Friday Links

AI in the operating room. Estimated annual Medicare spending on Alzheimer’s drug. On remote work: “The Power of Proximity to Coworkers” Price vs. cost. Issues with publicly available price data. On the definition of a timely diagnosis: “Our health care system assumes the diagnostic journey begins when the patient is first seen by a clinician…However,…

ChatGPT summary of Congressional Testimony on “Innovation and Patient Access”

On May 10, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on “Examining Policies that Inhibit Innovation and Patient Access“. You can view the testimony here. I summarized submitted Congressional Testimony with the help of ChatGPT below. Actual testimony submitted is also referenced below as well. Mr. Tony Gonzales, National Early-Stage Advisor, Alzheimer’s Association.…

Kaiser to buy Geisinger?

Yes, this appears to be the case. Medscape reports: In one of the largest healthcare deals to date, Kaiser Permanente is acquiring Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health and investing $5 billion to fold it into a new nonprofit subsidiary called Risant Health, which is set to purchase additional medical groups in coming years.While regulators still must review…

Excess mortality among Black Americans

A paper by Caraballo et al. (2023) published today uses CDC data to measure excess mortality among Black Americans between 1999-2020. They find that: From 1999 to 2011, the age-adjusted excess mortality rate declined from 404 to 211 excess deaths per 100 000 individuals among Black males (P for trend <.001). However, the rate plateaued from…

Types of propensity score matching

Summarized from a nice review paper by Basu, Unuigbe and Masseria (2023). Stratifying by Quintiles of propensity scores (PS). Under this approach, the empirical distribution of the estimated PS across the entire sample (including treated and untreated participants) is divided into quintiles. Indicator variables for the first 4 quintiles are then used as covariates, along…

Links

Three parent baby? Area Deprivation Index only reflects median home price?  Organ on a chip? Using the “uptrend effect” to increase rates of exercise.  Cognitive activity at work and the risk of dementia

Healthcare Economist on Marketplace

What are the economic consequences of the updated USPSTF recommendations to move the age for annual breast cancer screening to age 40? I was interviewed at NPR’s Marketplace Morning Report today (May 11, 2023) to help answer the question. You can listen to the episode here (the segment on breast cancer screening starts at 5:32).…

Quotations of the Day: ISPOR Edition

As heard at ISPOR 2023 in Boston: On high US drug prices: “My hope as a European is that US never gets its health system in order.” And his Yoda-like pronouncement: “Affordability is important; but value is critical” Michael Drummond HT: Peter Neumann. See also Dr. Neumann’s ISPOR recap thread