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Volatile Organic Compounds: A beacon of hope

BY By David R. Brown, MD, DSc, Bradley S. Miller, MD, PhD Andre Lamontagne, BEE, MBA

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been well known entities in the industrial space, particularly, but not exclusively in petroleum and natural gas refining. Their emergence, however, as potential biomarkers has been pursued only in the last decade for applications in health care and environmental surveillance. VOCs are small molecules usually in the one-to-four carbon range.

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Maps of Healing: Rural Horizons of Tertiary Care

BY ateh Bazerbachi, MD

A silent crisis is unfolding across America’s heartland, threatening not just rural communities but one of the nation’s most vital economic engines. Beyond the headlines of supply chain disruptions and food security lies an even more pressing challenge: rural Americans are increasingly cut off from the advanced medical care that their urban counterparts take for granted.

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100 Most Influential: Health Care Leaders

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Assessing and Advancing Community Health: The overarching value of equity  

BY Brooke Cunningham, MD, PhD

Every five years, as part of our public health accreditation process, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) releases the Minnesota Statewide Health Assessment (SHA). The SHA is a comprehensive examination of health in our state. Because it focuses on health, it examines health outcomes and the health-related social factors that contribute to

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Health Care at the Crossroads: Securing the future of patient care

BY LISA SCHWEIGER, MD, AND NICK venosdel, MD

The human psyche is remarkably adept at normalizing. While this confers an exceptional capacity for resilience, this plasticity frequently allows for the disallowable. Physicians are not immune to this. Health care leadership in the United States has undergone a disturbing transformation in the past 15+ years, as it has changed from a small scale, local and regional model led by physicians, to a system increasingly dominated by multi-state, national and multi-national

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AI-Powered Olfactory Sensor Technology: The electronic nose in medicine

BY CHRIS CAMPBELL, CEO

The field of medical diagnostics is rapidly evolving with transformative advancements in every field. An area of particular significance involves the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) olfactory sensor technology. AI-powered olfactory sensor technology promises to reshape how we detect and diagnose a wide range of medical conditions,

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Hospital at Home: Inside a growing trend

BY David W. Plocher, MD

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Physicians and Adaptive Change: The little med school on the prairie

BY CINDY FIRKINS-SMITH, MD, MHCI, FAAD

Like many physician-leaders, I did not choose the path of leadership with any deliberate intent. But as physicians we are leaders, whether we think we are or not. We lead care-delivery teams, we lead patients in shared decision-making, and we lead at home and in our communities. 

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Freedom Echoing: A legislative fix for health care?

BY KIP SULLIVAN, JD

For over 50 years, Minnesota’s method of containing health care costs has not changed. Beginning with the Health Maintenance Act of 19733, we have relied on one iteration or another of the tactics pioneered by HMOs, including exposing doctors to financial incentives to reduce services, robbing doctors of their autonomy by imposing prior authorization and other forms of micromanagement, and limiting patient choice of provider.

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Serious Illness Communication: Building a statewide standard of care

BY LORI BROSTROM, MB

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, in his ground-breaking book “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” talks about how medicine so often “fails the people it is supposed to help,” especially with respect to the elderly and those with terminal illnesses.

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The Minnesota RETAIN Study: Chiropractic care in return to work issues

BY DEB ZURCHER, LAC, DC

Workplace injuries, and their resulting economic impact, make up a much larger issue than most people are aware of. According to the National Safety Council, in 2021 the financial impact was $167 billion and 70 million injuries occurred at work.

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A Crisis in Home Health Direct Care: The Minnesota Solutions Model

BY JESSE BETHKE GOMEZ, MMA

The model of the health care delivery system in the United States has hospitals, clinics and specialty medical services on one side. On the other side are home health direct-care services, along with community-based services. The home health side is facing a complex crisis at the heart of which are personal care assistants (PCAs). Among other concerns, for individuals who rely upon PCAs for daily living, there is more demand than supply.

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Shell Game Economics: Corporate medicine wins, you lose

BY DAVID FEINWACHS, MA, MHA, JD, PHD

Since 1984, most Minnesotans enrolled in Medicaid, a program funded by all taxpayers, have not really been able to choose their own doctor. For the past two years, Health Policy Advocates (HPA), a volunteer citizens’ group, has championed bills in the Minnesota legislature that would give all Medicaid enrollees the right to opt out of managed care. These bills, SF404 and HF816, could give all Medicaid recipients the freedom to choose.

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The Minnesota CANDOR Act: Addressing adverse events

BY NELS E. DYSTE

On August 1, 2023, a transformative shift in health care communication took place as the Minnesota CANDOR Act (bill SF2909) came into effect. This legislation, inspired by similar efforts in other states, aims to revolutionize the way physicians and patients navigate the aftermath of adverse medical events (AMEs). With the increasing frequency of nuclear verdicts, Candor is a welcome new too.

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Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: A look at where we are today

BY CHESLEY CHEN, MS, MBA

There’s been a lot of interest recently in artificial intelligence (AI) and rightfully so. The technology has made rapid advancements in the last several years and is already being used to automate tasks and improve workflows. And its ability to use human language can be surprisingly good.

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Navigating Drug Shortages: Preparedness and patient advocacy

BY DAVID J. MARGRAF, PharmD, PhD AND STEPHEN W. SCHONDELMEYER, PharmD, PhD

The health care industry is faced with an alarming rate of drug shortages, posing significant challenges for physicians and patients alike. In July 2023, there were 309 drug products in shortage according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP)—a record high for the last decade. A large share of these ongoing shortages are sterile injectable forms of critical acute drug products that are used in emergency situations.

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Moral Injury in Health Care: A growing concern

BY WENDY DEAN, MD

A few weeks ago, at the end of a talk about clinician distress, a physician in the audience stood up and said, “No one’s medical school application says they want to maximize profits for health systems. All of us – ok, except maybe one or two in every class who are mercenary – wanted to help people, and when we can’t do that anymore, it’s excruciating.”