Section 8 Housing Vouchers: Origin Story

Section 8 housing vouchers uses government funds to subsidize low-income households when paying rent to private landlords. While the program may drive up rent somewhat, it does allow low-income households (that are lucky enough to get the voucher) to afford higher quality, more stable housing. But the Section 8 program was not the idea of…

How should we define “unmet need”?

Many health technology assessment (HTA) agencies give additional consideration to treatments if there is unmet need. But what really defines unmet need?  According to an article by Vreman et al. (2019), there are three key elements.  First, there should be no or limited treatment alternatives.  If there are lots of good treatment options available, then…

Winning the fight against tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) kills the most people in the world of any other pathogen. While treatments are available to fight TB, there are a number of challenges. First, many individuals may have latent TB where the disease may be contagious before symptoms are apparent. Second, the spread of HIV has also been problematic for controlling TB,…

Improving Care for Older Adults with Cancer

Cancer is a horrible disease. Providing high quality care often means providing safe, effective and cost-effective treatments that meets a patient’s priority. Reaching these goals, however, is particularly challenging when treating older adults with cancer. A paper on this exact topic by Ramsdale et al. (2017) notes that: Cancer care delivery for older adults with…