Doctors, patients lobby for increases in NIAMS funding

Erin Ransford

Delegation teams visited more than 115 congressional offices An impressive delegation of 72 orthopaedic surgeons, researchers, and patients visited Capitol Hill en masse March 29 to call for a 6.7 percent increase for medical research funding at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). The visits with U.S.

Nanotechnology: From nano to micro to macro

Samir Mehta, MD; Ryan M. Nunley, MD; Alex Jahangir, MD; Alok D. Sharan; the Washington Health Policy Fellows

Nanotechnology is the precision placement, measurement, manipulation, and modeling of matter that consists of 4 to 400 atoms. To put that in perspective, one nanometer—one billionth of a meter—is 1/75,000 the width of a human hair. This would be the equivalent of comparing a marble with the planet Earth. The range below 100 nanometers is important because at this small size, the classic laws of physics change.

Did You Know? Nanotechnology by the numbers

600: Number of companies involved in nanotechnology research; companies range from start-ups to IBM and Samsung 1.5 ounces: Weight of a 100-kilowatt engine (like one used to power a car or light plane) powered by nanotechnology 4,000,000,000: Number of Web pages that can be stored on a nanochip the size of a grain of sand $6.5 billion: Total U.S. investment in the National Nanotechnology Initiative since 2001

Facts and FAQs on the Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative

Robert H. Haralson III, MD, MBA

Reporting is relatively painless, with some long-term benefits The Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), an extension of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Physicians Voluntary Reporting Program, may actually result in payments to participants. What’s more, it offers a nonpunitive opportunity for orthopaedic practices to learn how to collect and report performance measures. The facts on PQRI The program runs from July 1 through December 31, 2007.

PQRI: A way to get more out of Medicare

William Rogers, MD, FCEP

Orthopaedists need only report on 3 measures to qualify I dare say that every physician in the United States is aware that the Medicare program pays doctors less in 2007 than it did in 2001. Physician expenses have been increasing annually—office rent, staff salaries, and malpractice insurance premiums increase every year. What in the world are the bureaucrats who run Medicare thinking?

States moving toward universal coverage

California: More than one in six (6.5 million) Californians are uninsured. Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Stay Healthy California proposal, all residents would be required to have a minimum level of insurance. Employers with more than 10 employees must either offer coverage or make a contribution to the cost of the employee’s coverage. Health insurers would be required to guarantee individual access to coverage.

Does state advocacy for tort reform work?

John K. Drake, MD

The results in Mississippi are encouraging In the not-too-distant past, my home state of Mississippi had the repeat distinction of being ranked “worst in the nation” in the annual State Liability Systems Ranking Study produced by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. The American Tort Reform Association included several Mississippi counties and judicial districts in its annual “Judicial Hell Holes” report.

Public service messages work—even at statehouse

Peter Pollack

PSA postcard on ATV safety plays role in stopping legislation A small postcard depicting three surgeons, a battered all-terrain vehicle (ATV), and a trauma center had a big impact in North Dakota, where legislators were considering a proposal to lower the legal driving age for children operating ATVs and motocross motorcycles on public land. The postcard was produced by the AAOS and the Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) as part of the 2007 public service campaign.