Best headline of 2010: Canadian Premier going to the U.S. for heart surgery.
Quality matters: A hospital specialty that improves its within-state rank by one spot experiences a 6.8% increase in patient volume. Hat tip to Jason Shafrin.
Comparative effectiveness isn’t gone: It’s in Obama’s new budget.
Geisinger doc: Tummy tuck may be safer than living with obesity.
The Canadian Premier is wise to seek care in the United States. More patients should compare quality ratings and traveling to a facility were the quality beats the national average. In 2004, a study from California found cardiac surgery mortality rates in the state varied from 0% to nearly 13%. The average rate nationwide is 2.9%. The best facilities have mortality rates after cardiac surgery of between 0.05% to 1%.
With respect to Mr. Williams, I think this story will have a long life. One major question, yet unanswered, is: “who is paying for this surgery?” If it’s Mr. Williams himself, he has a real political problem, because he’s violated the so-called “social solidarity” of government monopoly over people’s access to medical services.
If the Newfoundland health plan is paying for it, it’s even worse. People will want to know if every Newfoundlander has the same claim to go the U.S. on the taxpayers’ tab. Periodically, provincial health plans have to contract with U.S. providers because waiting lists just get too long at home. Also, when Canadians go to the U.S. and pay out-of-pocket for specialized care, there have been cases where they made claims, and even lawsuits, against their provincial health plans to reimburse them.
I hope that the Canadian media will keep kicking at this issue.
That headline is wonderful! A classic. There is nothing to add to it. As somebody prbably said (or should have said) a headline is worth a thousand words.
I heard that he is paying for the surgery himself. He is wealthy and donates his Premier salary to charity every year. Good guy that made a good choice to come to the US for good health care.
As a Newfoundlander under the leadership of Premier Williams, I am here to correct any incorrect ideas about this news story. The cardiac operation that Premier Williams needs is not available in St.John’s, because it is a smaller city, and his Cardiologist here referred him to a top cardiac surgeon in the States, a very common procedure for this province. As a smaller province of Canada, we are normally the last province to receive the newest operations, in relation to all medical problems. We are the most unrecognized, and most taken advantage of by our Federal Government. Premier Williams is in the United States out of necessity, not by choice. Our Health Care System is not perfect, but none is, however, it’s free! I recently had a visit to the hospital and I was told that if I had the same treatment in the US, I would have paid $1500-$2000 out of pocket, I paid nothing. Our system is widely misunderstood by the American public, as our country is, and it is a true shame.. Thank You
I have a question for Brad S. or any other knowledgeable Canadian. As a member of the American public trying to have a better understanding of the Canadian health care system, if you were the one needing the surgery recommended for Premier Williams would you have been referred to the same top cardiac surgeon and would the surgery have been paid for by your health care system?
Question for Brad S. When you say its free is that because you pay it out of a tax rate that is way higher then America. Nothing is ever free someone has to pay at some point if not employee then its the employer. Government DOES NOT create wealth they take wealth and redistribute so when you say free you mean either you paid it out of your check so you can’t spend how you want or your employer had to pay additional taxes so then you can’t get raises or he has to raise his prices to compensate. People never understand this concept of government its always free money. Just like when you get a refund on your taxes its only a small return of a larger amount you already paid in not free money. People who pay nothing always complain that wealthy are getting refunds of money they paid in and they are not.
Maybe this will silence for awhile all the leftie writers who think that Canadians get care regardless of ability to pay.
Stem cells are “non-specialized” cells that have the potential to form into other types of specific cells, such as blood, muscles or nerves. They are unlike “differentiated” cells which have already become whatever organ or structure they are in the body. Stem cells are present throughout our body, but more abundant in a fetus.
Medical researchers and scientists believe that stem cell therapy will, in the near future, advance medicine dramatically and change the course of disease treatment. This is because stem cells have the ability to grow into any kind of cell and, if transplanted into the body, will relocate to the damaged tissue, replacing it. For example, neural cells in the spinal cord, brain, optic nerves, or other parts of the central nervous system that have been injured can be replaced by injected stem cells. Various stem cell therapies are already practiced, a popular one being bone marrow transplants that are used to treat leukemia. In theory and in fact, lifeless cells anywhere in the body, no matter what the cause of the disease or injury, can be replaced with vigorous new cells because of the remarkable plasticity of stem cells. Biomed companies predict that with all of the research activity in stem cell therapy currently being directed toward the technology, a wider range of disease types including cancer, diabetes, spinal cord injury, and even multiple sclerosis will be effectively treated in the future. Recently announced trials are now underway to study both safety and efficacy of autologous stem cell transplantation in MS patients because of promising early results from previous trials.
History
Research into stem cells grew out of the findings of two Canadian researchers, Dr’s James Till and Ernest McCulloch at the University of Toronto in 1961. They were the first to publish their experimental results into the existence of stem cells in a scientific journal. Till and McCulloch documented the way in which embryonic stem cells differentiate themselves to become mature cell tissue. Their discovery opened the door for others to develop the first medical use of stem cells in bone marrow transplantation for leukemia. Over the next 50 years their early work has led to our current state of medical practice where modern science believes that new treatments for chronic diseases including MS, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and many more disease conditions are just around the corner.
There are a number of sources of stem cells, namely, adult cells generally extracted from bone marrow, cord cells, extracted during pregnancy and cryogenically stored, and embryonic cells, extracted from an embryo before the cells start to differentiate. As to source and method of acquiring stem cells, harvesting autologous adult cells entails the least risk and controversy.
Autologous stem cells are obtained from the patient’s own body; and since they are the patient’s own, autologous cells are better than both cord and embryonic sources as they perfectly match the patient’s own DNA, meaning that they will never be rejected by the patient’s immune system. Autologous transplantation is now happening therapeutically at several major sites world-wide and more studies on both safety and efficacy are finally being announced. With so many unrealized expectations of stem cell therapy, results to date have been both significant and hopeful, if taking longer than anticipated.
What’s been the Holdup?
Up until recently, there have been intense ethical debates about stem cells and even the studies that researchers have been allowed to do. This is because research methodology was primarily concerned with embryonic stem cells, which until recently required an aborted fetus as a source of stem cells. The topic became very much a moral dilemma and research was held up for many years in the US and Canada while political debates turned into restrictive legislation. Other countries were not as inflexible and many important research studies have been taking place elsewhere. Thankfully embryonic stem cells no longer have to be used as much more advanced and preferred methods have superseded the older technologies. While the length of time that promising research has been on hold has led many to wonder if stem cell therapy will ever be a reality for many disease types, the disputes have led to a number of important improvements in the medical technology that in the end, have satisfied both sides of the ethical issue.
CCSVI Clinic
CCSVI Clinic has been on the leading edge of MS treatment for the past several years. We are the only group facilitating the treatment of MS patients requiring a 10-day patient aftercare protocol following neck venous angioplasty that includes daily ultrasonography and other significant therapeutic features for the period including follow-up surgeries if indicated. There is a strict safety protocol, the results of which are the subject of an approved IRB study. The goal is to derive best practice standards from the data. With the addition of ASC transplantation, our research group has now preparing application for member status in International Cellular Medicine Society (ICMS), the globally-active non-profit organization dedicated to the improvement of cell-based medical therapies through education of physicians and researchers, patient safety, and creating universal standards. For more information please visit http://www.neurosurgeonindia.org/