What Americans Don’t Know About Their Medications
People who have faced debilitating side effects say we need better warnings on drugs. The FDA hasn’t been enthusiastic. More
Assessment of Outpatient Dispensing of Products Proposed for Treatment or Prevention of COVID-19 by US Retail Pharmacies During the Pandemic
This cross-sectional study examines changes in the outpatient retail dispensing frequency of proposed treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 after the March 13, 2020, declaration of a national emergency due to the pandemic. More
‘A natural experiment’: Pandemic-driven drop in cancer screening may aid research on overdiagnosis
The government will fund reseach asking whether cancer patients "really do worse because of being diagnosed later" during the pandemic. More
Is a cancer crisis trailing the pandemic?
The way the pandemic has deferred some primary and preventive care is rekindling debate over whether the U.S. is spending too much on diagnostic tests. Lown Institute President Vikas Saini doesn’t think Covid will move the needle on how doctors and patients approach medical care, with demand for tests and services returning once the crisis lifts. “There's been chatter, and people speculating or saying it's a great opportunity because there's all this elective stuff that got stopped [so] when we resume, maybe we should be more thoughtful — yeah, we should," he says. "But what's actually going to happen? I don't see any reason to think it won't go back to business-as-usual." More
Pandemic Lessons in Improving the Medical System
The pandemic may prompt American medicine to become less expensive, more efficient and more effective at protecting people’s health. More
Advocacy from independent experts reflected in new ob-gyn guideline
A group of independent doctors spoke out in 2019 against what they saw as a potentially harmful recommendation that was influenced by financial conflicts of interest. Now it appears that the independent doctors' advocacy has helped to change that recommendation. More
Variations in Persistent Use of Low-Value Breast Cancer Surgery
This study identifies variation and determinants of persistent use of low-value breast cancer surgical care. More
Screening for Asymptomatic Carotid Artery Stenosis in Adult Patients
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has reaffirmed its 2014 recommendation3 against screening for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis in the general adult population (D recommendation) based on an assessment of no benefit and possible harm. More
Categorizing and measuring harm from medical treatments
Truly informed decision making cannot happen without a good understanding of both the benefits and the harms of medical treatments. In a recent paper, researchers break new ground by identifying different types of harms from medical care that all clinicians and researchers should be aware of. More
Hospital Revenue Under Maryland’s Total Cost of Care Model During the COVID-19 Pandemic, March-July 2020
This study compares revenue of Maryland hospitals in March-July 2020 vs historical trends and assesses whether rate increases for inpatient and outpatient services that were permitted to offset pandemic-related decines in revenues were associated with changes to state hospital revenue. More
Are We Screening Too Much for Skin Cancer? It’s Complicated.
A new paper calls for a halt to skin cancer screenings in the general population. Some physicians vehemently disagree. More
Will COVID-19 Wring Low-Value Healthcare out of the System?
Many people avoided going to the hospital or doctor for nonemergency health issues because they didn’t think it was worth the risk of infection. “Although this likely prevented them from receiving tests and scans they didn’t need, on the flip side, many people likely suffered because they didn’t get necessary care,” says Vikas Saini, M.D., president of Lown Institute, a healthcare think tank in Brookline, Massachusetts, that focuses on low-value care. The pandemic, in Saini’s view, may also speed the move away from fee- for-service to value-based payment: “I foresee a greater openness and interest in capitated payment models in which providers are paid a flat fee per patient per month.” More
Is overdiagnosis behind the increase in melanoma cases?
Is the tremendous increase in melanoma diagnoses a cancer epidemic, or an "epidemic of overdiagnosis"? More
Challenges of a Supplemental Private Option Under National Health Insurance—Observations From Australia
This Viewpoint describes the role of private hospital insurance in Australia, a country with universal government-sponsored insurance. More
Are more people surviving Covid-19 because doctors are doing less?
Few treatments, even widely hyped ones, fail to arrest the progress of Covid-19. Prevention has trumped the so-far failed quest for a cure. More
Why we need to ask more than, “Does this treatment work?”
In a perspective piece in the Washington Post, Dr. Daniel Morgan, explains why shared decision making requires us to ask, "How likely is this treatment to work?" and why the answer to that question can be tricky. More
Cancer Screening Tests and Cancer Diagnoses During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This cohort study describes the number of patients undergoing cancer screening tests and of ensuing cancer diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic in 1 health care system in the northeastern United States. More
Colonoscopy Alternative Comes Home
An at-home test for colon cancer is as reliable as the traditional screening, health experts say, and more agreeable. More
Vitamin D sales are up. But experts still don’t know whether it can prevent or treat covid.
Links between vitamin D deficiencies and coronavirus infections have been seen in studies, but “correlation doesn’t prove causation.” More
Should I take a Cholesterol Medication to Protect my Heart? With Dr. Rita Redberg
In today’s episode, Dr. Rita Redberg, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and Editor-in-chief at JAMA Internal Medicine, explains why a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise are much more important for preventing heart attacks and strokes than a daily cholesterol pill. More