BMJ : British medical journal
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The rhetoric and realities of managed care are easily confused. The rapid growth of managed care in the United States has had many implications for patients, doctors, employers, state and federal programmes, the health insurance industry, major medical institutions, medical research, and vulnerable patient populations. ⋯ It has also raised issues about the future structuring and financing of medical education and research and about practice ethics. However, managed care has also accorded greater prominence to the assessment of patient satisfaction, profiling and monitoring of doctors' work, the use of clinical guidelines and quality assurance procedures and indicated the potential to improve the integration and outcome of care.
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To estimate the extent to which cigarette smokers who switch to cigars or pipes alter their risk of dying of three-smoking related diseases-lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease, and chronic obstructive lung disease. ⋯ Cigarette smokers who have difficulty in giving up smoking altogether are better off changing to cigars or pipes than continuing to smoke cigarettes. Much of the effect is due to the reduction in the quantity of tobacco smoked, and some is due to inhaling less. Men who switch do not, however, achieve the lower risk of pipe and cigar smokers who have never smoked cigarettes. All pipe and cigar smokers have a greater risk of lung cancer than lifelong non-smokers or former smokers.
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Managed care has entered the lexicon of healthcare reform, but confusion and ignorance surround its meaning and purpose. It seeks to cut the costs of health care while maintaining its quality, but the evidence that it is able to achieve these aims is mixed. ⋯ Due to its constantly changing nature, managed care is a slippery concept--but all its permutations have in common an attempt to influence and modify the behaviour and practice of doctors and other health professionals towards cost effective care. Whatever potential managed care may hold in this regard, careful appraisal of its implications is essential.