Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo, has a list of mental models that he believes “come up repeatedly in day-to-day decision making, problem solving, and truth seeking.” Many are from the world of economics, but I focus on non-economic models as well. I organzie them into categories based on how Weinberg did in his post. I have…
A commentary article by Straube and Fan (2015) in the Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology finds that Santa Claus faces serious health problems both at home and at work. The commentary points out transportation issues Santa Claus faces on delivery night, such as the lack of seatbelts and airbags, and whether or not Rudolph’s nose provides sufficient light…
Kids interview one another. Half the children have veteran parents, half do not. Honest and interesting throughout.
It’s hard to make the case that college football players are amateurs when their games are decided based on revenue rather than merit. As reported in ESPN, the Rose Bowl–a prestigious college football game–would be willing to select an inferior team if that inferior team would lead to more ticket and merchandise sales. From the mouth…
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…
Economist’s aren’t known for having the best sense of humor. Well, a joke about statistics has to be funny, right? Here’s one from How I Met Your Mother.
HT: Incidental Economist.
Courtesy of xkcd.
HT: Justin Wolfers via The Incidental Economist.
The Healthcare Economist will be off through Labor Day, taking a vacation to San Diego. Inspired by this trip, below is a study that finds that people who take vacations are healthier. Although not a randomized trial, this evidence is suggestive. The Huffington Post paraphrases: In a study of 13,000 middle-aged men at risk for heart disease, those who…