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Doctor Knows Best?
ByadminHere is a write-up of a talk I recently gave at the NIH. The topic is a good one, about doctors and decision making and all that crap. But the real importance of linking you to the story is to find out if you hate my sport coat as much as my wife does. It…
Is The Golden Era of Pharmaceutical Profits Over?
ByadminFor decades, the pharmaceutical industry has been highly profitable. The recipe for such profits has been pretty simple for most of the last half-century–discover a chemical or molecule that treats a common problem, like hypertension or diabetes or erectile dysfunction, and make billions of dollars while that product is still under patent protection. But of…
How a Leading Medical Journal Helped a Pharmaceutical Company Exaggerate Medication Benefits
ByadminShutterstock How excited would you be about a medication that lowered your risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack, or stroke by 1.5%? Excited enough to spend a few thousand dollars a year on the drug? I expect not. What if, instead, the drug reduced those same terrible outcomes by 20%? That’s probably enough benefit to…
How to Make People Think Robots and Corpses Have Feelings
ByadminThe right to die has played a critical role in the development of the doctor/patient relationship. It was families clamoring for the right to allow their loved ones to die who forced the world to recognize that physicians’ medical decisions aren’t just medical decisions, but involve enormous value judgments. In 1975, Karen Ann Quinlan’s loving…
Improving Local Government through Behavioral Economics
ByadminA couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of talking with government officials from across the state of North Carolina – mayors, city Council people, and the like – about the possible role that insights from behavioral science can play in helping them promote the well-being of their communities. Here is a really nice summary…
How Doctors Turn Patients into Lobbyists
ByadminI recently spoke with a Washington Post reporter about a troubling practice. Physicians convince their patients to sign letters to influence public policies the patients often don’t understand. Here is the beginning of that piece. Check it out: A proposal to sharply cut a drug discount program that many hospitals rely on drew some 1,400…