- If “best practices” in medicine really are best practices, why can’t we just copy them everywhere else?
- Although over 80% of insured adults rate their health insurance as “good” or “excellent,” most have difficulty understanding and using it – especially if they are in fair or poor health.
- Marijuana in Colorado: In Denver there are more than 200 licensed recreational dispensaries alone. There are 700 licensed cultivation sites in the state.
- Are dementia rates falling?
- Should we expand pharmacists’ scope of practice to the full extent of their training, as they did in New Zealand and Canada?
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Nearly One-Quarter of Doctors (and Medical Students) are Considering Quitting Medicine
A new study found that one-quarter of medical students are so disenchanted with their program they are considering quitting. A much larger proportion of medical students and nursing students (58%) would prefer a career in health care where they don’t treat patients. Students were especially worried about the cost of their education, but also burdened by the…
Wednesday Links
- Study: The global COVID-19 campaign vaccinated over 2 billion people within the first 8 months. We find that the vaccination campaign across 141 countries averted 2.4 million excess deaths, valued at $6.5 trillion.
- Burnout among health care workers: Less than 30 percent are “very happy”; more than a third report symptoms of “depression”; more than half have symptoms of “anxiety.”
- Who makes more money from the sale of generic drugs – PBMs or drug manufacturers?
- How many prescription drugs do people take over their lifetimes? non-Hispanic Whites take the most, Hispanics take the least, and non-Hispanic Blacks fall in between these extremes.
Tuesday Links
- Misinformation Update: One of the strangest aspects of the Covid pandemic was the early insistence by the WHO and the CDC that COVID was not airborne.
- Good news: since before the pandemic, Americans’ wealth is way up, and inequality is down.
- A positive view of doctor assisted suicide. (NYT)
- 55 percent of E.R. doctors say they have been physically assaulted, almost all by patients.
- New test says it can find cancer for $949. Why do some doctors think that is not a good idea? (WSJ)