Mayor Bill de Blasio is now on this healthcare bandwagon, and as is often the case with politicians this is more distraction than substance. Unfortunately, both ends of the political spectrum are more concerned with burnishing their image than solving the problem.
Policy & Ethics
The pharmaceutical industry does not make a move without knowing what is coming down the pike, or without global projections years into the future. This latest maneuver is standard fare.
Bundled care, paying and calculating costs for an episode of care rather than fee-for-service, was thought in theory to be able to bring substantial cost savings. But as Yogi Berra said, "In theory, there is no difference in theory and practice. In practice there is."
How can we move scientific research in directions that are felt to be "socially optimal"? While there is no stick to get science redirected, government funding can supply the carrot. How big a carrot is needed? That depends. Let's take a look.
The Oregon Democrat recently wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, claiming that his Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force, formed in 2016, was corrupted by big pharma money. The task force was charged with reforming the CDC's disastrous 2016 opioid guidelines. Sen. Wyden claims that two respected physicians in the group had conflicts of interest. Instead, perhaps it's time for the lawmaker to look in the mirror.
Defrauding the federal government has a long and colorful history. The practice dates as far back as the Civil War, when companies tried to foist lame horses, sick mules and even sawdust in place of gunpowder on our troops. So it's time to cue the theme music ... for this roundup (pun absolutely intended) of this past year's notable healthcare frauds.
Models (not those kind) help us understand our world. But the assumptions we make in creating models can lead us astray. Here's a list of six ways the devil is in the details.
The website ProPublica would have you believe that lunches or speaker fees physicians received from Big Pharma are gifts, requiring something in return. But in this holiday season, we should consider the meaning of gifts -- and realize that the current-affairs watchdog is barking up the wrong tree.
There’s an increasing concern among scholars that, in many areas of science, famous published results tend to be impossible to reproduce.
The newfound ability of a watch to detect heart arrhythmias is just one of many forms of algorithmic medicine. That's where computers play an increasing role in identifying problems, and giving medical advice. But algorithms have unique qualities that impact the approval process.
It's been more than obvious that, despite what you hear in the news, it is fentanyl – not Vicodin – that's killing tens of thousands each year. But a new article in National Vital Statistics Reports makes this more than obvious. Just as obvious is the horrible damage caused by deeply-flawed policies in the past five years. Here is the smoking gun.
ProPublica, like a dog with a bone, continues to chew at Memorial Sloan Kettering and what the publication feels is the hospital's conflict of Interest. But it's time to put the bone down and have a more honest discussion. Why is one of the world's greatest hospitals still a ProPublica punching bag?