Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Their have been much economic research to determine how individuals evaluate risk. Most of this work takes place in a laboratory setting using hypothetical monetary payoffs. Further, the issue of “background risk” is often ignored. For instance, “…mortality risks from alternative occupations tend to be highly correlated with morbidity risks. It is implausible to ask…
The work of three researchers who developed the procedure of gene targeting have won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine. The winners are: Mario R. Capecchi (USA, born Italy). Has used gene targeting to uncover the role of genes involved in organ development, and the overall plan of the body. Martin J. Evans (UK). Used…
The N.Y. Times has an interested article titled “Exploring Ways to Shorten the Ascent to a Ph.D.” The piece speaks of the difficulty of completing a Ph.D. and wonders whether a PhD should be considered more of a training exercise or a mandate for revolutionary research. An excerpt: For those who attempt it, the doctoral…
What has happened to physician assistant (PA) education in recent years? An article by P. Eugene Jones (Academic Medicine 2007) enlightens readers with the latest information. The states with the most PA programs are: New York (19), Pennsylvania (15) California (10), Texas (8) and Florida (6). Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Mississippi, Vermont and Wyoming all have…
Yesterday, Microsoft announced the introduction of the online medical records system titled Health Vault. Online medical records would greatly increase productivity in the health care industry since: Patients would be able to have all their health care information in one spot. Moving from one state or country to another would not entail losing your medical…
TechDirt has an interesting article (“The Doctr Is In“) about Dr. Jay Parkinson. Dr. Parkinson started a boutique clinic in which patients pay for services out of pocket. Unlike most boutique practices, patients can email or instant message the doctor about any medical questions from 8am to 5pm, or in the case of medical emergencies…
The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at the Health Affairs blog.
Do students who attend better schools preform better academically? This is tautologically correct, but not very informative. What would happen if we randomly moved students from low quality schools to high quality schools? Would they do better? Using the results from Chicago Public Schools randomized lotteries of elementary studies, Julie Cullen–my dissertation adviser–attempts to answer…
In classical economics models, supply and demand curves create a unique market price. Anyone who has shopped around for a good deal, however, knows that there is often significant price dispersion, even for homogeneous goods. For instance, gas prices can often vary greatly within a single neighborhood. On Monday I attended a seminar by Matthew…
There is an interesting article from the Techdirt blog about “How patents skew medical research.” The blog post states “The monopoly power granted by patents pushes all research money into only things that can be patented, ignoring other possible cures, even if they can be both profitable and quite helpful.” The post includes an example…