Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Living in an urban, pedestrian friendly area may compel individuals to walk more, and thus reduce the likelihood one is obese. Living in a suburban, car-dependent area makes walking less attractive and thus could increase obesity. Some studies have shown that individuals who live in the suburbs weigh more than individuals living in urban areas.…
There was this statistics student who, when driving his car, would always accelerate hard before coming to any junction, whizz straight over it , then slow down again once he’d got over it. One day, he took a passenger, who was understandably unnerved by his driving style, and asked him why he went so fast…
The Economist (“Doctor on Call“) has an shows that mobile phones may have another use for doctors: a microscope. “Mr Maamari is a member of a research team led by Dan Fletcher, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, which has developed a cheap attachment to turn the digital camera on many…
Joe Paduda finds the price inflation is slowing for drug purchased through Workers Comp programs. “Drug trend continues to moderate, with inflation in 2007 coming in at 4.3%. That’s a big improvement over last year’s 6.5%, which was a big improvement over the previous year’s 9.5%…” One reason for the price decline may be that…
Today, Google has made its Google Health program publicly available. You can get a tour of Google Health here and FAQs are available here. TechCrunch has a great comparison (“…Hands-on Look“) of Google Health and Microsoft’s HealthVault. “Whereas HealthVault’s strengths seem to lie in tying together different health information silos on the back end, Google…
As the cost for health care has continued to rise, many Americans have looked for less expensive treatments in foreign countries. Living in San Diego, I can attest that many Southern Californians head to Tijuana to have their prescriptions filled. A Minot Daily News article (“Medical onshoring…“) claims that “more than 150,000 Americans traveled abroad…
The Economist has an interesting article on how pharmaceutical companies are trying to hawk their wares in developing countries (“Quagmire or goldmine?“) Generally, Pharma has stayed away from selling in developing countries due to uncertainties in their level of patent protection. For instance, Brazil has “threatened to invoke compulsory licensing (a legal mechanism that, in…
This past weekend, I went to Washington, D.C. for a conference. I was able to slip away for a few hours to spend some time at the Newseum, a very interesting museum about News. Thus, this week I will present the Health Wonk Review in newspaper format. COVER STORY Health Affairs Blog: Health Reform In…
Many doctors claim that the medical malpractice system is broken and needs to be fixed. Doctors have high malpractice insurance premiums and often practice defensive medicine to protect themselves against lawsuits. To help alleviate this problem, many politicians have asked for some sort of tort reform. Tort reform can be generally categorized into 4 types…
What is life really like working in a hospital? The Economist reviews a recent book by Julie Salmon titled Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God and Diversity on Steroids. Here is an excerpt from The Economist: “…the fine grain of Ms Salamon’s observations allows her to paint a…