Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Carl Coleman say no. Working during a pandemic is a supererogatory behavior — i.e., acts that are commendable if done voluntarily, but that go beyond what is expected. Coleman argues that “…while health care professionals can legitimately be sanctioned for violating voluntarily-assumed employment or contractual agreements, they should not be compelled to assume life-threatening risks…
The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review.
Chapter 7 of Decision Modelling for Health Economic Evaluation looks at the calculating the Expected Value of Sample Information (EVSI). In particular, EVSI can answer the question of optimal sample sizes. The Wrong Way How do scientists currently decide on sample sizes? Often they will do one of the following: “(i) estimate potential grant funding…
Marketplace discusses whether or not NIH funded studies should be make available for free. Duke University law professor James Boyle: “The Web works great for porn or for shoes, or for flirting on social networks. But it doesn’t work really well for science. We haven’t done for science what we did on the rest of…
U.S. has its first swine flu death. “The L.A. coroner’s office said this afternoon that further testing indicated neither of two flu-related deaths being investigated in Los Angeles County appeared to be linked to the swine flu.” – L.A. Times. Slate has a great article which answers the question “Why does the swine flu seem to be…
You have just done a study comparing the cost-effectiveness of drug A and drug B. Should you just rest on these laurels or is further research on drug B warranted. Decision Modelling for Health Economic Evaluation claims that there are 3 criteria that should determine whether or not you decide to collect more information: The…
Where has the swine flu been detected? A map of the H1N1 Swine Flu lists all confirmed, unconfirmed, and negative cases of the swine flu around the world. Mexico City has decided to close all restaurants in the capital, only allowing them to serve food ‘to go.’ Restaurant associations are asking for the restaurant ban to be lifted.…
Marketplace reports that the FDA has blocked sales from one of India’s largest drug producers, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals. “It prevented sales of Ranbaxy’s generic versions of the antibiotic Cipro and the cholesterol pill Zocor.” This begs the question: should the FDA put office in foreign countries? On the one hand, it is important to ensure that imported…
Most people know that under the central limit theory claims, the distribution of the mean of a distribution will be normally distributed as the number of observations gets large. The question is, if we have a series of discrete events that we want to approximate the distribution of the mean with a continuous distribution, should we estimate…
The World Health Organization increased the epidemiological alarm level from 3 to 4 (out of 6). Closing public spaces may be a good idea to stop the spread of the flu: Public Health Interventions during the 1918 influenza pandemic – Healthcare Economist How (and How Not) to Battle Flu: A Tale of 23 Cities –…