by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 9, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight
I know I will get flowers on my birthday because nearly every year, it’s when the Texas wildflowers bloom. A dense field of Texas bluebonnets waving in the wind creates the optical illusion of water. It’s a tradition to photograph children among the bluebonnets. This...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 2, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight
Even when it’s not possible to fix what is physically wrong with patients, we can often improve their mental well-being. Sometimes the most important thing we can dispense is what I would call “grace.” I worry that it’s gotten harder to find healthcare professionals...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 28, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy, US Wound Registry
The Wound Care Evidence Summit will take place in Washington, D.C. April 1-2. If you are involved in this area, you need to register now because spots are limited. The meeting will convene commercial and government payer medical directors, the FDA, NIH senior staff,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 26, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
The Wound Care Evidence Summit will take place in Washington, D.C. April 1-2. If you are involved in this area, you need to register now because spots are limited. The meeting will convene commercial and government payer medical directors, the FDA, NIH senior staff,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 25, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
The Wound Care Evidence Summit will take place in Washington, D.C. April 1-2. If you are involved in this area, you need to register now because spots are limited. The meeting will convene commercial and government payer medical directors, the FDA, NIH senior staff,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 24, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy, US Wound Registry
There’s a big focus on finding surrogate measures for wound outcome. I thought I could save anyone working in this area some wasted time by letting you know what outcomes CMS doesn’t care about. I can’t speak to what the FDA might care about. Under the Merit Based...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 16, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
My friend from England has an expression she learned from her Mother, an ambulance driver during the London Blitz: “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.” The field of wound management is in for a lot of big changes in 2020. As with anything...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 9, 2019 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
Last week my editorial in Today’s Wound Clinic stimulated a lot of comment and I was (perhaps rightly) criticized for implying that national wound care meetings are not important. My point is that scientific meetings become a lot less relevant if Wound Management...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 6, 2019 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
Re-printed from Today’s Wound Clinic We are at an important crossroads in the field of wound management. From the perspective of new technologies, the future is bright. Unfortunately, the future of the field itself is dismal. Under Medicare’s new Quality Payment...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 3, 2019 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality, Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
The Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders parterned with the US Wound Registry (USWR) to develop a suite of wound care relevant quality measures. This year, 3 of those CMS approved quality measures were selected for depiction on Physician Compare. An article about this...