Pay for performance in healthcare
Good quality turns out to be complicated and unrelated to reimbursement rates
Jan 22, 2023•5 min
Second Opinion
An examination of medical ethics and the practitioners who define them. Sign up to receive the Second Opinion topics in newsletter form at kcrw.com/newsletters .
Episodes
Too many blood tests
While properly ordered blood tests can help enormously with diagnosis, too often, blood tests are ordered without good reason.
Jan 15, 2023•5 min
The complexity of a second opinion
Is there value in getting a second opinion? What happens when the two opinions differ from each other?
Jan 08, 2023•5 min
2022 End of Year Recap
A look at some of the topics we covered throughout the past year.
Dec 31, 2022•5 min
“We got it all”
These four words may not mean the same thing to all people
Dec 25, 2022•5 min
Putting technology ahead of the evidence
Too often the use of expensive and risky technologies catch on before we have good data suggesting benefit.
Dec 18, 2022•5 min
Injustice Disorder
When a person is a victim of systemic injustice does that constitute a medical diagnosis?
Dec 11, 2022•5 min
Insulin production in California
The state of California is about to take on pharmaceutical companies by producing safe, effective, FDA approved insulin.
Dec 04, 2022•5 min
Time for a new approach to Alzheimer’s Disease
For over 100 years we’ve had a similar approach to understanding Alzheimer’s disease which hasn’t produced many benefits. Perhaps it’s time to cast the net more broadly?
Nov 27, 2022•5 min
The Limits of Specialty Care
In medical care job specifications are often blurred and a focus on the person can get lost
Nov 20, 2022•4 min
Microplastics and human health
Until we know more, it makes sense to avoid microplastics as much as possible
Nov 13, 2022•5 min
Monitoring poor air quality
Using participatory science to examine local air quality.
Nov 06, 2022•4 min
The Care Cascade
Unnecessary medical testing often leads to a “care cascade” that results in real harm and sky-high costs.
Oct 30, 2022•5 min
The problems with body mass index (BMI)
Often medicine gets hooked on using simple tools of measurement only to discover, after they have become entrenched, that they don’t measure what they are supposed to measure.
Oct 23, 2022•5 min
Code Lavender
A unique way to focus on reducing stress in moments of great need.
Oct 16, 2022•5 min
Reproductive Coercion
Often reproductive autonomy is undermined by our partners.
Oct 09, 2022•5 min
Medical Waste
Big polluters are not just cars and power plants - they include the American health care system.
Oct 02, 2022•5 min
Recommendations to screen for anxiety in adults
When we screen for any disease, we need to make sure acceptable treatments are available.
Sep 25, 2022•5 min
The move toward remote home monitoring
Remote monitoring devices are now capable of tracking our health behaviors including the pills we consume, the food we eat, and the step we take. Is this an advance in health care?
Sep 18, 2022•5 min
Abortion: States vs the Federal government
Nationally, emergency departments have become the latest battle ground around issues related to abortion.
Sep 11, 2022•5 min
The health benefits of Camellia Sinensis (black tea)
A very large preliminary study suggests that there may be some health benefits to regularly drinking black tea.
Sep 04, 2022•4 min
The link between soil and health
Soil is something that often gets ignored as we think broadly about health.
Aug 28, 2022•5 min
Variations in the consumption of dairy products
It turns out that even what we chose for breakfast can have a biological origin.
Aug 21, 2022•5 min
Limitations of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
The new legislation offers some major successes, but with regard to drug pricing it is not close to what it could have been.
Aug 14, 2022•5 min
Informing relatives of genetic risks
We currently have no good communication systems to assure that those at risk for serious inherited diseases are informed of their risk.
Aug 07, 2022•5 min
Anti-depressants needs a major “rethink”
It turns out that much of what we’ve been told about antidepressants is wrong or misleading. The prevailing thinking has led to huge sales with little evidence of effectiveness.
Jul 31, 2022•5 min
Video recording surgical operations
Video recordings in the OR have a chance to improve quality but they also open a can of worms.
Jul 24, 2022•5 min
Wild and domestic pigs
With changes in domestic pig farming we may solve one problem of inhuman care, but risk another problem by exposing pigs to diseases that can impact our health.
Jul 17, 2022•5 min
Ignoring monkeypox at our own peril
Public trust in expert opinions on infectious diseases is low, but that’s no reason to ignore what is potentially a large public health problem.
Jul 10, 2022•5 min
The harms of too much and too little care
There are great disparities in health care and at both extremes – too much and too little – great harm can result.
Jul 03, 2022•5 min
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