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Hosted by Dr. Steve Feldman MD
Our health care system is capable of both modern miracles and appalling failures. What should we do to make the system better and what can you do to makes sure you’re getting the best health care possible? Steve breaks it down with experts from the trenches. Join us to find out about making a healthier medical system and for a healthier you.
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Everyone is talking about the excessive cost of medical care, and people are proposing many top-down solutions. But you can start saving money on health care today, according to our guest Dr. Cynthia Koelker,
Dr. Koelker is author of the book 101 Ways to Save Money on Health Care. She points out that one of the primary problems with the high cost of health care is that people don’t even know the costs of what they are buying. There’s no transparency. Even the doctors don’t know the costs (and I can personally vouch for that!).
Koelker points out that many conditions can be treated at home with over-the-counter medications, saving the need for a doctor’s visit. Patients with self-limited viral respiratory infections may not need to see a doctor. And there can be even more savings when people who do need to see a doctor do it right away, before they develop a more serious problem that would require a hospitalization.
Koelker is also author of Armageddon Medicine, How to Be Your Own Doctor in 2012 and Beyond explains how to treat hundreds, even thousands of conditions as a family doctor would. Armageddon Medicine was featured on one of our previous shows.
Dr. Feldman cares about the quality of your health; he is the founder of www.DrScore.com, an online doctor rating website that doctors nationwide use to get feedback from patients and has authored over 400 peer reviewed medical articles. Much of Dr. Feldman’s work has been compiled for lay people in his book, Compartments: How the Brightest, Best Trained, and Most Caring People Can Make Judgments That are Completely and Utterly Wrong.
Dr. Feldman is Professor of Dermatology, Pathology and Public Health Sciences at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He directs the Center for Dermatology Research, a health services research center working to improve the care of patients with skin disease. Dr. Feldman’s chief clinical interest is psoriasis. He received a Presidential Citation from the American Academy of Dermatology in 2005 for his psoriasis education efforts and received one of the AAD’s highest awards, the Clarence S. Livingood Lecturership, at the 2006 AAD Meeting. Dr. Feldman also was awarded the Astellas Award (and its $30,000 prize) by the American Academy of Dermatology in 2008 for scientific research that improved public health in the field of dermatology.
He has studied the quality of medical, surgical, and pathologic dermatology services provided by dermatologists, reinforcing effects of UV exposure in frequent tanners, and the quality of life impact of psoriasis. His research studies into patients’ adherence to topical treatments are transforming how dermatologists understand and manipulate patients’ use of topical treatment of chronic disease.