Similar Posts
Are Rare Diseases Too Expensive to Treat?
ByadminSee this great piece by a reporter at Forbes discussing why rare disease treatments can cost as much as $400,000 per patient, per year. You will get a glimpse of my take on this topic too, but I plan on writing more about it in the future.
Think Fast and You'll Lose Money Quickly (A Behavioral Economics Explanation of Irrational Gambling)
ByadminShutterstock I have just given you $78. (I’m a generous guy.) Now I’m giving you a choice: you can enter a lottery where you have a 75% chance of losing that $78 and a 25% of keeping it, or you can hold on to $20 and avoid the lottery all together. Quick—tell me what you…
Robots Taking Over the Surgical World?
ByadminIn a recent Atlantic post, James Hamblin reports on the increasing frequency with which surgeons perform hysterectomies with the assistance of robots. Here is a picture from that post: To be clear: robotic surgery doesn’t mean a robot performs the operation. Instead, the surgeon uses a laparoscope, usually, and the surgeon controls the tools at…
Need More Evidence the U.S. Healthcare Market Is Screwed Up?
ByadminIn a healthy consumer market, people compare the price and quality of goods inside whether it’s worth paying extra money to get the best possible products. In healthcare, it’s often almost impossible to figure out what things cost. And when you figured it out, the price variation often makes no sense at all – having…
Are Some Life Saving Treatments Overkill?
ByadminThanks to the popularity of medical television shows, most people have witnessed hundreds of fictional cardiac arrests in their lifetime. In most of these scenes, the patient loses consciousness, and the medical team rushes to the bedside: “He’s in V-fib.” “Get me the paddles.” The team performs urgent chest compressions for a few seconds. Then…
You Know Who Else Fails 'The Jimmy Kimmel Test?' Hospital Emergency Rooms
Byadmin(Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images) When Jimmy Kimmel’s child was diagnosed with a serious heart condition, Kimmel realized that people without his wealth (or his generous insurance coverage) would not be able to pay for the life-saving care that his child received, if their children were to be similarly ill. So he gave a moving…

