by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 27, 2017 | Dr. Marissa Carter, Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
I have long been fascinated by the prediction of wound healing. Well over 15 years ago Dr. David Margolis and his colleagues told us—and still tell us today—that simpler models are better, that starting with initial wound age and area and a grading of the severity of...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 12, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
At the recent fall Symposium on the Advancement of Wound Care (SAWC), I had the honor of speaking at the opening session entitled, “The Power of Numbers, Predictive Outcomes in Diverse Populations” with 2 eminent statisticians, Charles Cowan and Nigam Shah. It sounds...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 6, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
I recently got a complicated patient healed with a cellular product. I’d have to pay money back if Medicare reviews my claim because I used it outside of the coverage criteria. Based on the analysis that Dr. Marissa Carter and I performed, here’s a description of the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 1, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Here’s some straight talk on clinical pathways. We’ve all gotten the message on “evidence based” medicine by which payers use data, primarily from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to decide what treatments they will cover. I’ve had some concerns about that since...