Dr. Todd Forman

My partner knows what's up about supps!

Do dietary supplements for prevention benefit my health? The majority of adults have or are currently taking one or more dietary supplements every day to improve their health.

The ACC/AHA are over their skis on this one, clearly...keep your BP under 140/90 and Keep Calm...

Millions More Labeled as Hypertensive Under 2017 Guidelines By Joe EliaEdited by Susan Sadoughi, MD, and Richard Saitz, MD, MPH, FACP, DFASAMAdopting the 2017 ACC/AHA guidelines on hypertension would label

Here's my working draft outline for sensible healthcare reform. Would love your input...
1. Consolidation
a. Consolidate all four federal health care bureaucracies into ONE universal primary care system. The federal government will divest it’s responsibilities in the disparate needs and requirements of special populations and complex medical care and focus on an efficient, consistent, and fiscally stable universal primary care system that covers all primary care services for everyone in the United States from birth to death.
b. Services covered may include:
i. Routine Prenatal Care
ii. Routine Labor and Delivery
iii. Primary Pediatric Care
iv. Primary Adult Care
v. Routine office based procedures
vi. Routine Vaccinations
vii. Home Health
viii. Long-term Skilled Nursing Care
ix. Outpatient Mental Health Care
x. Long-term Institutional Mental Health Care
xi. Routine Pharmacy Benefits
c. Federal reimbursement models for those who are unable to pay for catastrophic health insurance may cover emergency services, complex medical care, and hospital care.
d. In addition, a safety net of regional medical centers would rely on multiple funding sources, including local, state and federal support as well as subsidies for medical training programs.

2. Realignment
a. Medical education, research institutions, allied health professions, hospital systems, pharmacies, and outpatient facilities must stay in their own lanes to optimize healthcare delivery efficiently and effectively.
i. The ACA encourages consolidation to “coordinate care for improved patient outcomes, better quality care, and cost savings.” Unfortunately, this consolidation often reduces competition, limits services and raises costs.
b. Redesign and realign the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC) to meet the needs of our population, not the needs of investors by prioritizing value-based products and services over profit-based products and services.

3. Regulation
a. The Health Insurance Industry (HII) must be outlawed from practicing medicine and be reined in and tightly regulated. Future health insurance products should exclusively focus on covering patients’ catastrophic health care financing.
b. Healthcare management must be severely restricted and focus on customer service rather than denial and delay of care.
c. Compliance and healthcare certification of clinical standards and quality must be streamlined, relevant and useful. Reimbursement must be divorced from certification.
d. Publicly traded, investor-driven, for-profit medical systems would be outlawed. Predatory profit schemes without regard to service or utility or purpose would be outlawed. The primary role of antitrust law is to protect consumer welfare through low prices, high quality, efficiency, innovation, and choice. The FTC and the DOJ must aggressively enforce our antitrust laws.
e. We must create industry wide billing standards and price transparency.
f. Stop the undue influence of the pharmaceutical industry on providers, researchers and government agencies. Allow for federal negotiations of wholesale drug prices.

Meet Todd Forman of Jelly of the Month Club in Long Beach - Voyage LA Magazine | LA City Guide Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd Forman. Todd (aka Dr. Todd) was on tour with Sublime with Rome on a tour bus watching Disney’s Princess and the Frog with Bud Gaugh. He turned to Bud and said, “Wouldn’t it be great to create killer music geared towards families? Something our kids co...

I'd add stress and negative relationships to this list of preventable risk factors.

www.jwatch.org

Sensible health care reform begins and ends with...

1. STREAMLINING FEDERAL BUREACRACIES: Merge all four federal health care bureaucracies (Medicare, Medicaid, the VA System, and the ACA) into one universal primary care system. This new program will be efficient, consistent, and fiscally sustainable and cover all primary care services for everyone in the United States from birth to death.

2. ANTITRUST REGULATION AND ENFORCEMENT: Everyone must get back into their own lane. Medical education, research institutions, allied health professions, hospitals, health insurance companies, pharmacies, and outpatient facilities should focus on their core functions to optimize healthcare delivery efficiently and effectively. Consolidation in the name of coordination and efficiency has produced inefficiency, higher costs, lower access to care, and worse outcomes.

Don't take Limbrel.

www.jwatch.org

Dr. Todd Forman updated their phone number.

This should go viral...any doc who thinks the MOC process is fair or worthy is wrong. Period.

Dr. Teirstein debating Dr. Lois Margaret Nora, CEO of the American Board of Medical Specialties Dr. Teirstein debating Dr. Lois Margaret Nora, CEO of the American Board of Medical Specialties at the California Medical Association (CMA) annual House of D...

Ooh, more data to support my habit of screaming how bad supplements are for our health...http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/22/health/vitamin-b6-b12-lung-cancer-study/index.html

High doses of vitamin B tied to lung cancer risk Men who took high doses of vitamin B6 and B12 supplements had a higher risk of lung cancer, and the association was highest among current smokers, according to a study published Tuesday.

