Discussion

Abstract

Healthcare quality has emerged as an important discussion topic for the American people. With the continued lack of health insurance coverage for over 15 percent of Americans, questions are being posed regarding why the United States has spent $2.1 trillion per year in healthcare and is still unable to provide the highest quality of healthcare in the world. The World Health Organization's 2000 World Health Report ranked the United States at 24 out of 191 member countries in healthcare indices. Because of a looming reduction in the number of Americans covered through the Medicare and Medicaid programs due to budgetary constraints, many initiatives have been proposed to cut the cost of healthcare and at the same time improve the quality of the American system. In this article, the authors summarize the history of these quality initiatives and discuss current and future directions of programs to achieve better healthcare for the country. They also discuss how the American Society of Plastic Surgeons is engaging national organizations to be part of the solution for this crisis. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 123: 741, 2009.)

Diseño y validación de un novedoso modelo de simulación para otoplastia a bajo costo

“…Por ello, los esfuerzos por desarrollar y validar de manera adecuada simuladores han sido ampliamente valorados, ya que acortan la curva de entrenamiento y mejoran el rendimiento en el pabellón. 23,[34][35][36][37][38] La dificultad para acceder a modelos cadavéricos humanos o animales de otoplastia, la falta de precisión anatómica y la validación incompleta de los pocos modelos sintéticos publicados hacen de nuestro modelo una propuesta útil y novedosa, además de que su costo de producción es casi 10 veces más barato que el único modelo que, hasta donde sabemos, está disponible en el mercado. 18,39 Nuestro estudio propone un programa de entrenamiento factible para la adquisición de habilidades quirúrgicas en otoplastia.…”