The Cardiac Exam

We just finished two weeks of Clinical Foundations of Medicine, which included practice with the history and physical as well as two electives! My electives were Health Policy and Video Making for Physicians. In the health policy elective I learned about who's winning (drug companies and device manufactures) and who's losing (everyone else) as health care costs skyrocket. We talked about the idea of a monopsony (single buyer), and how in other countries having the government as the sole buyer of health care helps keep costs down. And we discussed Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which are networks of primary care physicians, specialists, and hospitals. These organizations are paid a set amount per person assigned to the ACO by the insurance companies, so there is an incentive to keep costs down rather than ordering unnecessary tests and procedures. There would also be bonuses for health care providers who improve quality metrics while keeping down costs, further incentivizing high-quality, low-cost care. ACOs are a major component of the Affordable Care Act.

In the video making elective, we made a 2-minute video showing some parts of the cardiac exam. The idea was that videos are an excellent way to convey medical information to colleagues and patients. Here are both groups' videos--me and my deranged jugular vein are in the first one.