cover story one
Broadening the Lens
Improving health data measurement
Liz Cinqueonce, MBA, and Kate Hust, MD, MPHB
Since its founding, MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has played a pivotal role in Minnesota’s health care landscape. Over the last 20 years, following a mission to empower health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement, MNCM evolved from a small collaborative initiative into a statewide leader in health care measurement and reporting.
Cover story two
Safeguarding Surgery Standards: The legislative role in scope of practice issues
By Amanda Maltry, MD
Practicing medicine is an enormous privilege. One that must be earned through years of meticulous study and training. The patients who rely on us for care rightly expect that we have gained deep expertise in our specialties and exceptional command of the surgeries and procedures we perform, as well as extensive training in physiology, pharmacology and pathology. Their lives are in our hands so it is critical that we can confidently deliver the right care at the right time.
Pain Management
Targeted Drug Delivery for Chronic Pain: A review of patient survey data
By
David M. Schultz, MD
For over three decades, intrathecal (IT) targeted drug delivery (TDD), sometimes referred to as “pain pump therapy”, has become a more common treatment for patients suffering from intractable chronic pain. As an interventional pain physician, I have often heard my patients express deep gratitude for their implanted pain pumps, frequently calling them “life-saving” and “the best decision I ever made.” Beyond anecdotal evidence, patients who receive them have a high re-implant rate of over 95% at the end of battery life, a strong indication of the extraordinarily high satisfaction with TDD therapy. But beyond this, there were very little real data to quantify patient satisfaction.
Interview
Defending the Humanity of Millions
Ellie Wilson is the Executive Director of AuSM
Health Care Policy
Understanding the Value of Medical Research: A mental health perspective
By
Sophia Vinogradov, MD
Recent administrative actions from the federal government have sent chilling and difficult messages throughout the entire health care delivery system. Denying the value of vaccines or the need for medical research support or even medical research itself are among many such messages. Speaking from the perspective of mental health care, there is much of importance to consider when we evaluate and try to change these recent actions.
Specialty Care
Diagnosing and Treating Rare Diseases: An update on leadership and advocacy
By Susan Berry, MD; Erica Barnes, SLP; and Art Beisang, MD
The concept of creating a rare-disease advisory council started with the advocacy work of parents looking to improve the speed of diagnosis and access to care for patients with rare diseases. Abbey Meyers, the founder of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and a rare-disease mom, put it best when she said, “Families affected by rare diseases represent a medically disenfranchised population that falls through the cracks of every health care system in the world.” Advocates began engaging with the Minnesota state Legislature in 2017 for a program modeled after one in North Carolina. These efforts resulted in the successful 2019 approval of a bipartisan bill for the Chloe Barnes Advisory Council on Rare Diseases. It was named in memory of a young girl who passed away from metachromatic leukodystrophy.
