Pain was widely under-treated in the 1980s. Two decades ago, pain was recognized as an important problem that needed to be managed by healthcare providers. Today, the opioid crisis has led to under-treatment once again. Professional recognition of pain as a symptom that needs managing was the eventual outcome of several decades of research. Again… Read More »
Measuring and addressing social drivers of health are important in cancer research. Part 1 of this series, published in March 2022, described three commonly used area-level SDoH indices. None are not able to explain much variation in cancer mortality rates. In this post, I share results from a new model that shows promise. Methods in… Read More »
In 1981, Doll and Peto published a well-known paper estimating that roughly 75-80% of cancer mortality was preventable. Forty years later, cancer mortality has declined some overall – but we still see vast disparities. Some of these disparities have gotten worse over time. With the Biden administration’s reignited Cancer Moonshot initiative, combined with a renewed… Read More »
Patients want to be healthy. They want to live longer, function better and have higher wellbeing. How patients feel is best measured by asking them. Few cancer patients these days have not been asked to fill out standardized questionnaires about their symptoms, functioning, and well-being. While these patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are not new to healthcare… Read More »
We are in the midst of a national epidemic concerning opioid misuse and abuse, and lawmakers are rushing to address this concerning situation. However, a recent report finds that only a few states are successfully implementing a balanced approach to curbing opioid misuse and abuse while maintaining access to pain relief for patients in need.… Read More »
A fundamental question in health reform is how changes to insurance policy affect health insurance coverage. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, research has demonstrated that the ACA reduced the uninsured rate across the country [pdf]. By expanding eligibility for the Medicaid program, establishing marketplaces for the purchase of private insurance, providing… Read More »
The name doesn’t exactly help. But before we discuss rebranding, a brief introduction to the concept . . . Salpingectomy refers to surgical removal of one (unilateral) or both (bilateral) fallopian tubes. It is thus a surgical option for female sterilization—but also drastically reduces a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer. This is huge. Ovarian cancer… Read More »
Cancer is a dreaded disease – and in the US, a typical response to a cancer diagnosis is to try every treatment available in hopes that something might work. Understandable! But cancer overtreatment is a serious problem that drives up costs, causes avoidable morbidity and mortality, and reduces the quality of care. What is overtreatment?… Read More »