The consumer-price index tells us nothing about changes in affordability. We need another measure. “For decades, business advisory firms such as Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Co. have documented “learning curves” across a range of industries, from mining to microchips. These curves, which track performance improvements over time, demonstrate that real prices of goods and services tend to drop between 20% and 30% with every doubling of units sold. Going beyond economies of scale and efficiency, learning curves feed on growth of entrepreneurial knowledge, springing from improvements in every facet of production, design, marketing and management. Crucially, the curve … Read More
MIT economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan says it is in humans’ power to put AI on a path to help us rather than replace us “[WSJ] What’s wrong with how AI tools are being developed and deployed? [Mullainathan] Every time Anthropic or OpenAI or Google releases a new model, you’ll notice they always talk about, oh, we did better on these benchmarks. That’s the way they keep score. In many ways those benchmarks dictate what these models are asked to be good at. We pick an area and then we say, “Can this thing do this as well as people?” So … Read More
“Health care spending as a proportion of total national spending has been flat, at approximately 17%, since the late 2000s, meaning that health care cost growth hasn’t exceeded growth in the gross domestic product, on average. Per-beneficiary Medicare spending grew at an average rate of 6.6% per year between 1987 and 2005, but by 2.2% per year between 2013 and 2019. [..] low growth has persisted well beyond the Great Recession for all types of insurance. Putting aside the spike in health care spending that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, growth in per-capita national health expenditures has been low by … Read More
“Although many health care clinicians have been fired by a patient or family, palliative care clinicians may be at increased risk for dismissal. We invite difficult conversations, confront people with news they prefer to avoid, and encourage otherwise taboo topics such as human frailty and death. Our focus on what may go wrong differs from other clinicians’ optimism and may be unwelcome to patients and health care teams alike. We acknowledge emotional vulnerability, explore uncertainty, uncover fears, and describe a future in which patients make difficult choices about how they live and how they die. When we do our jobs … Read More
“CT utilization in the United States in 2023 was estimated to result in 102 700 (90% UL, 96 400-109 500) projected lifetime cancers, including 93 000 (90% UL, 86 900-99 600) in adults and 9700 (90% UL, 8100-11 600) in children. The leading cancers in adults were lung cancer (21 400 [90% UL, 19 200-24 000]), colon cancer (8400 [90% UL, 7500-9400]), and leukemia (7400 [90% UL, 6100-8900]), whereas the most frequent projected cancers in children were thyroid (3500 [90% UL, 2300-5500]), lung (990 [90% UL, 870-1100]), and breast (630 [90% UL, 550-730]) cancer. Lung and thyroid cancer incidence were higher in female patients, whereas incidence of most other cancers … Read More
Six in 10 able-bodied adults on the healthcare program have no earned income. “New research and polling on Medicaid work requirements help to clarify the stakes [to address Medicaid’s rapid expansion]. More than six in 10 able-bodied adults on Medicaid report no earned income, according to a report from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a think tank. Voters tend to think of Medicaid as a safety net for low-income pregnant women and disabled Americans. But Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act expanded the program into a permanent entitlement for childless men in prime working age. Democrats claim those on Medicaid are working. You’ll … Read More
Adam Grant interviewed Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert. An excerpt: “[Grant] here’s so many demonstrations of these affective forecasting failures. If you were to choose your top three, what are your favorites? [Gilbert] [..] Certainly one of the mistakes that’s caught my attention the most is our inability to imagine adaptation. My friend Danny Kahneman used to say, when you ask somebody how they would feel if they were blind, they imagine going blind. But the day you lose your eyesight, probably a very, very bad day. But it’s not like all the hundreds and thousands of days that will follow, … Read More
“Many countries and 10 U.S. states allow voluntary assisted dying for those who are terminally ill. In some jurisdictions, assistance is also permitted for those who have an incurable condition that causes them unbearable suffering. But allowing relatively healthy people to end their lives because they see their lives as completed is more controversial. Professor Kahneman traveled to Switzerland because it allows competent adults with a firm wish to die to legally receive assistance in dying, whether or not they are residents. [..] “Other people happen to respect it [Kahneman’s work] and say that this is for the benefit of … Read More
“On April 5, 2021, a landmark change in health care occurred: the 21st Century Cures Act, known as the Cures Rule, took effect, requiring clinicians to give patients real-time access to their health data via patient portals. This was intended to empower patients by granting access to their medical information, enabling them to take an active role in their care, and ultimately improving health outcomes. However, as with many policy changes, the reality has proven more complicated. While the shift aimed to democratize health care information, its consequences—both for patients and clinicians—are more nuanced than anticipated. The promise of transparency … Read More
“Ruane and colleagues1 address a pressing and timely issue: the intersection of olfactory impairment (OI) and aging-related outcomes. [..] The growth in the prevalence of older adults brings substantial societal, economic, and public health implications, making the detection and prevention of risks in this group essential. Olfaction appears to be a unique canary in the coal mine. [..] At 6 years, dementia emerged as the predominant mediator, accounting for 23% of the OI-mortality association, followed by frailty at 11% and malnutrition at 5%. By 12 years, however, the influence of dementia and malnutrition waned, leaving frailty as the sole significant … Read More