Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The answer seems to be just find the “best” treatment. In theory this sounds easy, but in practice it is difficult. What does best mean? What if one treatment has better outcomes on average but is riskier? What if one treatment is more effective than another but requires injections rather than pills? What if patients have…
In one of my recent publications, I show that patient and physician risk preferences differ. Patients are willing to take take treatments with more both upside and downside risk, whereas physician prescribe treatments large based on which one provides the most efficacy to the average patient. One question that remains is how do patients and physician preferences over treatments…
For years, sexually active women and men that have wanted to avoid pregnancy have used a variety of contraceptives. From pills to condoms, there are a lot of options out there. Now add one more to the list, and its not what you might think. Natural Cycles is an app that helps people identify the time…
Netflix has a very interesting documentary on end of life decisions. Do you put your loved one on a ventilator, extend their life, but perhaps increase their suffering? Or do you let nature take its course, but potentially lose time you could have with your loved one. These are not easy decisions and one that the documentary…
My daughter recently went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Not only did she enjoy seeing all the marine life, but she learned that the oceans also help humans in many ways. For instance, many pharmaceutical firms are looking to the ocean to see if there are compounds created by sea plants,…
A truly amazing and uplifting story from Kind World from WBUR about a boy with Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1b, his friend and the Chocolate Bar Book. LANTZ: Dylan is 10 years old now. But this story starts when the boys were in first grade. Dylan’s mom Debra Siegel was driving her son home from…
Antibiotics are one of the greatest inventions. They rank in ABC News’s top 10 health advances of all time. However, bacteria are not static. They can change and mutate to become anti-biotic resistant. In this constant battle against disease, new antibiotics are needed. Harvard’s Mega-Plate Petri Dish experiment shows in vivid detail why the development of…
According to a recent study of patients with hypertension, the answer is yes. The study by Kronish et al. (2016) used a cluster randomized trial design made up of 24 providers and 100 patients. Half of the providers were randomized to receive received a report summarizing electronically measured patient adherence to their blood pressure regimen as well as and recommended clinical to…
When we think of medicine we think of pharmaceutical medications, surgery and other interventions. But can music also be used to heal. According to the American Music Therapy Association, the answer is yes. A paper by Gold et al. (2006) finds this is the case for patients with schizophrenia: In people hospitalised with schizophrenia, adding…
This month is Alzheimer’s awareness month. To draw attention to the burden of irreversible, progressive brain disorder, today the Healthcare Economist is providing some facts about the disease, courtesy of the CDC, the Mayo Clinic, NIH Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions. It’s the most common cause of dementia — a…