Policy & Ethics

Pay for performance (P4P) is all the rage in healthcare. Big Pharma led the way; the popular press would have you believe that one can “incentivize” physicians and their clinical colleagues with as little as a sandwich and a bag of chips.

A recent New York Times editorial "Cosmetics Safety Needs a Makeover" calls for better FDA regula

Under the influence of the CDC Opioid Foolaid, at least a dozen U.S. cities are toying with the idea of opening “supervised” or “safe injection sites” (SIF), where drug addicts can shoot up illicit drugs watched over by medical professionals.

Imagine if Dr. Oz, who peddles all sorts of pseudoscientific, nonsensical miracle cures on his daytime television show, proposed an environmental policy. That's the Green New Deal.

When we all lived in villages, knowing individual merchants allowed you to identify and avoid the cheats. As we urbanized brand names became the reputational marker.

Gwyneth Paltrow has a great career. Not many actors can claim her résumé: Shakespeare in Love, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Avengers, and even Contagion (ironically, a pro-science movie).

By Stacie Kershner, Georgia State University;

Imagine you are unexpectedly admitted to the hospital for an urgent medical condition -not something for which there is an alternate option.

Here's a first. A study that might actually disprove itself. I've never seen anything like it.

Dr. House, the fictional diagnostician played by Hugh Laurie, on the Fox TV series "House," was often wrong, never in doubt and always chose the more invasive treatment.