On Health,
Bioethics, and
Behavioral Science
As a physician and behavioral scientist at Duke University, my research and writing explore the quirks in human nature that influence our lives — the mixture of rational and irrational forces that affect our health, our happiness, and the way our society functions.
Latest Publications
Private Equity Acquisition of Physician Practices—Looking for Ethical Guidance From Professional Societies
In 2012, private equity firms purchased approximately 75 physician-owned practices; by 2021, that number had risen to almost 500…
Classification of Patients’ Judgments of Their Physicians in Web-Based Written Reviews Using Natural Language Processing
Patients increasingly rely on web-based physician reviews to choose a physician and share their experiences. However, the unstructured text…
Helping Patients Decide: Ten Steps to Better Risk Communication
With increasing frequency, patients are being asked to make complex decisions about cancer screening, prevention, and treatment. These decisions…
Professional Experiences and Career Trajectories of Mid- to Senior-Career Women Clinician-Scientists
How have women mid- to senior-career clinician-scientists experienced gender throughout their careers? In this qualitative interview study among 31…
The shifting perspectives study protocol: Cognitive remediation therapy as an adjunctive treatment to family based treatment for adolescents with anorexia nervosa
Adolescents with anorexia nervosa have set-shifting inefficiencies that can be exacerbated by starvation and that may interfere with outcomes…
Latest Blog Posts
This Is What Happens When Medicare Minions Micromanage Microorganisms
Sepsis is a brutal killer. It often starts after a microorganism gets loose in your bloodstream, spreading to organs…
Breast Cancer Chemotherapy – Here Is What Happened When Outrageous Prices Met The Free Market
Nine to twelve years. That’s about how long most drug companies have to make serious money on new products…
Two And A Half Decades Later, OxyContin Marketing Is Still Deadly
Purdue Pharma launched OxyContin in 1996, and soon began an aggressive marketing campaign for this powerful and addictive drug…
The Verdict Is In—Price Gouging Harms People With Gout
The patient arrived in my clinic, their right big toe the color of a spring strawberry. The lightest touch…
Peak Pandemic–Guess What Was Killing More Young Americans Than Covid-19
Covid-19 killed approximately 60,000 young Americans between 15 and 54 years old in 2021. By any measure, that is…
The Crushing Cost Of Tracking Healthcare Quality—One Hospital’s Story
A whole industry is devoted to measuring, tracking and even incentivizing the quality of American hospital care. Unfortunately, that…
Books
