Category Archives: Medical Decision Making

Is Behavioral Economics the Death of Living Wills?

Posted on Monday, June 10, 2013

As a physician who conducts research on decision-making, I have been asked many times: What does behavioral economics teach us about the role of living wills in medical care? Famed behavioral economist Dick Thaler recently opined on this topic in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Medical Decision Making | Tagged , ,

Is There a Smart Way to Use the New Oncotype Prostate Cancer Test?

Posted on Wednesday, June 5, 2013

On May 8th, the makers of the oncotype DX Prostate Cancer Test presented results of a large study demonstrating that their test can help men decide whether their prostate cancer carries a low enough risk of progression to forgo surgical or … Continue reading →

Posted in Medical Decision Making | Tagged , , ,

Why Do Patients Take Their Doctor’s Advice?

Posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013

Is it the white coat?  That’s what I wondered in medical school when I would find patients asking me for advice on topics they simply had to know more about than me.  Mothers would ask me how to get their newborn … Continue reading →

Posted in Medical Decision Making | Tagged ,

On the Financial Burden of Paying for Medical Care in the US

Posted on Tuesday, March 26, 2013

According to a CDC study, about 1/3 of American families either struggled to pay medical bills in 2011 or outright couldn’t pay them! Not surprisingly, this problem is especially big for people with limited financial resources: Just another piece of … Continue reading →

Posted in Medical Decision Making | Tagged ,

Should Your Doctor Pray With You?

Posted on Monday, March 18, 2013

“I can fix this.” The neurosurgeon was nothing if not confident. “The cyst is pushing on your spinal cord. If it continues to expand, it will damage your nerves and you may lose the ability to walk. But I can … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Medical Decision Making | Tagged , ,

Helping Your Doctor Help You: An Interview with Project Millennial (Part 2)

Posted on Thursday, March 7, 2013

KARAN: You referred to patient education earlier, not just in terms of treatment information but also the types of questions to be asking. But what about the former? Our generation is definitely comfortable using technology to look up health information, … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Decisions, Medical Decision Making | Tagged

Robots Taking Over the Surgical World?

Posted on Wednesday, March 6, 2013

In a recent Atlantic post, James Hamblin reports on the increasing frequency with which surgeons perform hysterectomies with the assistance of robots.  Here is a picture from that post: To be clear: robotic surgery doesn’t mean a robot performs the … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Policy, Medical Decision Making | Tagged ,

Helping Your Doctor Help You: An Interview with Project Millennial

Posted on Tuesday, March 5, 2013

KARAN: Though I hope our readers all read your book, for those who haven’t just yet, I want to start with an example that touches on the issues it discusses. I recently got a bad ankle sprain. The following week, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Decisions, Medical Decision Making | Tagged

Are Doctors Afraid to Talk Math with Their Patients?

Posted on Monday, March 4, 2013

Before patients can become savvy consumers of healthcare, they need information about their healthcare choices.  Too often, such information is nearly impossible to get, especially when it requires doctors to give patients useful statistics about things like treatment side effects. … Continue reading →

Posted in Medical Decision Making | Tagged ,

Why the Healthy You Doesn’t Understand the Sick You

Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013

In a recent blog post, David Berreby writes about some work that George Loewenstein and I have done on people’s inability to predict how illness or disability will make them feel, and what this inability means for things like “pain … Continue reading →

Posted in Medical Decision Making