Publications by authors named "Rachel O Schmidt"
Introduction: There is a longstanding debate about whether health care is more efficiently provided by the public or private sector. The debate is particularly relevant to the Military Health System (MHS), which delivers care through a combination of publicly funded federal facilities and privately contracted providers. This study compares outcomes, treatments, and costs for MHS patients obtaining care for low back pain (LBP) from public versus private providers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Disparities in access to a multidisciplinary cancer consultation (MDCc) persist, and the role of physician relationships remains understudied. This study examined the extent to which multilevel factors, including patient characteristics and patient-sharing network measures reflecting the structure of physician relationships, are associated with an MDCc and receipt of stereotactic body radiation therapy versus surgery among patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods And Materials: In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare data for patients diagnosed with stage I-IIA NSCLC from 2016 to 2017.
Article Synopsis
- The study explored the impact of being treated by "linchpin" physicians—doctors with fewer connections to other specialists—on cancer survival rates among patients with non-small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer.
- Analyzed data from 10,081 lung cancer and 9,036 colorectal cancer patients revealed that those treated by linchpin radiation oncologists had a 17% higher mortality risk, while linchpin surgeons for CRC had a 22% greater risk.
- The findings suggest that patients treated by these linchpin physicians had worse survival outcomes, indicating a need for better access to multidisciplinary cancer care.