Preparing for Pandemic Lessons Learned Along the Way Are we better prepared to deal with a major, widespread threat today than we were a decade ago? "Oh man, absolutely!" was the unequivocal answer given by Tim Jones, MD, state epidemiologist for the Tennessee Department of Health. CINDY SANDERS

West Clinic-Microwave Ablation/Chemoembolization Memphis now boasts one of the newest advances in the field of tumor ablation, utilizing microwave technology. The West Clinic announced last month it would offer microwave ablation as a treatment option for patients with inoperable liver, lung and kidney tumors. GINGER H. PORTER

LEADERS IN HEALTHCARE: CIGNA Execs – John Sorrow and Chuck Utterback In today's evolving healthcare climate which emphasizes cost control, quality measures and rating systems, it seems even harder now for physicians to focus on the priority of providing care. With these issues not going away, and this month being our Provider/ Payer relations issue, Memphis Medical News offered the payer side the opportunity to express their perspective. We talked with John Sorrow, president and general manager for CIGNA HealthCare of Tennessee and Chuck Utterback, director of contracting for CIGNA in Memphis about cost control, transparency, quality, and what insurance companies can do to make things simpler for providers. HOLLI W. HAYNIE

Shifting Toward Outcomes Patient-Centered Medical Home Pilot to Provide Early Tests Across the nation, healthcare reform is a hot topic, and one major element of that discussion is provider-payment reform. Although several models have emerged, the trend seems to be a movement away from the current payment system of volume driven, fee-for-service toward reimbursement tied to performance or outcome, with a goal of aligning payment with value. Proponents of this method feel it results in improved coordination of care and more effective disease management, which is expected to result in better quality and lower costs for patients. SUZANNE BOYD

Transparency: A Two-Way Street THA Calls for Payers to Pony Up on Data "From our perspective, transparency seems to be a one-way street," said Craig Becker, president of the Tennessee Hospital Association. He added that in today's increasingly "pay-for-performance" environment, providers are expected to post everything from charges to outcomes. However, payers … for the most part … have not reciprocated with their own data. CINDY SANDERS

Virtual Colonoscopy Trial Hails Preventive Procedure, But Medicare Not So Sure Ask radiology experts and virtually all of them will say that virtual colonoscopies are a less expensive, less invasive and effective alternative to conventional colonoscopies to screen for colorectal cancer. Yet there’s a flip side to that view – that CT colonography, as it is more formally known, is inefficient, since a regular colonoscopy must follow if the CTC finds anything suspicious. SHARON H. FITZGERALD

PHYSICIAN SPOTLIGHT: Rich Duszak,MD Interventional Radiologist As an interventional radiologist, Rich Duszak, MD, spends hours in the procedure suite. Today he's on deck to insert a stent into the renal artery of a patient whose blood pressure has skyrocketed. He likens the kidney to a thermostat, regulating the body by keeping blood pressure constant. When blood flow to the kidneys becomes restricted due to plaque buildup in one or both arteries, high blood pressure is a tell-tale sign. JANE SCHNEIDER