Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
For those who rant about the evils of globalization, let us examine the Sushi Economy. NPR’s Marketplace discusses The Sushi Economy book with its author Sasha Issenberg. Mr. Issenberg talks about how globalization has made the sushi industry a reality in the modern world. Technological improvements in travel and communication have lead to an increased…
The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at The Sentinel Effect.
Although there have been quality improvements in nursing home care over time, most elderly (including my own grandmother) dread the thought of entering a nursing home. According to a Mattimore et al. (J Am Geriatrics Soc 1997) study only 7% of patients surveyed were “very willing” to live permanently in a nursing home, while 26%…
Pay-for-performance (P4P) is supposed to improve the health care quality for all. One may not be surprised if it were the case that more affluent, more educated individuals benefit most from P4P and thus existing health care disparities may increase. Author Lawrence Casalino and Arthur Elster, however, posit that P4P may actually reduce the quality…
Today is Memorial Day. A day to remember all individuals around the world who gave their life during a time of war. I have never served in the military, so today I will defer to the Pen and Sworld blog written by retired U.S. Navy Commander Jeff Huber. In his post “My Memorial Day,” Mr.…
What is life like for prisoners in Guantánamo Bay? What (if any) due process do they receive? The docu-drama movie titled Road to Guantánamo, answers these questions by examining the incarceration of the Tipton Three. The film follows the three British Muslim youths from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Cuba. The three spent over two years…
Accoding to a Canadian study, infants can tell the difference between two languages without hearing the spoken words. To read more on the study, see today’s Washington Post (“Babies Can Discern Languages…“). Según una investigación canadiense, los infantes se pueden distinguir entre dos idiomas sin oÃr las palabras en voz alta.  Para más información acerca…
The 2005 Deficit Reduction Act aimed to reduce Medicaid entitlements as one means to reduce the national deficit. One portion of the bill changed eligibility rules for the elderly to qualify for Medicaid payment of nursing home (NH) expenses. In the May edition of the Journal of Health Economics, authors David Grabowski and Jonathan Gruber…
One of the biggest advances statistical modeling in the last 30 years has been the use of the bootstrap. For those interested in learning about the bootstrap in more detail, a good place to start is an article by UCSD math professor Dimitris N. Politis which I will summarize here. For more detailed information, one…
There is an interesting article (“Unintended Consequences“) from February 2000 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine in which author Dr. Lawrence Casalino gives his view of how measuring physician quality impacts care. Dr. Casalino cites many unintended consequences of implementing an quality measuring system including 1) more paperwork, 2) the fact that certain…