Spine-related disorders are among the most frequently encountered problems in clinical
medicine. Low back pain (LBP) alone affects up to 80% of the population at some point in …

This paper examines the sources of practice variations and definitions of unwarranted
variation, as derived from the literature. The literature suggests variables/factors related to …

We study the drivers of geographic variation in US health care utilization, using an empirical
strategy that exploits migration of Medicare patients to separate the role of demand and …

ContextLumbar diskectomy is the most common surgical procedure performed for back and
leg symptoms in US patients, but the efficacy of the procedure relative to nonoperative care …

Study Design. Repeated cross-sectional analysis using national Medicare data from the
Dartmouth Atlas Project. Objective. To describe recent trends and geographic variation in …

Reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (rTSA) has become increasingly popular since its
introduction to the United States. The purpose of this study was to assess the current trends …

Study Design. Retrospective cohort study using a hospital discharge registry of all
nonfederal acute care hospitals in Washington state. Objectives. To determine the …

Payment systems for health care today are based on rewarding volume, not value for the
money spent. Two proposed methods of payment,“episode-of-care payment” and …

This work examines the process of admission to a hospital's intensive care unit (ICU). ICUs
currently lack systematic admission criteria, largely because the impact of ICU admission on …

Abstract Currently, there are over 300,000 lumbar discectomies performed in the US
annually without an objective standard for patient selection. A prospective clinical outcome …