The costs of treating heart attacks in the elderly have risen since 1996 but with no appreciable improvement in survival rates, according to a study published in the latest issue of Health Affairs. The Dartmouth researchers found large regional differences in medical spending, yet higher treatment costs did not translate to higher rates of survival. Physicians who employed low-cost measures such as giving patients aspirin, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, and thrombolytics reduced the need for surgery. To achieve optimal benefits from medical spending, hospitals and physicians should improve treatment protocols to include highly effective treatments, according to the researchers. “That some regions could implement technological innovations at remarkably low cost is a reminder that waste and inefficiency are not inevitable by-products of technological growth,” write the authors.
