Ep. 55 Waste in Healthcare: Is the Narrative Too Simplistic?
https://accadandkoka.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/i-ef_i0j-e1546732779629.jpg ()Lisa Rosenbaum, MD It doesn’t take great insight to assert that healthcare waste is rampant. There is an obvious epidemic of testing and treatments that make no difference in patients’ lives or could possible even harm. But what is the cause of the epidemic and what should be done about it? In the last decade, a popular narrative has emerged, claiming that the waste has obvious causes and remedies. That narrative, however, overlooks the complexities of the problem and the trade-offs and potential harms of the remedies proposed. Our guest to discuss the “Less-Is-More” movement is Lisa Rosenbaum, MD, one of the best medical writers of our generation. Dr. Rosenbaum is a national correspondent for the New England Journal of Medicine, a cardiologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. GUEST: Lisa Rosenbaum, MD. https://twitter.com/LisaRosenbaum17 (Twitter) LINKS: Lisa Rosenbaum. The Less-Is-More Crusade—Are We Overmedicalizing or Oversimplifying? (2017 New England Journal of Medicine. Free https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMms1713248 (preview) available) Lisa Rosenbaum. Let Fear Guide Early Breast Cancer Detection. (2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/27/opinion/let-fear-guide-early-stage-breast-cancer-decisions.html (Open access) in The New York Times) Lisa Rosenbaum. The Problem With Knowing How Much Your Health Care Costs. (2013, https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-problem-with-knowing-how-much-your-health-care-costs (Open access) in the New Yorker) Michel Accad. http://alertandoriented.com/the-apostles-of-less-is-more/ (The Apostles of Less-Is-More) (blog post on Alert and Oriented) Michel Accad. http://alertandoriented.com/squanderingmedicaresmoney/ (On Squandering Medicare’s Money) (blog post on Alert and Oriented) Michel Accad. http://alertandoriented.com/overdiagnosis-the-disease-that-cannot-be-diagnosed/ (Overdiagnosis:) http://alertandoriented.com/overdiagnosis-the-disease-that-cannot-be-diagnosed/ (The Disease That Cannot be Diagnosed.) (blog post on Alert and Oriented) RELATED EPISODES https://accadandkoka.com/episode12/ (Ep. 12 John Mandrola: The Case for Less-Is-More) WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/bgUwFkq7xqE (Watch the episode) on our YouTube channel Support this podcast