Study reveals doctors motivated by money

LONDON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Financial incentives for British doctors can improve management of coronary heart disease and reduce ethnic differences when it comes to care, researchers say.

Dr. Christopher Millett Imperial College Faculty of Medicine in London and colleagues evaluated the benefits of pay for performance programs in Britain for the management of coronary heart disease, with a particular focus on ethnic differences.

Financial incentive programs were introduced by the National Health Service in Britain in April 2004 to improve the quality of healthcare for all patients by having 25 percent of a doctor's income depends on performance against stated targets such as measuring cholesterol and blood pressure or prescribing aspirin.

The researchers examined electronic records from 32 family practices in inner city London, before and after the introduction of the new contract in 2004. The researchers identified 2,891 people with coronary heart disease in 2003 and 3,101 in 2005 and examined 10 quality indicators for coronary heart disease management.

The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found improvements in blood pressure control were greater in the black group than among the whites over the two-year period, with the treatment gap between the two groups closing from 2003 to 2005. More South Asians also had their blood pressure recorded in 2005 than in 2003, but black patients were still less likely to be prescribed statins than South Asians or whites in 2005.