Burgess in the News

A quiet revolution — and a helping hand

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A quiet revolution — and a helping hand By Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D. Published: Thursday, November 17, 2011 Revolutions are usually pretty noisy affairs — arriving, as they often do, on the heels of military battles and political upheaval. But some revolutions, much like the fog in Carl Sandburg’s epic poem, come to us — quietly, unannounced. That might be the case for one of the most profound revolutions of our time — personalized medicine made possible by the mapping of the human genome. To be sure, the 2003 National Institutes of Health announcement that the genome-mapping project was complete came with much fanfare, quite properly so. For the first time, we could understand the working components that defined and regulated life.

Accountable Care Organizations — a debacle of enormous proportions

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Accountable Care Organizations — a debacle of enormous proportions By Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. Published October 17, 2011 You could feel the excitement in the air at the Office of the Federal Register in late March as the administration was finally releasing its widely anticipated proposed rule on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Physicians, group practices, hospitals and nurses all rushed to get a copy of the rule, several hundred pages long, and eagerly reviewed every nuance. After providing CMS reams of input on what works in their localities, they got nothing — less than nothing, a pariah.

Hospital leaders must join fight against antibiotic resistance

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Hospital CEOs can do more than just prevent an outbreak of influenza in their facility this flu season: They can and must take action against antibiotic resistance, an urgent public health problem that affects us all. What does the flu have to do with antibiotic resistance and what can a hospital CEO do about it? Plenty as it turns out.