Came across this cool graphic, showing the rise and fall of U.S. cigarette consumption. The picture also shows when various policy levers were pulled, and how those levers track to consumption. WARNING: No proof of cause and effect. But still quite interesting.
Here is the opening of an article I recently published in JAMA, available now online, in which I raise concerns about misguided congressional efforts to promote the use of high-value healthcare services, without doing anything to reduce the use of low value ones. Health care systems around the world are under pressure to restrain health…
“The Ulysses Strategy” – The New Yorker
A bicycle helmet prevented me from experiencing a major head injury. But did it promote the very behavior that caused me to crash my bike? It was autumn in Michigan, and I was riding my mountain bike along a lakeside pathway. I was heading towards a twisty boardwalk that led up to a bridge arching…
ICYMI: When people watch action movies, they consume more calories.
Very interesting article in the Lancet recently, from the nudge unit in the United Kingdom. They give physicians feedback on how much they prescribed antibiotics compared to their peers, and found that such feedback reduced antibiotic prescriptions. I hope to see more of this work!
Here is a hilarious effort by Utah Valley State presumably to either keep people from crashing into each other while they text on the stairway, or more likely to show them how stupid it is to be engaging in that behavior in that location: