What is Pulmonary Fibrosis? By Brenda Kimble Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a respiratory disease where the lungs slowly lose the ability to function due to scarring. This scarring causes the passageways to become thick and hard, which inhibits the lung’s ability to move oxygen through the walls of the alveoli and into the bloodstream. Patients with pulmonary fibrosis find themselves unable to catch their breath due to improper oxygenation of the blood. Pulmonary fibrosis is treatable, but there is currently no cure for the disease. Treatments that are offered to PF patients will not reverse the damage that has already been done to the lungs, nor will it make the…
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When it Comes to Population Health, the Answer is Motivation
It was no great leap for Austin Regional Clinic to embrace the concept of population health, an approach that aims to improve the health of groups of people, particularly those with more medically complex conditions. Our medical group was founded on those principles back in 1980, when no one ever heard of the term. Over time, we became very good at population health and now we are often asked to present our “best practices.” What’s the secret to our success? The long answer often includes a description of our IT investments. No doubt the advent of electronic medical records has made us better — instead of reacting to illness, we…