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The Silent, Terrible Toll of Sexual Harassment in Medical Schools
ByadminIt is hard for any physician to advance as a medical researcher. Competition for research funding is fierce; the rigors of publishing in prestigious medical journals are gargantuan. And women pursuing such careers face even bigger challenges, with many having to take on disproportionate burdens at home compared to their male colleagues (caring for kids,…
Puccini Was Dying Of Cancer—Hiding His Diagnosis Was A Grave Mistake
Byadmin2It would have been a difficult ending under the best of circumstances. Composing what would be his last opera, Giacomo Puccini was struggling to humanize Turandot, daughter of the Emperor and a woman of mesmerizing beauty. Early in the opera, she had cruelly disposed of a series of want-to-be suitors, beheading some and torturing others,…
How Hospitals Turn Charity Care Into Profits — At Taxpayers' Expense
ByadminSometimes it is hard for hospitals to provide expensive care to poor patients. When a low-income patient needs $20,000 of chemotherapy, a hospital loses money if that patient cannot pay for the medicine, or pays through Medicaid, with its relatively stingy reimbursement. Fortunately, the federal government created a program for hospitals that care for a…
The Power of Comparison
ByadminIn a wonderful article on deep cave exploration, Burkhard Bilger shows how powerful comparison can be in putting an unfamiliar topic into context. He is describing the arduous work involved in deep cave exploration. He is describing the risks of being far, far inside the cave when a heavy rain on the surface begins to…
Paying for "Patient Satisfaction" Harms Hospitals That Care for Poor People
ByadminAll else equal, it would be wonderful if hospitals had an incentive to provide high quality care. It does not seem fair to pay the same amount of money to a hospital that does a great job of caring for its pneumonia patients and one that does a lousy job. For the most part, however,…
Time to Consult for NASA?
ByadminOne of the best podcasts out there is NPR’s The Hidden Brain. Here is a recent episode discussing the challenges of being a, yawn, astronaut on a long voyage. It covers some fun research I did with David Comerford. Here is the beginning of the print version. But you might want to check out the audio….