Dr Lawrence Shulman on Removing Low-Value Care From the Healthcare System

The healthcare system is heavily focused on removing low-value care from the healthcare system, explained Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, director of the Center for Global Cancer Medicine at the Abramson Cancer Center, and professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

Transcripts

Has the United States made progress in removing low-value care from the healthcare system?

I think we’re focused a lot of trying to remove low-value care or unnecessary care. We’ve worked hard at trying to remove unnecessary emergency department visits, unnecessary hospitalizations, unnecessary imaging, but I think we still have more of that than we’d like to have. I think when you compare the cost of cancer care or frankly any other care in the US versus the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, care here is still much more expensive, and I think it is because there’s still a moderate amount of low-value care.