Health Care Reform Through Practical Clinical Guidelines

Health Care Reform Through Practical Clinical Guidelines: Ear Nose Throat is a practical set of clinical guidelines for ENT doctors, arranged by symptom. It is the first book to attempt to define what good healthcare reform should be, in order to increase quality, decrease inefficiency, and build a financial model to achieve this. The Editor and his team of expert contributing authors take into consideration the great variation among clinicians in diagnosing as well as treating a symptom. They bring to bear their many years experience in the treatment of patients without resorting to unnecessary tests and procedures, while still not overlooking a diagnosis. In so doing, they present a set of practical clinical guidelines that will change a very fragmented profession into a more cohesive one, with resultant cost-savings and increase in efficiency. Currently, it takes the work of a committee of specialists, brought together by a medical society, working for around a year and costing some $100,000 in order to develop a set of "evidence-based guidelines for one symptom." Simply, medical reform in otolaryngology cannot wait for the 30-plus years it could take to develop practical clinical guidelines for the more than 30 symptoms presented by patients to otolaryngologists. This book cuts to the chase and attempts to efficiently and appropriately bring consistency and cohesiveness into the current health care system. This book covers the various symptoms presented in clinic; develops a list of differential diagnoses; explains how to systematically rule out each differential diagnosis, chooses the most cost-effective route; and presents the most cost-effective treatment for each. Contributors include: Seilesh Babu, Eric Berg, Kevin Brown, Yvonne Chan, Edward Ermini, Marion Boyd Gillespie, Gregory Grillone, Ashutosh Kacker, David Karas, Howard Kotler, David Kutler, Steven Levine, Vincent Lin, Rodney Lusk, Robert McRae, Vikash Modi , David Nielsen, Krishna Patel, Gregory Randolph, Samuel Selesnick, Mark Shrime, Robyn Smith, MG Stewart, Elizabeth Toh, Robert Ward, Eiji Yanagisawa and Ken Yanagisawa.