Why don’t physicians follow evidence-based guidelines more often?

Many researchers complain that physicians often use treatments with little evidence to base these decisions. From off-label prescribing, to unstudied surgical procedures, physicians are often painted as cavalier practitioners who don’t read studies. For instance, Austin Frakt at Incidental Economist writes: The British Medical Journal sifted through the evidence for thousands of medical treatments to assess…

Where is digital health taking off?

Where is digital health taking off? One way to answer this question is to look to see where research is currently being conducted to determine where innovation is most likely in the future. The American Medical Association (AMA) summarizes the Chen et al. (2019) paper in JAMA that looks at the number of government-registered digital…

Is pharma spending on marketing too low?

Many people view marketing as an inefficient waste of money. Without marketing, however, physicians and patients would not be aware of new products. Marketing is especially important for new pharmaceuticals. While the price of branded pharmaceuticals may be high in some cases, the marginal cost of production (not counting R&D costs) is low; and often…

How good are you at ‘X’?

Where X can be basically any task. Likely your answer is that you are pretty good at X. In fact, you probably think you are above average. There is an explanation for this: the Dunning-Kruger effect. This is a bias where people generally believe they are better at a task than they are. This effect…

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Medicare to cover CAR-T. Italians use payment at results. The Navy introduces value-based care. Democrats’ plans to limit drug prices. Using contingent valuation to weight quality measures. Public health spending increases GDP.