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ENLARGE
For local pediatrician Christine Ebert-Santos, a role in a Colorado physician leadership program is helping pave the way to exploring high-altitude's effects on children living in the mountains.
Ebert-Santos is one of 43 Colorado doctors chosen to take part in the Advanced Physician Leadership Program, which includes four weekends of training and discussion on how to affect public policy in order to help more Coloradans access quality health care. The hope is to grow a team of physicians that are not only able to serve as advocates, but leaders in communities across the state.
“When you put more minds and experience together you come up with more results, and a wider range of ideas,” Ebert-Santos said.
The underlying concern is that decisions around the provision of health care are being made by insurance companies, and not doctors, who have limited time to do so.
Right now, Ebert-Santos says the health care system within the United States doesn't work well for most people — it's expensive, and many end up bankrupt as a result of medical emergencies.
“It's not within reach of the average person,” she said.
Within her own practice at the Ebert Children's Clinic in Frisco, 55 percent of patients are on Medicaid. She sees others who don't qualify for the program, but can't afford insurance; the concern is that they'll wait to see a doctor until the last minute, only after a little problem becomes a big one.
Through the leadership program, Ebert-Santos is excited to meet physicians interested in the same issues, and hopes to get them interested in high-altitude concerns, especially those involving kids. She is in the process of forming a team of experts to examine conditions in children living in the mountains. Ebert-Santos is already working with a pediatric pulmonologist on a case study regarding youth who develop high-altitude pulmonary edema when they have a respiratory infection, even with no recent travel. She believes it's preventable if parents can measure their child's oxygen.
At her practice, Ebert-Santos has been collecting data for the past 11 years. The clinic is in the process of upgrading it's system to electronic health records — a move she says will improve coordination of care with specialists in Denver and allow others to access her unique high-altitude data for study.
Ebert-Santos is one of 43 Colorado doctors chosen to take part in the Advanced Physician Leadership Program, which includes four weekends of training and discussion on how to affect public policy in order to help more Coloradans access quality health care. The hope is to grow a team of physicians that are not only able to serve as advocates, but leaders in communities across the state.
“When you put more minds and experience together you come up with more results, and a wider range of ideas,” Ebert-Santos said.
The underlying concern is that decisions around the provision of health care are being made by insurance companies, and not doctors, who have limited time to do so.
Right now, Ebert-Santos says the health care system within the United States doesn't work well for most people — it's expensive, and many end up bankrupt as a result of medical emergencies.
“It's not within reach of the average person,” she said.
Within her own practice at the Ebert Children's Clinic in Frisco, 55 percent of patients are on Medicaid. She sees others who don't qualify for the program, but can't afford insurance; the concern is that they'll wait to see a doctor until the last minute, only after a little problem becomes a big one.
Through the leadership program, Ebert-Santos is excited to meet physicians interested in the same issues, and hopes to get them interested in high-altitude concerns, especially those involving kids. She is in the process of forming a team of experts to examine conditions in children living in the mountains. Ebert-Santos is already working with a pediatric pulmonologist on a case study regarding youth who develop high-altitude pulmonary edema when they have a respiratory infection, even with no recent travel. She believes it's preventable if parents can measure their child's oxygen.
At her practice, Ebert-Santos has been collecting data for the past 11 years. The clinic is in the process of upgrading it's system to electronic health records — a move she says will improve coordination of care with specialists in Denver and allow others to access her unique high-altitude data for study.
