Policy decisions should be based on evidence in order to provide the most benefit for the health and safety of the public. However, there are scant guidelines for making sound evidence-based policy focused on the intersection of science and society. The Brussels Declaration offers a 20-point blueprint for a set of principles to guide policy makers in this area. 

If the average person is asked to assess their own driving skills, most will give themselves an above average rating. By definition, half of all drivers are below average, but most people lack the self-awareness to realize this due to a cognitive bias known as illusory superiority.

United Healthcare, the largest provider of Medicare Advantage (MA plans) services, is being sued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for fraud. I think they may be right. They are gaming a system designed to protect Medicare beneficiaries and taxpayers from excessive cost and they are very profitable. Did your revenue go up by 11.6% last year? Theirs did.

Are you your dog? Is your dog you? The science.

1. I was on a podcast with Julie Gunlock of the Independent Women's Forum to talk about Rachel Carson and her book "Silent Spring", which argued that manmade chemicals affect the health and safety of humans.

A doctor talking about gun safety is not advocating gun control. Let's get politics out of medicine.

Thanks to an arcane FDA law that protects American companies, Marathon Pharmaceuticals has repackaged an "orphan drug" used in Europe – and is now allowed to charge 5,500% more than if we bought it from there. And that's not even the whole story.

"Every night on the television news now is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation," lamented the former vice president in his opening remarks for the Climate & Health Meeting. After all these years, he still has a warped penchant for apocalyptic exaggeration. 

Since “fake news” seems to be the current buzz-worthy expression, let's point out that we don't have to look very far to find common medical falsehoods that originate in the Land of Celebrity. Like bubble-headed actresses who get attention for no good reason, here are some phony claims that lead the way.

Not only does bariatric surgery provide substantial weight loss to the obese, but it can also ameliorate the metabolic derangements of diabetes and decrease their need for medications. And, a new randomized study found, these beneficial results aren't transient — they were still apparent five years post-surgery and were superior to the results of strictly medical treatment.