare fraud, the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) is cracking down, and in ways that could cost providers not only cash, but also their liberty...

 Lawyers Say Hospitals Have a Choice

All the changes in the last few years to Tennessee statutes regarding physician non-compete clauses have been perplexing, to say the least. Yet for non-competes imposed on physicians by hospitals,...

It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like the federal government is upping its enforcement game when it comes to HIPAA privacy and security...

To Which Contracts Does the Change Apply?

If there’s one thing businesses don’t like, it’s uncertainty. Yet uncertainty is what medical group practices and other entities that contract with physicians are faced with these days...

Esther Eisenberg, MD, Leads in the Fight Against Infertility

Few diagnoses strike an emotional chord with patients quite like infertility. Unfortunately, the problem affects 10 percent of women ages 15 to 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Medical experts have attributed the startling trend of increased diagnoses regarding chronic pain and depression to an aging baby boomer generation enduring arguably the greatest economic fallout of our time...

Vanderbilt Study Finds Women Who Eat Fish Have Lower Colon Polyp Risk

RARE, BUT STRONG TOGETHER

The US Hypophosphatasia Foundation Joins Groups Around the World to Raise Awareness About Rare Diseases

The US Hypophosphatasia Foundation, an organization dedicated to educating, empowering and connecting patients and families who suffer from a rare bone disease that causes soft bones called hypophosphatasia, or HPP, is advocating for Rare Disease Day 2012. Rare Disease Day is especially poignant this year because it is set on Leap Day, February 29th. More ...

A federal court judge has cleared the way for releasing payments in the 2009 settlement that ended the historic court challenge led by the American Medical Association against UnitedHealth Group. Nearly $200 million in awards will be paid to settle claims from physicians for 15 years of artificially low payments from UnitedHealth for out-of-network health services. More ...

March of Dimes Honors Excellence in Nursing

In the more than seven decades since the March of Dimes was founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to find a cure for polio, the national organization has championed a range of healthy initiatives to improve outcomes for...

Resolve to Make a Plan in 2012

In a February 2009 report, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) identified that during 2003-2006, municipal fire departments responded to an estimated 3,750 structure fires in medical, mental health,...

New Technology Allows for a More Precise Phaco-Free, All-Laser, 3D Procedure

Each year, more than three million cataract surgeries are performed in the United States … five times the number of LASIK procedures...

Flight nurse Mark Tankersley prepares the helicopter for the flight back to the Lebanon base.

Vanderbilt LifeFlight Crews Operate with Dedication and Compassion  

The call comes in mid-morning on a clear but chilly December day. A 55-year-old woman, suspected of suffering a heart attack, is arriving by ambulance at University Medical Center in Lebanon.

When it comes to predicting who’s at risk for cardiovascular disease, some factors are etched in evidence-based stone. They include advanced age, gender (male),...

 Vanderbilt Performs State’s First

Aortic Valve Replacement with New Valve

The jury’s still out for primary prevention

Just like the phrase “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” implies, acetylsalicylic acid is a medical mainstay, one of the world’s most frequently prescribed and least expensive drugs...

 HeartMate II Offers Hope for Heart Failure Patients

East Tennessee Physician Named to Health Department Post

It isn’t necessary to look through a crystal ball to see that big things are ahead for technology startup Healthcare Productivity Automation (HPA), an innovative company that...

Common Mistakes and Common Sense Solutions

As the nation’s healthcare capital, Nashville is home to a broad array of experts and innovators. We asked a group of local consultants,...