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The medical system in the US is optimized to get people in, bill them, and get them out; that's it. Managing drug interactions is a long tail process that requ
by victor9000 4y ago
The medical system in the US is optimized to get people in, bill them, and get them out; that's it. Managing drug interactions is a long tail process that requires critical thinking, which is not an incentiviced activity. Plenty of startups have failed thinking that they could succeed if their products resulted in improvements to quality of care.
- reureu 4y agoI dunno, the NIH literally suggests using this website to check for interactions: https://covid19-druginteractions.org/checker https://covid19-druginteractions.org/checker Managing drug interactions for paxlovid isn't much more complicated than inputting meds into a web form and looking at the color of the box that pops up after. I think most providers can handle that if they know these tools exist and get past the reflex of "paxlovid has drug interactions, you don't want to take it." Managing drug interactions is part of ordering medications, and if it's really taking that much time (i.e., the EHR isn't just doing all the work for you), then it'd result in a higher E&M code when it's billed out. Medication management, in some cases, can also be billed and reimbursed by the pharmacist. So, totally agree that the US medical system is optimized for billing. I don't think those of us in the US should be ok with that, and I don't think it's an excuse in this case to not prescribe paxlovid to patients who want it and would qualify for it.
- victor9000 4y agoSure, in the abstract it is straight forward, but you quickly run into data gaps when considering multiple medications. Particularly in the context of comorbidities.