A new paper in the periodical Health Affairs demonstrates the separate universes of patients and information technology policymakers. Before you decide that this doesn't affect you, consider that these "meaningful use" programs have already cost the taxpayer $38 billion.
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Here's today's lineup: Why are there smell receptors in the kidney? ... Men and women see the world differently ... Spotify shows us how big data can inform and delight us ... and robots come for the village blacksmith.
In between the fa la la la la, I had time to read about snowflakes and avalanches, an example of surprise billing that makes me ashamed for my profession, an article on the year's best articles, and for all of you readers, a discussion of how to read a book.
Americans are uniquely litigious. There are reforms that could be made to the legal system that would fix this, but lawyers are financially incentivized to resist them.
This article was initially printed in PRIORITIES, our quarterly periodical.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is often consulted by the media as a legitimate voice on scientific issues. On some topics, such as the worthlessness of many dietary supplements and the dangers of raw milk, CSPI is absolutely correct. On other topics, such as sugar substitutes and pesticides, it spreads misinformation.
The ubiquitous online portals are always in the news. A new study looks at how we use – and are used by – these virtual conversations that first started taking place around the campfire before moving to the water cooler.
There's nothing quite like the moment when your doctor says: "you have heart disease" (or diabetes). Sinners then repent with thoughts such as: "From this point on only healthy nutritious foods, daily exercise, and perhaps a bit of mindfulness." But do the sinners really repent or is that just something they tell themselves until the shock wears off, allowing their old ways to return?
I pitched a column to the journal Science titled, "How I Became a Junk Science Debunker." It was initially accepted and went through two months (and nine rounds) of editing. At the last moment, however, the column was spiked by senior editor Tim Appenzeller (pictured). Why? Because I'm a corporate shill, of course.
On May 15, 1850, effective treatment for the coronavirus and its infectious friends was put forward, subsequently ridiculed, and now ignored -- at our collective peril. Wash your hands. Fairly simple, yet so challenging to do. And a new study looks at how not washing your hands hastens global pandemics.
On this week's menu: Why is it harder to get a Chick-fil-A franchise than to get into Stanford? ... The CVS-Aetna monopoly on pharmaceuticals would put John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil to shame. ... Wind may not be as green an energy sources as we thought. ... And finally, the genes we share: we are more alike than not.
From vaping to alternative medicine, health authorities in the United Kingdom are much more willing to tell people the cold, hard truth, as compared to their American counterparts.
The Democrats have an additional health issue besides Medicare for All: The cardiovascular status of the Vermont Senator and that of the former mayor of New York. It's time to look to a physician for explanations, rather than Drs. Google and Facebook.
What do you get when you mix a warming climate and criminals? According to a new study, you will get more crime. Should you add that to your list of downside events as our world heats up? Not so fast.
Like ACSH itself, ACSH advisor Dr. Jeffrey Singer is a proponent of harm reduction. Here's his take on a report, issued by the health and medicine panel of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), titled "Opportunities to Improve Opioid Use Disorder and Infectious Disease Services." Not surprisingly, Dr. Singer calls for needle exchange, methadone use, and the use of prescribing pre‐exposure HIV prophylaxis (PrEP) and post‐exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
For centuries farmers have tried to bend their crops -- nature’s bounty -- to their will to create bigger, more plentiful, perhaps ever-tastier foods. In the past, this genetic editing, known as hybridization, has been luck of the draw. But new genetic technologies have changed that random-luck equation. A new study looks at how your scientific literacy impacts the perception of these changes, and whether knowing more reduces fear.
We've all seen the ads for genetic testing. They seem to come in two forms. In one, testing tells me more about the ancestors I expected to find; in the other, I have to exchange my kilt for lederhosen. A new study looks at one way in which people respond to these findings.
There’s been endless debate about which is the best way to eat, and many an extreme diet created in both camps to line the pockets of dodgy doctors. However, if a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine is anything to go by, it’s just not worth getting worked up about.
Environmentalists often oppose the very solutions that they once proposed.
If you're a government agency like the CDC, the best time to admit to a huge mistake is on Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend. And if you're a government agency like the FDA, there's never a good time to make a boneheaded decision.
On tap this time: Why coronavirus containment failed, learning from history, and how COVID-19 hijacks your body. Also, a ritual in troubled times ... giving moss the attention it deserves ... and finally, the reason to slack off. (There had to be a good reason, right?)
As the number of patients requiring ventilatory assistance to survive COVID-19 rises, and with no new ventilators in sight, a "Hail Mary" technique is starting to be used. Can a machine designed to help one patient be reconfigured to support two or more? And can it protect society at large, even just a bit, from surging hospital admissions?
If there was any effect of this drug on COVID-19, it was minimal. Hydroxychloroquine, whose toxicity is far lower, may be safer than chloroquine. But that doesn't matter if the drugs are ineffective.
Facial recognition and both Carnival Cruises, and every journalists' current favorite, the Coronavirus. ... Is eating local inherently more "green?" ... And the most important science of all: Why Cheerios clump together in milk.
There is a lot of malicious misinformation on the internet about glyphosate. Much of it comes from academia.
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