|
POMA wants The Journal of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association to be a safe space for all DOs to have a voice and be heard. Opportunities to contribute in all content areas are open to all osteopathic medical students, residents and physicians. Share your thoughts, ideas and submissions via email to [email protected].
*Views expressed in The Journal of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board, The JPOMA, or POMA unless specified.
|
Ode to the Prescription Pad
October 2026 | Vol. 70, No. 3
By Joseph Zawisza, DO, PCOM '05
Thou pad a story great doth tell
Thine pages speak the doctor’s will
To help thy patient to be well
Few marks on thee fix most all ill
Archaic now the paper and pen
Functions better suited to EMR
To cyberspace goes our consumer’s health
No longer QOD, MSO4, and PRN
Type, search, point, click must be safer
But surely cause loss of providers’ knowledge wealth
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Requiem for the White Coat & Other Things Past
October 2026 | Vol. 70, No. 3
By Katherine E. Galluzzi, DO, WVSOM '84
The end of summer is synonymous with back-to-school. Shorter days and cooler evenings bring reminiscences of our own autumn rituals: new textbooks (now electronic), notepads, pens and pencils, a new pair of shoes (saddle shoes, loafers? Nope – sneakers).
Medical school initiation rituals include orientation, signing up for clubs, establishing study groups, and, of course, The White Coat Ceremony. PCOM’s White Coat Ceremony took place on August 7, 2026, at the Drexelbrook Event Center for the 270 first-year medical students and their families. The PCOM Physician Assistant program held its white coat ceremony for the class of 2026 at the same venue on August 17, 2026.
|
|
Read more...
|
What a Waste
February 2026 | Vol. 70, No. 1
By Joseph Zawisza, DO, PCOM '05
Whether we like it or not, Medicine is a business, no doubt about it. A quick Google search indicates that the US healthcare market was valued at $4.87 trillion in 2025 and will increase to $5.15 trillion this year. Furthermore, in 2020, healthcare spending accounted for 19.7% of the U.S. economy, and currently, the healthcare sector employs over 20 million people in the United States.
As a solo practitioner, I realize that my primary care private practice makes up the most minuscule slice of the healthcare pie. What makes up a much larger slice of the pie is wasteful spending. One of the not-so-well-kept secrets in Medicine, the amount of wasteful spending is enough to give you chest pain, which will be followed by an EKG, cardiac enzymes, a stress test, a nuclear stress echo, electrolytes, a urine drug screen, an upper GI series, PFTs, a CT scan, and probably a colonoscopy, “just to be safe” of course. A 2019 study published in JAMA (Waste in the US Health Care System: Estimated Costs and Potential for Savings, William H. Shrank et al.), which reviewed studies in healthcare waste published between January 2012 and May 2019, determined that the annual wasteful spending in healthcare ranged from $760 billion to $935 billion. The potential savings from interventions that address waste were $191 billion to $286 billion. I think it is safe to say those numbers will be much higher in 2026.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
<< first < Prev 1 2 3 Next > last >>
|
|
Page 1 of 3 |
