Are part time doctors better doctors?

Is networking different with doctors working part-time? Differences in social networks of part-time and full-time doctors

BACKGROUND Part-time working is a growing phenomenon in medicine, which is expected to influence informal networks at work differently compared to full-time working. The opportunity to meet and build up social capital at work has offered a basis for theoretical arguments. METHODS Twenty-eight teams of medical specialists in the Netherlands, including 226 individuals participated in this study...

More doctors or better care?

The Canadian Medical Association's More Doctors, More Care campaign seeks to align physician supply targets with policy decisions elsewhere in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Using OECD data for 19 countries to assess the relationship between physician supply and healthcare outcomes, we have determined that there is no association between avoidable mortality a...

Are doctors risk takers?

OBJECTIVE Risk taking affects human behavior in general and decisions in medicine in particular. We used game theory to assess physicians' risk-taking tendencies. METHODS Physicians were recruited to the study by advertisement. It was explained that they would receive a sum of money for correct prediction of the flipping of a coin. They could try to sell their opportunity to flip the coin for...

Are doctors created equal ?

There is broad consensus among policy makers and consumer groups that greater transparency in healthcare will improve the quality and costs of care delivered. In recent years several government-led transparency initiatives have focused on healthcare institutes like hospitals (Jha et al. 2005, Harris and Buntin 2008). Up to now patients still have very little means of discerning the quality of p...

Doctors and witchdoctors: which doctors are which? I.