The New Health Dialogue

We locals didn't make it to the AcademyHealth conference because of the snow but our colleague, Leif Haase, who flew in to DC from New America's California branch before the storm, got over there yesterday and emailed us a rundown of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's speech. He says she was "pretty categorical" about the need for health reform -- comprehensive health reform.

As we were thinking about what might happen at the nationally-televised bipartisan health summit President Obama offered, we clicked over to Nate Silvers www.fivethirtyeight.com blog for some insight. He, alas, is still analyzing the Saints coaching and that gutsy onside kick... But maybe there's a parallel after all.

Whether you're swashbuckling in pre-revolutionary France or tackling diabetes, teamwork and accountability always produce the best results.

Dr. Bruce Siegel of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation highlights a "local laboratory" of health care reform in The Users' Guide to the Health Reform Galaxy. He explains how a “three pronged attack” to improve diabetic care in Minnesota produced hard, measurable results. In just five years, the number of people receiving optimal diabetic care in Minnesota nearly tripled and by the end of next year 10,000 more Minnesotans with diabetes will be working with their doctors to meet these optimal care goals. And the docs that do a good job? They will be rewarded.

Like the Musketeers, these three organizations found that teamwork was the best way to make strides in diabetic care, improving care while also lowering costs.

We don't seem to get those annoying magazine sweepstakes offers in our mailbox anymore but now we've got -- the Artery Screeners. And they know my name! And they have big red pictures. And they will look inside my arteries with state of the art Doppler color flow ultrasound technology and save me from a stroke/aneurysm/vascular disease this coming weekend. At a church no less. On Embassy Row. I forgot -- the "best part" is that the tests are "absolutely painless, accurate, non-invasive" and I can keep my clothes on.