Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Speaking about which services hospitals and doctors should provide at the end of a patient’s life is always a sensitive subject. Family members become emotional and desire any procedure which has a non-negative chance of prolonging the patients life, regardless of the cost. This is what insurance is for, to safeguard families from calamitous medical…
According the CIA World Factbook, life expectancy at birth in the U.S. has reached nearly 78 years old. In Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, life expectancy is over 81. One wonders, however, how much of the increase in longevity in recent years is due to rising incomes, better diet and exercise, and how much is…
According to the PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) U.S. drug companies spent $39.4 billion on research and development in 2005. Much of this money goes towards the clinical trials necessary for FDA approval. But how much does it cost to bring a drug to market? In order to bring a drug to market,…
The concept of the Physician Assistant gained its inspiration from 17th century Europe where feldshers were used in the 17th century Russian Army. In the 1960s, China employed over 1.3 million “barefoot doctors” to improve delivery of health care, especially in rural areas. Not until the mid 1960s did the U.S. begin to use Physician…
Nearly every day one reads about a revolutionary new pharmaceutical or medical procedure. Years later, however, we often learn that this ‘breakthrough’ was only a marginal improvement, had serious side effects or simply did not work. Ellen Goodman discusses in “Health ‘breakthrough’ anxieties” how a new breast cancer drug (raloxifene) seemed to offer a better…
Most people intuitively believe that having more nurses on staff at a hospital improves health outcomes. After reading Money Magazine‘s report that an average RN earns approximately $70,000 per year, relying on ‘intuition’ may not be the most appropriate manner to judge a nurse’s cost effectiveness. Do health outcomes really improve to justify this cost?…
The problems with the Medical Malpractice system in the US have been well-documented. President Bush has presented proposals to cap punitive damages in malpractice litigation. Other others have decried the fact that despite a large number of negligence cases each year, very few patients bring suit to court. Below are two studies which should give…
Nearly since its inception, the field of Economics has used preference relationships, utility functions, and complete rationality as the theoretical basis for nearly all of its major findings. Nevertheless, while the homo oeconomicus may preform well in certain contexts, in others areas the hypothesis of completely rational humans has been found to be patently false. …
In November 2004, California passed Proposition 71 which allocated $3 billion over ten years to stem cell research. Many of my friends–especially those in the medical field–strongly supported the bill. While I support stem cell research, I do not approve of the referendum system by which this bill was enacted. Spending $3 billion on unproven research…
Medpage Today recently released some statistics regarding the prevalence of smoking cessation among Germans with serious health diseases (“Smokers Can’t Say No in the Face of Serious Circulatory Disease“). “…the investigators found that among those with a single disorder, the proportion of current smokers among ever-smokers ranged from 29% for myocardial infarction to 44.4% for…