Finally! Starting to Study Food Waste
In developed countries, upwards of 65% of food is wasted, meaning that somewhere from farm to table it ends up in the trash. Fortunately, researchers are finally beginning to study the problem:

In developed countries, upwards of 65% of food is wasted, meaning that somewhere from farm to table it ends up in the trash. Fortunately, researchers are finally beginning to study the problem:

Generic meds are supposed to be relatively cheap; multiple companies can make the same molecule, leading to price-lowering competition. But that’s not always what happens in the US market. Look at the prices of these generics, in the US vs Canada: We need to take regulatory or legislative steps to reduce the price of generic…
Shutterstock If you get health insurance through your job, beware: you might be picking up more of the cost of your medical care than you realize. With increasing frequency, employers are directing their workers to the kind of high deductible, high out-of-pocket insurance plans that leave workers financially responsible for a surprising portion of their…
Knee replacements are booming. Between 2005 and 2015, the number of knee replacement procedures in the United States doubled, to more than one million. Experts think the figure might rise sixfold more in the next couple decades, because of our aging population. Since many people receiving knee replacements are elderly, Medicare picks up most of…
Here is the opening of an article I recently published in JAMA, available now online, in which I raise concerns about misguided congressional efforts to promote the use of high-value healthcare services, without doing anything to reduce the use of low value ones. Health care systems around the world are under pressure to restrain health…
Shutterstock We have a huge healthcare problem in the U.S., spending way more than other wealthy countries, expenses that not only burden state and federal governments, but that also take money out of American pockets. Some people hope that better primary care will reduce U.S. healthcare spending. They point out that a small number of…
A while back, I wrote a piece in the Hastings Center Report proposing a better way of teaching ethics to professionals, like medical students. I thought such education should be grounded less in philosophy and more in understanding the psychology of our moral behavior. Glad to see that my ideas have been picked up, in…