Selecting Medicare Cohorts
Medicare administrative data provides a rich source to conduct health services research. Researchers who wish to use this data, however, often have to restrict their sample population in order to…
Miss. Governor Adds Medicaid Reform to 2012 Agenda
Is Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour’s (R-MS) assault on Medicaid in his state prudent or draconian? The possible ’12 GOP presidential candidate has had his share of recent controversies. His fight…
How the AMA Has Undermined Primary Care
While, in other developed nations, 70-80 percent of all physicians are generalists and 20-30 percent are specialists, in America the ratio is reversed, the result of a payment system, the…
Personalized Medicine for Alcoholism
Genetic factors predispose people to alcoholism. That’s why the children of alcoholics are four times more likely to develop drinking problems, and the sons of alcoholic fathers are at…
Dog Versus Treadmill: No Contest
A dog-loving colleague pointed me to Forget the Treadmill. Get a Dog in today’s New York Times. The gist of the story: Several studies now show that dogs can be…
How To Help Japan: Earthquake Relief Options
On March 11, 2011, a huge 8.9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan, causing widespread destruction. President Obama has already released a statement sending “deepest condolences” and promising support to…
Two Sisters Captured For Medicare Fraud
Their crimes go back to Detroit for the tune of around $4 million in billing Medicare for drug therapies that were either not necessary or not performed at a clinic…
Fear of Nuclear Accidents Worse than the Accidents Themselves
This is Rob Stein in The Washington Post, via Robin Hanson: Although radiation escaping from a nuclear power plant catastrophe can increase the risk of many cancers and other health…
Race and Sex Matter
What’s interesting about this one is how consistent the racial differences are over more than 25 years. There’s very little closing of any gap between races in either gender,…
Sonitus Medical – Premier Hearing Prosthetic
Sonitus Medical, Inc., a medical device company that manufactures the world’s first non-surgical and removable hearing prosthetic to transmit sound via the teeth, recently announced that it has received CE…
