Because physicians are the gatekeepers to end-of-life care services and their referral patterns vary, those patterns are worthy targets for intervention.
The early diagnosis of Alzheimer disease is a boon in that it enables advance planning, but that planning process can engender conflict between respect for future-oriented autonomy and future welfare.
Suppression of puberty should become the standard of care for gender identity disorder: it is safe and reversible, allows children more time to explore their gender identities, and prevents the development of difficult-to-reverse physical features.
Valuable lessons for the accountable care organization model can be gleaned from Medicare's Physician Group Practice Demonstration, but, until it proves broadly successful, other strategies to curb Medicare spending must be identified.