Data Collection Begins for National Index to Measure Healthcare Efficiency Armed with research that concluded that $30 billion in healthcare costs could be saved annually in America if just five administrative processes were improved, Emdeon Inc. and a host of partners set out in December 2008 to take stock of industry inefficiencies. After a year of work, the U.S. Healthcare Efficiency Index is up and running, and data collection began in November. SHARON H. FITZGERALD

Chinese Healthcare Trade Mission Strengthens Lines of Communication In the fourth quarter of 2009, 30 Tennessee executives traveled to China on a 10-day trade mission to expand cultural and economic ties with the country that boasts the largest population in the world. CINDY SANDERS

The Difference a Dozen Years Can Make Yuspeh Helped HCA Change its Ethical Direction When Alan Yuspeh joined what was then Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. in October 1997, the challenge was, well, daunting. The Nashville-based healthcare provider, America's largest, was in a tailspin — beset by government regulatory actions (including hospital raids), shareholder and class-action lawsuits, employee grievances, whistleblower complaints, and … needless to say … devastating media coverage. SHARON H. FITZGERALD

Tommy Thompson Diagnoses the Healthcare Debate Politics in Play Tommy Thompson, four-term Governor of Wisconsin and former Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, recently painted a scenario of political intrigue filled with back room bargaining and deal-making worthy of the latest political best seller. However, he wasn’t speaking of a fictional thriller but of the real life maneuvers that will be necessary to get a healthcare reform bill out of Congress. KELLY PRICE

Bringing up the "O" Word Clinicians Still Struggle to Broach Subject of Weight My word, you're fat! Someone go see if Mr. Jones broke our scale. While no provider (at least none we know) would bring up the sensitive subject of weight in this manner, there are many who feel that no matter how carefully words are chosen, a patient will process them as something similarly offensive. CINDY SANDERS

Good News for Bariatric Surgery Self-Pay Patients Bariatric surgery is typically handled as a coverage rider rather than included in the umbrella policy. Therefore, rather than being carrier-driven, coverage is often employer-driven. CINDY SANDERS

Get Fit TN State Provides Tools to Help Residents Shape Up New decade … same old resolutions. At the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, Tennesseans from the northeast corner to the Mississippi River made similar vows … to make 2010 the year they finally lose weight/quit smoking/start exercising. In short, this is the year to get healthier. CINDY SANDERS

It’s All About the Research Healthcare Marketing Is Sophisticated and Targeted When you watch a commercial on television, that’s business-to-consumer marketing, known as B2C. The commercial seeks to persuade, to prompt the purchase of a product or service. There’s nothing subtle about it. SHARON H. FITZGERALD

Marketing a Specialty Practice to Other Docs A Practice's "Lifeblood," One Expert Says "Your most important asset." That's what one healthcare marketing expert called a specialty physician's referral base, and he said way too many specialists are failing to nurture the relationship between their practice and the doctors who send them business. SHARON H. FITZGERALD

PHYSICIAN SPOTLIGHT: Ravi S. Chari, MD, MBA Chief Medical Officer Centennial Medical Center Growing up in a place named Swift Current might be a predictor of going fast and far in life. Certainly it set Ravi S. Chari, MD, MBA, on the right path. KELLY PRICE

HEALTHCARE ENTERPRISE: China Healthcare Corp. Enters Market with Replacement Hospital When Nashville-based China Healthcare Corp. (CHC) breaks ground in April on its first hospital, a $120 million facility in the Chinese city of Cixi, the project will mark the first public-private healthcare partnership of its kind. While CHC will own a 70 percent stake, the Cixi municipal government will own 30 percent. SHARON H. FITZGERALD

Cardiovascular Systems of Care: Empowering a Network of Local Providers Did you know that stroke is the leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States? Nearly 4.7 stroke survivors are alive today, and each year approximately approximately 750,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke, which is the nation's third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. On average a stroke occurs every 45 seconds and someone dies of a stroke every 3.1 minutes. Of every five deaths from stroke, two occur in men and three in women. DR. MICHAEL KAMINSKI

Impact of Obama's Emergency Declaration & Pandemic Care Legislation To facilitate its response to the H1N1 Influenza outbreak, the federal government has assembled a well-stocked toolbox of legislation, followed by President Obama's presidential declaration of a national emergency with respect to the H1N1 virus. Even before Obama's declaration, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) had a number of tools available that allowed each agency to soften, or even waive, certain regulatory requirements for healthcare providers, specifically the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) and Emergency Use Authorizations. STEPHANIE S. PIERCE