Practice variation, practice variation, and more practice variation. It doesn’t matter where in medicine you look – surgery, primary care, physical therapy, chiropractic, etc. – there is plenty of variability to go around. The question is ‘Why?’. Among other things, the answer is a combination of perverse incentives, ignorance of evidence, and stubborn refusal to follow known evidence. In some cases, variabilty reaosnably exists because evidence can’t yet specifically inform decision-making. As the evidence evolves, there will be less tolerance among payors to reward unexplained variability. The answer to our healthcare system’s woes is driving unexplained variability out of the system. Will you be a part of the problem or solution?
John
Download Irwin-Spine-2005-PracticeVariationDegenCxSpineSurg.pdf
Download Irwin-Spine-2005-PracticeVariationDegenLxSpineSurg.pdf
Download Sirovich-ArchIntMed-2005-VariationPrimaryCareTreatment.pdf
