White House to spend $1.5B to attract doctors to underserved communities
The pandemic has highlighted what has long been a barrier to accessing quality medical care in rural areas and communities of color: provider shortages.
Doctors
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Battle over where to purchase specialty drugs hits Indiana
Health care practitioners and insurers are fighting over the hefty prices hospitals charge for specialty drugs to treat patients with cancer, vision loss, low white-blood-cell count and other serious diseases.
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Former head of Eskenazi burn unit sues IU Health, IU medical school
A prominent Indianapolis surgeon is suing Indiana University and Indiana University Health, claiming they broke his contract and interfered with his ability to get another job.
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Medical team learned about coronavirus on the fly
Nothing in Indiana University Health pulmonologist Dr. Caitriona Buckley’s 18 years of practicing medicine has even come close to the stress of this past year.
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Pandemic propels telemedicine’s growth into overdrive
Telemedicine is a $21 billion worldwide industry that has long promised to overhaul health care but struggled as recently as six months ago to get steady traction.
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Articles
Fired exec at Community Health can pursue retaliation lawsuit, judge rules
U.S. District Judge Richard Young this week threw out most of Community Health’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Thomas Fischer, who served as the hospital system’s chief financial officer for eight years before he was fired in 2013.
High trust in doctors, nurses found in new national survey
Researchers say that trust could become important in the push to increase COVID-19 vaccinations, as long as unvaccinated people have care providers they know and are open to hearing new information about the vaccines.
Doctors see troubling results from delayed treatments during the pandemic
With medical visits picking up again among patients vaccinated against COVID-19, health providers are starting to see the consequences of a year of pandemic-delayed preventive and emergency care.
Indy-area hospital systems band together to warn of ‘potential crisis’
In an unusual show of solidarity, officials from several major Indianapolis-area health care systems held a joint press conference Monday afternoon to issue dire warnings about the most recent surge in COVID-19 cases and explain how their facilities and staffs are close to becoming overwhelmed.
Nurses wanted: Swamped hospitals scramble for pandemic help
U.S. hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients are trying to lure nurses and doctors out of retirement, recruiting students and new graduates who have yet to earn their licenses and offering eye-popping salaries in a desperate bid to ease staffing shortages.
Some doctors moving away from ventilators for virus patients
Some hospitals have reported unusually high death rates for coronavirus patients on ventilators, and some doctors worry that the machines could be harming certain patients.
Indiana hospitals use drills, telehealth to get ready for possible large COVID-19 outbreak
Around Indiana, hospital officials say they have stepped up safety precautions in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. But even amid extensive preparation, some acknowledge that if the disease spreads quickly, it could test their facilities.
Lawsuit throws spotlight on physicians’ hospital referrals
A high-stakes suit this month by the federal government against Community Health Network is raising questions about when they are proper and when they cross the line.
Virtual health care grows, but usage is uneven and some patients, physicians are slow to adopt
Three years after Indiana passed a law allowing doctors to prescribe drugs for patients without an in-person visit—using a computer, smartphone, video camera and similar technology—some health systems around the state are reporting higher use of virtual visits. St. Vincent, for example, sees hundreds of patients a month remotely for ailments ranging from minor rashes and sprains to follow-up visits for strokes.
Indiana doctor who kept hundreds of fetuses vilified in life, death
Dr. Ulrich Klopfer competed so avidly in the 1970s to perform the most abortions each day that it was said he would set his coffee aside, jump to his feet in the break room and rush to the operating table whenever his chief rival in the macabre derby walked by.
High-tech rival devices on verge of making stethoscopes obsolete
Dr. Paul Wallach, an executive associate dean at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, predicts that within the next decade, hand-held ultrasound devices will replace the stethoscope as part of the routine physical exam.
Vaping has grown into full-blown health crisis in Indiana, panel says
Indiana health officials are investigating 30 cases of severe lung injury linked to vaping. Eight of those have been confirmed—most of them among individuals between the ages of 16 and 29. Earlier this month, the state confirmed the first death linked to vaping.
Doctors’ pagers finally headed to gadget graveyard
Since the first pager was patented in 1949 and used in New York’s Jewish Hospital, millions of doctors have done their daily rounds in hospitals with the gadget clipped to their waistband, always ready to hear the beep that might signal a medical crisis on the other end. But hospitals are now phasing them out.
Medical consulting startup opens downtown office, plans 21 jobs
The company, founded last year, offers legal medical consulting and medical product consulting to law firms, life sciences companies, and health and wellness businesses.
Doctors don’t always know what patients will owe for meds
While the price of almost any good or service can be found online, most Americans don’t know what they’ll owe for a prescription medication until they get it.
Governor selects surgeon George Rapp for state’s highest honor
Dr. George Rapp, an orthopedic surgeon and humanitarian, is this year’s recipient of the Sachem Award.
Anthem’s fight with doctors shows risks for surprise-billing fix
Doctors fighting a reimbursement battle with one of the biggest U.S. health insurers want to make sure that ending surprise medical bills doesn’t come at the expense of their pay.
Debunking medical myths all in a day’s work for IU’s Dr. Aaron Carroll
Carroll uses Twitter, a New York Times column, blog post, podcast, videos and books to publish his findings on just about any health issue he thinks needs explaining or correcting.
2019 Innovation Issue: Hospitals move cautiously into AI
The medical field’s lofty dreams of unleashing the power of artificial intelligence to transform medicine have yet to materialize in a major way.