John Ioannidis, noted for his critiques of the enterprise of science, makes a compelling argument about the misuse of patient experience and observational studies in clinical medicine. For the Stanford Professor the canary in the coal mine, that is medicine's scientific basis, is growing silent.
Policy & Ethics
If we could spend pretend money, California savings due to regulations would end the budget deficit in 2 months.
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.
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.
A doctor talking about gun safety is not advocating gun control. Let's get politics out of medicine.
A co-founder of the "March for Science" says that it's "time for everyone to get on board." Okay, sure. We'll get on board – pending satisfactory answers to serious science policy questions.
Science has its Napster. "Sci-Hub, a Pirate Bay-like site for the science nerd. It's a portal that offers free and searchable access ‘to most publishers, especially well-known ones.' and may incite a similar type of disruption "... For those who ...choose to pirate a paper instead, ask yourself whether it is worth risking the viability of a system..."
Instead of offering an organ to someone else, what if a person wants to sell one for their own benefit – to help pay off college debts, or for a down payment on a new home? If it's ethical to donate an organ to someone in need, why isn't it to sell an organ to somebody in need? Could the free market help fix the organ trafficking dilemma?
The perfect energy solution is really quite simple. Implementing it only requires political will and scientifically savvy voters. Unfortunately, both are in short supply.
Obamacare was always about health coverage, not health care. Here's why this matters.
How has President Trump done so far in picking science and health leadership? We provide a scorecard.
At one time, "The Three R's" (reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic) were considered the marks of a person who possessed at least a rudimentary education. How about as part of national education reform, we bring back that concept – and update it to include civics, economics, science, and technology? We could call it CRRREST.