Dose Response
“Dose Response” – The Sciences
“Dose Response” – The Sciences
“Rationing By Any Other Name” – The New England Journal of Medicine
In the U.S., we do a lousy job of paying for long-term care. We don’t help people cover the costs of nursing homes or home-health aids when they have chronic, life-threatening illnesses. As a result, more Americans die in the hospital than they would if we covered long-term care more generously. At least that’s the…
A team from the CDC recently published an implicit study cataloguing the pathogens – the evil foreign organisms – that cause Americans to find themselves in hospitals with pneumonia. And the worst offenders? Viruses! Moral of the story – get your annual flu shot, and then cross your (sanitized?) fingers that some other bug doesn’t…
A while back, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler published an article in the New England Journal depicting what cereal boxes would look like if they provided people with useful health information. Here is a sample: What do you think?
Here is a game you can’t lose. You flip a fair coin ten times and every time it comes up heads, you get $20. Better yet, I won’t even watch you flip the coin, but instead will trust whatever you tell me about the number of times the coin comes up heads versus tails. Would…
Some medical services are unnecessary. Is it your first day of uncomplicated lower back pain? You don’t need an x-ray. But many patients continue to receive such services anyway, perhaps because they demand them or, perhaps, because their providers keep recommending them. But does the likelihood of unnecessary services depend on your insurance? Specifically, do Medicaid…