Best Books?

[Kimka83]

Hello All,
I know that there have been threads about this before . . . but in preparation for upcoming interviews, what are some of the best books to read to become more informed about medicine/insurance/health care policy?
Does anyone have any favorite books that helped them understand these topics better?
If anyone knows the link to the previous thread discussing this, that would be great. I tried to search, but it didn't work out. Thanks

~Kim

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[Kimka83]

Found it! Never mind!
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=216260&page=1&pp=25

 

[-Goose-]

Hey Kim,

I would suggest "Healthcare Meltdown" by Robert Lebow... He's a huge promoter of the "Healthcare For All"-type answer, so its definitely leftish (some would say socialist), but it offers some great answers to very difficult issues. The only caveat I would give is that Dr. Lebow died in 2003 (i think?) in a tragic cycling accident, so its not incredibly up-to-date (ie keeps referring to ~40 mill uninsured vs 45 mill, etc, etc). Anyways, its a great book nonetheless...

Hello All,
I know that there have been threads about this before . . . but in preparation for upcoming interviews, what are some of the best books to read to become more informed about medicine/insurance/health care policy?
Does anyone have any favorite books that helped them understand these topics better?
If anyone knows the link to the previous thread discussing this, that would be great. I tried to search, but it didn't work out. Thanks

~Kim

 

[spot the cat]

Somewhat lighter fare, but a good snapshot of some important issues, is the current series running in the New York Times called "Being a Patient" or something like that. ( www.nytimes.com - you need to login, but don't need the paid subscription to read these articles) There is an article in today's or yesterday's edition about boutique medical practices. If you find it, there are links to the other articles. Another one about a family with good income, good insurance who went bankrupt trying to pay for healthcare for their son. These are easy and quick reads, but they do bring up some thought-provoking topics.

 

[Shredder]

hey, i like a new book called "A call to action" by hank mckinell i think, hes the boss of pfizer. so he tells it from a pharma standpoint, which he admits, but i still found it very enlightening. wikipedias not bad either but its fragmented.

 

[Turkeyman]

http://www.publicagenda.org has some great info as well, if you're looking to enlighten yourself on the basics of many debated issues without having to purchase a book.

edit: wtf, where'd it go?

edit2: "This domain name expired on 10/23/2005 and is pending renewal or deletion."

Wow...I can't believe it. Haha...

 

[Shredder]

http://www.publicagenda.org has some great info as well, if you're looking to enlighten yourself on the basics of many debated issues without having to purchase a book.

edit: wtf, where'd it go?

edit2: "This domain name expired on 10/23/2005 and is pending renewal or deletion."

Wow...I can't believe it. Haha...

gotta love the public sector

 

[unfrozencaveman]

gotta love the public sector

I liked "Market Driven Healthcare", and parrotted a good portion of it in my interviews to people I hoped who hadn't read it.

 

[tank you]

critical condition by barlett and steele

 

[Shredder]

I liked "Market Driven Healthcare", and parrotted a good portion of it in my interviews to people I hoped who hadn't read it.

i also read that, i think it was big back in its day but its gotten slightly outdated. the fundamentals are still about the same, i guess not much as changed since then. i too mentioned it in an interview but all i could remember was upsizing, downsizing and resizing, and my interviewer seemed anti business. so it sucked and i got waitlisted, im pissed. ive seen the "focused factory" concept come up in other reading, and the latest us news hospital rankings seem to reflect that somewhat

 

[unfrozencaveman]

i also read that, i think it was big back in its day but its gotten slightly outdated. the fundamentals are still about the same, i guess not much as changed since then. i too mentioned it in an interview but all i could remember was upsizing, downsizing and resizing, and my interviewer seemed anti business. so it sucked and i got waitlisted, im pissed. ive seen the "focused factory" concept come up in other reading, and the latest us news hospital rankings seem to reflect that somewhat

Definitely. I avoided being an advocate of her ideas, but she does a very good, clear job of laying out the plusses and the minuses of HMO's, areas for improvement, and other industries and how they've worked better than healthcare delivery. The eyeglasses industry example is still the gold standard for what a lot of healthcare sectors hope to get to.

I basically used it to construct an answer to "how would you fix HMO's" (which I've been asked EVERY FREAKING TIME). Basically it's a long version of "I don't know".

 

[Shredder]

The eyeglasses industry example is still the gold standard for what a lot of healthcare sectors hope to get to.

I basically used it to construct an answer to "how would you fix HMO's" (which I've been asked EVERY FREAKING TIME). Basically it's a long version of "I don't know".

i wish i got more questions about the business side of healthcare instead of from my boring app. i guess your background leads to questions like that. i think eyecare is top notch bc its not life threatening, and that has a whole slew of implications that im not sure can apply to other areas of healthcare. i thought it was insightful how she noted the overlapping competition between different eyecare professionals, the opthalmologists optometrists and opticians. to me it seems like lack of competition is what is plaguing healthcare, ive proposed before to simply flood the market with docs and see what happens

 

[unfrozencaveman]

Yeah- I tend to think that health care is just subsidized enough that the market effects don't really work to improve things, but not subsidized enough to actually help. It seems to be a bit of a useless middle ground.
I worried about getting these questions, and then did, so I tried to brush up on this stuff beforehand (even if you do it for a living, it still requires a good deal of practicing answers), but I find the questions totally annoying. The conversations usually go something like:
Well, this type of system has these positives.
What about this drawback?
Well, this type of system addresses that.
Now you have lost the positives of the first system. What now?

Buddy, if I had the perfect system, I wouldn't be here talking to you.