Tara Parker-Pope, a health and wellness blogger for the New York Times, recently posted a blog deciphering the results of a recent Oregon Health and Science University study that claims that certain scans for back pain might be inefficient and do more harm than good for the patient.

According to the OHSU study, back pain patients who underwent scans didn’t get better any faster or have less pain, depression or anxiety than patients who weren’t scanned. More importantly, Parker-Pope points out that the OHSU data suggested that patients who get scanned for back pain may end up with more pain that those who are left alone.

Why are these results important to health payers and hospitals? Because: Those same studies suggest that more than half the patients who see a doctor for back pain undergo X-rays or another imaging study as a result. These tests might not be necessary, the studies say. Dr. Roger Chou, associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health and author of the study wrote that “We [doctors] think we’re helping patients by doing a test, but we’re adding cost, exposing people to radiation and people may be getting unnecessary surgery.”

Rather than have patients under the impression they are in worse conditions than they might actually be, doctors need to focus on practicing the best standards-of-care to ensure that patients are receiving the correct medicine they need to keep their body and mind healthy. An independent review organization like AllMed can help you, as doctors and payers, make the right decision to ensure the best standards-of-care for patients.

To read the full article and to link to the study, click here

Technology is definitely a cool thing these days. Just watch the commercials on television and you'll understand how abundant and incredibly viable and accesibly to the masses technology is: We can get the internet from our cell phones, take video with our digital cameras and look at photographs posted 10 minutes ago to check road conditions over the internet. Technology is amazing and it's just getting better.

But what happens when technology doesn't work properly? A recent New York Times article surveyed the issue of less-than-stellar technology in the medical world: "Scans--more sensitive and easily available than ever--are increasingly finding abnormalities that may not be the cause of the problem for which they are blamed. It's an issue particularly for the millions of people who go to the doctors' offices in pain." Why is it an issue? Because, scans are expensive, time consuming and often uncomfortable and mentally-taxing on patients...and unnecessary procedures lead to unnecessary costs for everyone.

Instead of relying on scanners (and their confusing results), doctors should set up rules of best practices to rely on in order to give patients a routine diagnostic procedure as well as to expunge any unnecessary costs. Using an independent review organization such as AllMed can help hospitals determine best practices, such as when to use a scan or when to try a different diagnostic approach, when working with patients.

To read the full article, click here.