Evans Medicine

Newsletter of the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine at University Hospital

Evans Medicine

Newsletter of the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine at University Hospital

Evans Medicine

Newsletter of the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine at University Hospital

Evans Medicine

Newsletter of the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine at University Hospital

Evans Medicine

Newsletter of the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine at University Hospital

Evans Medicine

Newsletter of the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine at University Hospital

Evans Medicine

Newsletter of the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine at University Hospital

Preventive medicine: A cure for the healthcare crisis

Introductory Editorial: Few would dispute the premise that prevention, early detection, and early intervention form the first line of defense on the disease management (DM) continuum. That being the case, our national statistics on preventive health should be raising concerns throughout the industry. The US healthcare delivery system continues to fall woefully short of its prevention targets. On the international scene, the United States lags behind countries with less wealth and less technological savvy. Commentaries abound on the problems, but recently I became aware of an organization with an exciting goal and a novel solution for bringing preventive medicine into the mainstream. U.S. Preventive Medicine, Inc. (USPM) was founded by Christopher Fey, a former president and CEO of HealthCare USA, a multistate health maintenance organization, and senior officer of Coventry Health Care Corporation. A number of years ago, Mr. Fey had a life-altering experience. He witnessed his brother-in-law, a 39-year-old man in seemingly excellent physical condition, suffer a massive stroke that resulted in permanent right-sided paralysis, and speech and memory impairment. Following the event, physicians concluded that his brother-in-law’s risk factors could have been identified and his disease state detected by means of available technological screening devices. His was a condition for which effective drug therapy and other interventions were available. This event and its consequences were preventable. Having experienced firsthand the devastating consequences of a broken system that fails to respond until a condition produces symptoms, Mr. Fey became an evangelist for prevention and early detection. In founding USPM, he translated an interesting concept into an innovative model for preventive health in a consumer-driven market. In the following pages we provide a brief history of and current status report on the state of preventive health in the United States, and we present an overview of this company’s solution as one example of the untapped potential for innovation in the delivery of preventive services. I hope that the information contained herein will inspire you and our colleagues to join the conversation about the direction the United States will take with regard to improving access to screening and preventive services and enriching the lives of all citizens. As always, I welcome your comments. I can be reached at [email protected]

Veterinary Preventive Medicine

For centuries the clinical and curative conception of medicine has dominated medical thought and procedure, practically to the exclusion of all other phases of this great art and science. It has been so uppermost in the minds of most medical authorities until quite recently that they were and many are today almost entirely oblivious to other potent measures and practices that so materially contribute to the well-being of the animal organism. Thus our domain of service has been rather strictly confined to diagnosing, prescribing and administering to animals in which a pathological state actually exists. At the same time the major problems of prevention, control, suppression, and possible eradication of disease have been blissfully ignored. This condition still exists in spite of the fact that more than three-quarters of a century of scientific research with its wealth of dependable data and derived fundamental principles has established a sound basis for the field of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. Today this should be as accurate a field of scientific endeavor as that of any other branch of veterinary medicine. Yet regrettably, the fact remains that applied scientific hygiene and preventive medicine have not kept abreast with the needs and trends of our profession