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Health Tracking

FROM THE FIELD

‘Fifteen Minutes Of Fame’: Reflections On The Uses Of Health Research, The Media, Pundits, And The Spin

David Mechanic and Donna D. McAlpine

In January 2001 we reported on some aspects of our tracking research on the length of visits to physicians in the New England Journal of Medicine.¹ The article consisted of an empirical report on visit time between 1989 and 1998 using two sources of national data. The central finding was counterintuitive: The average time physicians spend with patients increased during a period in which managed care penetration grew. The article sought to explain why physicians believe they have less time for each patient while they were in fact spending more time than before. Nowhere in the article did we . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Pundits And The Spin

 

The Performance Of The Media

 

A 1999 Update

 

Are There Any Lessons?

 

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