Study outlines deficiencies in American health care

Technology seen as a key ingredient in changing system-based shortcomings.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. July 7, 2003.

Suspicions that the use of recommended health care procedures is far from universal were confirmed by a new study. This has led to calls for systematic changes in health care delivery.

American adults, on average, receive only a little more than half the measures recommended for their conditions, said the study published in the June 26 New England Journal of Medicine. The study concluded there are serious threats to the well-being of the American public because of "the gap between what we know works and what is actually done."

"My greatest hope is that we can stop debating whether we have a problem and start working on solutions," said the study's lead author, Elizabeth A. McGlynn, PhD, associate director of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Rand Health, the nation's largest independent health policy research organization.

Dr. McGlynn said the study was the largest of its kind ever conducted and the most comprehensive in scale. It included participants from across the nation with a wide range of both health conditions and insurance coverage.

Rand researchers interviewed and reviewed the health care records of nearly 7,000 adults in 12 metropolitan areas and measured 439 indicators for 30 acute and chronic conditions. Quality indicators were chosen by Rand physicians after a review of established and proposed national quality guidelines. These indicators were then approved by four nine-person panels whose members were nominated by appropriate specialty societies.