{"id":83,"date":"2008-10-01T10:39:55","date_gmt":"2008-10-01T15:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/pov\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=83"},"modified":"2008-10-01T10:39:55","modified_gmt":"2008-10-01T15:39:55","slug":"deadlines-of-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/deadlines-of-note\/2008\/10\/01\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadlines of Note"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just a reminder of some interesting deadlines\/events out there, in case you were too wrapped up sharpening pencils for tomorrow&#8217;s Vice Presidential debate:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As of today, Medicare will no longer reimburse hospitals for medical errors &#8212; which includes\u00a0some hospital-acquired infections.\u00a0 According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/10\/01\/us\/01mistakes.html?_r=1&amp;ref=health&amp;oref=slogin\" target=\"_blank\">this article<\/a>, several other payors (including private insurers) are using this as a precedent for them to do the same.\u00a0 No doubt the desired outcomes &#8212; fewer errors, better outcomes, lower costs &#8212; are something we <em>all<\/em> want, but could it be that insurance companies view these outcomes with slightly different motivations than the people actually experiencing and delivering the health care?\u00a0 (Just a hunch.)\u00a0 Plus, some of these errors are more amenable to systems and behavioral changes than others.\u00a0 Mistakes such as wrong-limb surgery, retained devices during operations, or transfusions of the incorrect blood type are simply not the same as a nosocomial infection in a highly debilitated or immunocompromised patient.\u00a0 Great review of the complexity of this issue <a href=\"http:\/\/jama.ama-assn.org\/cgi\/content\/extract\/300\/13\/1577\">here in this week&#8217;s <em>JAMA<\/em>.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Abstracts for the 16th Retrovirus Conference (CROI 2009) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.retroconference.org\/2009\/display.asp?page=396\">are due today at 5:30pm<\/a>.\u00a0 As a regular attendee of HIV\/ID conferences over the years (and, darn it, frequent rejectee of submitted abstracts), I can state unequivocally that the standards set by CROI for abstract acceptance must be the highest in our field.\u00a0 Moreover, once accepted, abstracts face an incredibly high hurdle to be chosen for oral presentations.\u00a0 Notable examples of this from the 2008 conference include the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/pov\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/2008\/03\/31\/fda-investigating-safety-of-abacavir-and-didanosine-old-news-or-new\/\" target=\"_blank\">abacavir\/DAD\/cardiovascular disease study <\/a>(published as a major paper in <em>Lancet<\/em> just a week later), and a large randomized clinical trial <a href=\"http:\/\/www.natap.org\/2008\/CROI\/croi_13.htm\" target=\"_blank\">comparing abacavir\/3TC with tenofovir\/FTC<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Both of these studies were posters, not oral presentations!\u00a0 This is a tough club to get into, that&#8217;s for sure.<\/li>\n<li>(Warning, no ID\/HIV content to follow.)\u00a0 Tonight at 6:30 PM EST, the Chicago Cubs &#8212; the best team in National League this year &#8212; start their &#8220;quest&#8221; for their first World Series title <em>since 1908.<\/em>\u00a0 Yes, that&#8217;s a hundred years!\u00a0 Can there be any baseball fan with a pulse out there who isn&#8217;t rooting for them at least a little?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just a reminder of some interesting deadlines\/events out there, in case you were too wrapped up sharpening pencils for tomorrow&#8217;s Vice Presidential debate: As of today, Medicare will no longer reimburse hospitals for medical errors &#8212; which includes\u00a0some hospital-acquired infections.\u00a0 According to this article, several other payors (including private insurers) are using this as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,8,9],"tags":[179,244,507,596,605,663],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-hiv","category-infectious-diseases","category-patient-care","category-policy","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-croi","tag-insurance","tag-medical-errors","tag-medicare","tag-nosocomial-infections"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}