The Lown Institute, a nonpartisan healthcare think tank, unveiled the social responsibility ranking Sept. 21. The social responsibility list ranks 3,010 hospitals and is based on 54 metrics across three main categories: equity, value and outcomes. More
The full results of the Lown Hospitals Index reveals which hospitals achieve on equity, outcomes, and value... and which hospitals fall short. More
When the FDA approved new Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm based on little clinical evidence, experts protested. Yet the Aduhelm controversy is just the latest in a pattern of regulators approving new drugs based on surrogate endpoints rather than clinical outcomes that matter to patients. In The BMJ, Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee argue that surrogate endpoints provide no guarantee of clinical benefit and should be used only as a last resort in drug trials. More
How the Food and Drug Administration messes up approval of new drugs including the new one, aducanumab, that supposedly helps Alzheimer’s disease patients. More
When researchers, media, and advocates teamed up to bring attention to hospital lawsuits, it led to a dramatic decrease in lawsuits filed. What can we learn from this initiative? More
“This drug needs to be pulled off the market — period," said Adam Uratro, the chief of maternal-fetal medicine at MetroWest Medical Center. More
As a matter of simple economics, hospital price transparency will improve competition and encourage more equitable pricing. More
og:description Medical journals are relied on as trusted sources of medical information. For years, authors’ conflicts of interest—both disclosed and undisclosed— have repeatedly undermined the credibility of the medical profession and the medical literature. More
Health care groups don't want transparency that reveals true prices. More
What do hospitals that advertise their services have in common? Lown Intern Neil Trivedi explains in a guest blog post. More
Congress tapped a national academies committee to examine a drug cost issue. It got a report that includes “egregious” failures to disclose conflicts of interest. More
Although we examined only one common shoppable service in this post, the importance of identifying high-price hospitals is generalizable to a broad range of hospital services. More
Medicare Advantage is fundamentally altering Medicare's structure. More
Aggressive sales tactics have allegedly led surgeons to use defective or wrong-size implants, screws or other products on patients, including former Olympian Mary Lou Retton. More
Inspectors repeatedly found manufacturing and device quality problems with the HeartWare heart pump. But the FDA did not penalize the company, and patients had the device implanted on their hearts without knowing the facts. More
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Centers Program, developed as part of the National Cancer Act of 1971, recognizes 71 cancer centers across the US that meet rigorous standards for transdisciplinary and innovative research to develop new and better approaches to preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer. Although this program was developed to advance cancer research, these cancer centers have an important role in translating scientific knowledge into effective treatments for patients with cancer. Moreover, these cancer centers, nearly all part of academic medical centers, attract top clinician researchers and clinician educators who seek to advance both cancer research and clinical care. More
Produced by the Lown Institute, the Lown Institute Hospitals Index ranks hospitals using 42 metrics across three major categories: civic leadership, health outcomes, and care value. By using a comprehensive measure that centers racial and ethnic equity, the Index aims to guide hospitals in providing inclusive care for all populations and help hospitals improve the overall health of their communities. Information is disseminated in the form of an interactive ranking that allows the user to sort and view metrics. Supplemental reports are also available. Data are collected from federal sources including the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and Medicare inpatient data. More
DSOs are overwhelmingly owned by private equity firms. 27 of the top 30 DSOs are private-equity-owned. This amounts to approximately 84% of practice locations that contract with the top 30 DSOs. More
Criticisms of the US Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated approval process have resurfaced after the recent approval of aducanumab (Aduhelm) for dementia. Elisabeth Mahase finds that the process is plagued by missing efficacy data and questionable evidence. More
Do you sometimes lose your train of thought or feel a bit more anxious than is typical for you? Those are two of the six questions in a quiz on a website co-sponsored by the makers of Aduhelm, a controversial new Alzheimer’s drug. But even when all responses to the frequency of those experiences are “never,” the quiz issues a “talk to your doctor” recommendation about the potential need for additional cognitive testing. More