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About Me
I am a physician and behavioral scientist. 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. (more...)- Have a question or just want to get in touch? Email me at peter.ubel@duke.edu
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Tag Archives: cancer
The Benefits of High Health Care Expenditures
I write frequently about the high costs of healthcare, in the U.S. and in many other parts of the world. And in general, I believe strongly that most developed countries need to look seriously at how they’re spending healthcare dollars, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cancer, healthcare costs
The Cost of New Cancer Drugs (In One Picture)
“Specialty drugs” – that’s what they’re called. Not the pills of old, these pharmaceuticals are often given intravenously or through injection. Often more biologic in their synthesis than chemical, they are expensive to produce and often target narrow disease processes, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cancer, healthcare costs, pharmaceutical
Unsustainable
This picture shows changes in the cost of treating colon cancer, from 1993-2005. It shows unsustainable growth in these expenditures: By unsustainable, however, I do not mean unjustifiable. Patients with colon cancer have much better prognoses in 2005 than 1993, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cancer, healthcare costs
Don’t Let Your Physician Tell You What To Do Without Finding Out Your Goals
A recent study of men with early-stage prostate cancer found no difference in 10-year death rates, regardless of whether their doctors actively monitored the cancers for signs of growth or eradicated the men’s cancers with surgery or radiation. What does … Continue reading
Three Things to Know about Future Healthcare Spending
For my entire life, a half century and counting, healthcare spending in the U.S. has almost always risen faster than inflation. Sometimes it’s relatively slow, sometimes it’s relatively fast, but no matter the time, healthcare spending is climbing. Getting healthcare … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cancer, health policy, healthcare costs, heart disease
Specialty Drugs at Especially High Prices
There have been many wonderful new medications in the past decade or so, drugs that finally bring hope for many people with serious illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and even some advanced cancers. But these drugs often come at … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cancer, healthcare costs
The Wrong Way To React When Terminally Ill Patients Cry
Just three weeks earlier, she had noticed something strange about one of her breasts. An irregular shape. Her daughter brought her to the doctor, and soon the patient, I’ll call her Amanda, was diagnosed with breast cancer, stage “to be … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cancer, doctor-patient communication, medical decision making, shared decision making
The Future of Disease – in One Picture
Here are some projections on what illnesses Medicare enrollees are experiencing now, and what they will be experiencing 20 years from now, courtesy of the Brookings Institute:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cancer, diabetes, Medicare
Cancer Drugs Aren’t As Cost-Effective As They Used To Be
Cancer drugs have become increasingly expensive in recent years. No one blinks anymore when a new lung cancer or colon cancer treatment comes to market priced at more than $100,000 per patient. In part, we don’t blink because we have … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cancer, health policy, healthcare costs
Which Cancers Do We Spend Most of Our Money On?
There has been lots written lately about the soaring cost of cancer care. You’re spending a lot on cancer recently in part because of many wonderful new treatments that come with a substantial price tag. But there has been less … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged breast cancer, cancer, healthcare costs, prostate cancer