by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 18, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Miscellaneous Musings, Nutrition & Wound Healing
A 5:2 Intermittent Fasting Meal Replacement Diet and Glycemic Control for Adults With Diabetes: The EARLY Randomized Clinical Trial | Diabetes and Endocrinology | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network A study published open access in JAMA suggests that an intermittent...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 5, 2024 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
Politico released an article about the billion dollar scam of “skin substitutes.” It’s behind a pay wall, so I will summarize the key points. (I will use the term “skin substitutes” since that’s how they are referred to in the Politico article.) Since I started...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 26, 2024 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
How much do you think that price impacts the way that CTPs (skin subs) are selected in the office setting? One reader sent me this thought – which is testable statistically (although I do not have access to the data to do it): “Dr. Fife, I could be wrong, but I think...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 20, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
Here I am at dinner with the illustrious Hyperbaric Medicine and wound care team from the Philippines at the UHMS meeting in New Orleans! This small group of physician leaders is revolutionizing care for an entire country. These are the kind of people who start new...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 14, 2024 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
I have blogged a lot about the problems in the CTP/skin substitute industry. If a product is say, 10 times more expensive than another one, then it needs to be 10 times better, right? Otherwise, why is it more expensive? (Pretend that making a profit off of the cost...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 12, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Tales of the Medicare Disadvantaged
Dr. Fife, I read your article about the problem with physician payments from Medicare. I agree that Medicare should pay physicians more. But right now, I am struggling with the rate increases on all my insurance plans! I am a disabled person who pretty much lives in...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 7, 2024 | Dr. Marissa Carter, Fight the Good Fight
Check out the live interview that Dr. Marissa Carter and I did about why patients with chronic wounds are so sick! This project began a few years ago when I was testing the feasibility of a quality measure that could be reported by wound care practitioners as part of...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 6, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Join me for the pre-meeting on “Advances in Wound Management” at the annual Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society meeting next week in New Orleans! It will be a fantastic meeting! Check out the program and register here: Pre-course 2 – Undersea &...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 4, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Quality Payment Program
The AMA has a series called “What’s Wrong with Medicare Physician Payment,” and 4 of the 6 points in this article address the weaknesses of the Quality Payment Program (QPP). Three of those focus around issues related to the Merit Based Incentive Payment System...
by M. Mark Melin MD & Davis Melin MPH | May 28, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
Guest blog by M. Mark Melin MD and Davis Melin MPH A recent Nature article entitled “Active self‑treatment of a facial wound with a biologically active plant by a male Sumatran orangutan”1 is a fascinating description of Rakus, a mature, male orangutan who lives in...
