Tracking Medicine

PART I.THE PROBLEM OF UNWARRANTED VARIATION IN HEALTH CARE 1. In Health Care, Geography is Destiny 2. The Vermont Experience PART II. SURGICAL VARIATION: UNDERSTANDING PREFERENCE-SENSITIVE CARE 3. Tonsillectomy and Medical Opinion 4. Interpreting the Pattern of Surgical Variation 5. Understanding the Market for Preference-Sensitive Surgery 6. Learning What Works and What Patients Want 7. The Birth and Near Death of Comparative Effectiveness Research PART III. MEDICAL VARIATION: UNDERSTANDING SUPPLY SENSITIVE CARE AND OVERUSE 8. Understanding Supply-Sensitive Care 9. Chronic Illness and Practice Variation 10. Is More Better? 11. Are America's "Best Hospitals" Really the Best? 12. Ten Top Reasons Why We Need Reform the Way We Manage Chronic Illness PART IV. REFORMING HEALTH CARE 13. Promoting Organized Care and Reducing Overuse 14. Establishing Informed Patient Choice as a Standard of Care 15. Six Ways to Control Cost, Accelerate Reform and Save the Economy 16. The Challenge of Unwarranted Variation Afterword with Shannon Brownlee Appendix on Methods Glossary Notes & References