The American Journal of Medicine Blog

  Two facts about US health care are beyond dispute. First, US health care is the most expensive in the world; it is twice as expensive as the average industrial nation.1, 2 Second, US health care is not the best health care system in the world. Four different studies have compared US health care to other […]

Patients who travel to another country to seek health care are referred to as medical tourists. The term arose because many Americans seek less expensive elective surgical, dental, or cosmetic procedures while vacationing abroad.1 Of course, US hospitals and physicians have also long cared for medical tourists from other countries. Now, many medical tourists are going […]

The report by Secemsky et al1 in this issue of The American Journal of Medicine illustrates the current management of pulmonary embolism at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). A Pulmonary Embolism Response Team sees all patients in whom pulmonary embolism is diagnosed by computed tomography. The team manages these patients during their hospitalization and after discharge for up […]

For 25 years from 1980 to 2005, the number of US MD medical schools and the number of MD students did not increase because of predictions of an oversupply of US physicians by the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME).1 Then, in 2005, the COGME reversed its opinion and predicted a shortage of physicians. The […]

An increasing number of primary care physicians are downsizing to a concierge medical practice (also termed “retainer-based medicine”). In a concierge medical practice, the physician limits the number of patients in his practice and offers exclusive services for an annual fee. The patient pays a surcharge for increased access and additional services from their physician.1 […]

At the onset of the 20th century, most practicing physicians had received their training in proprietary medical schools, many of which were essentially diploma mills.1 These schools offered a series of lectures over a 1-year period. A minority of physicians had attended university-based medical schools such as Johns Hopkins, which was established in 1893. There were only […]