Jon Stewart’s opening segment on last night’s Daily Show was on health care reform.  Link pasted below in case you missed it.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/86325/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-thu-jul-30-2009

I was very disappointed to read that Rep Rodgers’ (R-MI) amendment was accepted yesterday by the Energy and Commerce committees. 

Amednment from Rep Rodgers (R-MI) “In no case may any research conducted, supported, or developed by the Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research, the Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission, or the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research be used by the federal government to deny or ration care.”

The amendment seeks to limit the use of comparative effectiveness research.  And as a physician, I want all the evidence and research I can get to help treat my patients. 

The backbone of clinical practice is evidence based medicine.  Utilizing data to inform the treatment choices we make everyday to help our patients.  I want to eliminate treatment practices that don’t help my patients….and certainly avoid at all cost doing anything that may harm my patient.  For example, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women.  HRT once seemed the answer for many of the conditions women face as they age. It was thought that hormone therapy could ward off heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer, while improving women’s quality of life.  But beginning in July 2002, findings emerged from clinical trials that showed this was not so. We now know that, long-term use of hormone therapy may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.   So, now I need to ”ration” my patients use of HRT in certain circumstance in order to protect them from harm. 

The whole idea of gathering evidence and data….is to stop using the treatments that don’t work or harm patients.  So, yes….I want to deny my patients access to treatments that don’t work.  And yes, I want to ration their use of treatments that have be found to be ineffective.  I hope every physician in the country would agree on this. 

Doctors for America — 360 strong in Ohio, over 14,000 nationwide, mentioned on the “Ed Show” on MSNBC

And here is the blogpost that was referenced, from ThinkProgress.org’s Igor Volsky.

As I was standing next to Senator Reid this afternoon at the press conference publicizing the 450,000 doctors who support reform, I was struck by how far DFA has come in such as short time.  We have been a group for less than a year, and today we were able to amplify the voice of physicians in strong support of reform at the Capital Building.  There is much work still to be done to get that voice heard….but I was excited to pause for one minute to congratulate the DFA team on the tremendous success so far.  Nice work team!

You can see me at the event here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik49hahtFGc

Today at the press conference – with Senators Reid, Durbin, Murray and Schumer – there was a lot of talk about the timeline for reform.  Senator Reid was still optimistic that the Finance Committee was able to get a bill out and marked up before recess starts for the Senate next week.  I thought Sen. Durbin brought up an interesting point when he said that the health insurance companies are the only other industry other than baseball that is exempt from anti-trust laws and that is why they have been the most profitable industry in all of our economy….with record level profits.  Sen Murray from Washington really brought home the point that this fight is for “health insurance stability” –being able to go take a new job opportunity without worrying that you won’t be able to have your pre-existing condition covered with your new insurance.

Click below to see out press release about today’s press conference.  Keep up the hard work all….

http://www.drsforamerica.org/dfapress.php