The only way to real reform is to build new healthcare schools and health centers, consolidate all four federal health programs into one universal primary care program and break up the insurance and pharm monopolies and keep expensive care private and health insurance and pharm tightly regulated. Otherwise, we are lost.

Doctors Could be Penalized for Ordering This Test Medicare officials are considering a measure that would penalize doctors who order routine prostate-cancer screening tests for their patients, as part of a federal effort to define and reward quality in health-care services. The proposal, which hasn’t been widely publicized, has prompted a flurry...

USPSTF: Evidence Is Insufficient to Recommend Routine Screening for Vitamin D Deficiency

D is for "Duh"

jwatch.org By Amy Orciari Herman Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has concluded that the current evidence is inadequate

How Medical Care Is Being Corrupted

Physicians have a simple conscious active choice to make -- work for the patient or work for the insurer and government regulator. Doctors and patients must seize their power and honor the profession.... "Some health policy experts suggest that there is no moral dilemma. They argue that it is obsolete for the doctor to approach each patient strictly as an individual; medical decisions should be made on the basis of what is best for the population as a whole....We fear this approach can dangerously lead to “moral licensing” — the physician is able to rationalize forcing or withholding treatment, regardless of clinical judgment or patient preference, as acceptable for the good of the population."

nytimes.com Doctors have to choose between themselves and their patients.

Dr. Todd Forman

Bert and I on the road, circa 2010.

Family Medicine Practice

Dr. Todd Forman's cover photo

http://www.familypracticenews.com/specialty-focus/men-s-health/single-article-page/testosterone-for-

Not so fast, Swartzenegger...

ocreg.imngmedicalmedia.com

USPSTF: No Evidence That Vitamins Prevent Cancer or Cardiovascular Disease

Here's your free consultation for the day...Get off vitamins! NOW!

jwatch.org By Kelly Young The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has determined that there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against most vitamin and mineral

Study Questions Using VTE Rates as a Quality Metric for Hospitals

Quality metrics is an oxymoron and will destroy modern medical care just as no child left behind's metrics killed the educational system in our country.

jwatch.org

'Modest' Rise in Costs for Health Insurance, as Deductibles Increase

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

jwatch.org

Bagged Salad Implicated in Cyclosporiasis Outbreak

Better wash that bagged lettuce twice!

jwatch.org

FDA: Vitamin B-50 Supplement Tests Positive for Steroids

No wonder I held up the convenience store after I took that supplement...

jwatch.org

3-D Printed Cast, a Future Alternative

3D printing! My son wants one of these printers for Xmas...anyone know anything about these?

physiciansnewsnetwork.com Victoria University graduate, Jake Evill, created a brace prototype with a homemade 3-D printer and nylon plastic.

5-Alpha Reductase Inhibitors Not Associated with Increased Risk for High-Grade Prostate Cancer -...

So Propecia (finasteride) may not increase risk of high grade prostate cancer either...good news for those eagles out there.

firstwatch.jwatch.org By Kelly Young Men who take the 5-alpha reductase inhibitors (5-ARIs), finasteride and dutasteride, for lower urinary tract symptoms are not at increased risk for high-grade prostate tumors, according to a BMJ study. Since 2011, . . . LINK(S):

Motives Behind Diabetes Guidelines Questioned - Physician's First Watch

The man's influence is everywhere...

firstwatch.jwatch.org By Joe Elia The motives behind a new algorithm for diabetes treatment by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists have been called into question by a respected clinician in a New York Times opinion piece. . . . LINK(S):

Is Job Burnout Worse for Your Heart Than Smoking?

Something I talk about with my patients every day!

payscale.com Here's another reason to learn some new stress management techniques: job burnout, and the stress that goes along with it, might be less healthful than to***co use, overeating, or living a sedentary lifestyle.

USPSTF: Postmenopausal Women Shouldn't Take Calcium and Vitamin D to Prevent Fractures - Physician's

Death knell for calcium?

firstwatch.jwatch.org By Kelly Young Postmenopausal women should not take supplementary calcium (1000 mg or less) and vitamin D (400 IU or less) to prevent fractures, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says in a new recommendation . . . LINK(S):

Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to Longer Life

Vitamin D is bad for you??? wait a minute!! D spells fad to me!

medscape.com Genetic findings in those predisposed to longevity cast doubt on whether low levels of vitamin D cause age-related diseases and mortality.

Why Do European Kidney Transplants Last Longer? - Physician's First Watch

We already ration care...

firstwatch.jwatch.org The difference in estimated long-term graft survival between kidney transplants done in Europe and those in the U.S. may hinge on how long Medicare covers immunosuppressive therapy, according to a Transplantation study. Using registry data, . . . LINK(S):