Topic: Health Care
‘They Were Already Inside My Head To Begin With’
The ethics of asking brain surgery patients to allow unrelated research while on the operating table
$52.6 Billion: Extra Cost to Consumers of Add-On Drug Patents
The figure is a subset, not covering huge expense of extended patents on high-priced biologics like Humira
A Dangerous Education Divide During Wildfires
Amid toxic smoke, the less educated majority ventures out far more often than college degree holders
A Major Medical Center Gets a Cheaper, Fairer Way to Assign Doctors
Model tells schedulers which anesthesiologists should be on call or on-site at specific times
A Nudge to Reduce the Government Tab for Nursing Home Care
An upfront fee for taking Medicaid patients could shorten stays
A Proposal to Even Out Flu Vaccine Supplies
A system of manufacturer rewards and penalties, consumer taxes and subsidies could aid vaccination rates
A Psychological Approach to Helping Doctors Do Better at Doing No Harm
Behavioral nudges reduced doctors’ overprescribing and overtesting of older patients
A Scheduling Tool that Considers Employee Preferences
A model for staffing O.R.s incorporates the costs of worker dissatisfaction and idle time
A Supportive Letter to Doctors on Best Practices Reduces Opioid Prescriptions
In LA, doctors who lose a patient to opioid overdose get a letter from the coroner; tweaking that letter had a substantial impact
A Tool to Make FDA Drug Approval Practices Transparent
Researchers aim to help the agency, drug companies and patients better understand the complex authorization process
Academic Medical Centers Resilient After Cuts
Following Medicare reimbursement rate changes, research actually increased
Anticipating Overcrowding Risk in the ICU
A model vastly outperforms predictions based on prior hospital data
Behavioral Economics Could Increase Obamacare Enrollment and Stabilize Markets
Greater subsidies aren’t enough: Lowering the complexity of enrollment is needed to bring more and healthier people into the market
Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Nudges
Messages tailored to past vaccination behavior can meaningfully boost uptake for some
BRCA Mutation: New Model Quantifies How Surgeries Reduce Cancer Risk
Informed by personal experience, a researcher parses data to help those mulling mastectomy and gynecological surgeries
Can Algorithms Help Reduce Hospital Readmissions?
Measuring the utility of increased care and testing, inputs that aren’t always immediately available