Healthcare
Health & Veritas: Why Are We Paying for Ineffective Treatments?
In the latest episode of the Health & Veritas podcast, Howard Forman and Harlan Krumholz discuss the financial, institutional, and psychological forces encouraging the use of unproven and disproven treatments and tests that drive up healthcare costs.
Choosing the Wrong Health Insurance Could Kill You
Yale SOM’s Jason Abaluck and his co-authors calculated that the Medicare Advantage plans appreciably influence the survival rates of their enrollees. Shutting down the plans with the highest mortality rates could save thousands of lives per year.
![An illustration of a man choosing between three doors leading into shark-infested waters]()
Repurposing with a Purpose
David Browning ’99 explains how a nonprofit doing coffee sustainability verification became a source of crucial public health data.
![An illustration of a public-health worker knocking on a door in the jungle]()
Three Questions about COVID-19 Infection and Immunity
We checked in with Yale SOM’s Dr. Howard Forman about herd immunity, vaccines, and that case of reinfection in Hong Kong.
![Travelers at San Francisco Airport on August 11, 2020. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.]()
Design, Test, Spread
Nicolas Encina ’10 and his colleagues at Ariadne Labs have been demonstrating the potential of a collaborative, multidisciplinary process for designing and scaling simple improvements to healthcare—and also its limits.
![A scrum board covered with sticky notes at Ariadne Labs.]()
Smartphone Data Shows How Shared Staff Spread COVID-19 through Nursing Homes
COVID-19 infections have spread rapidly through nursing homes. A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Judith A. Chevalier finds one likely explanation: staff members who work at multiple nursing homes.
![A staff member outside Fair Havens Center nursing home in Miami Springs, Florida, in May 2020. Fifty-four residents of the nursing home have died from COVID-19. Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images.]()
Buprenorphine Can Transform Treatment of Opioid Addiction, But It Isn’t Reaching Enough Patients
According to a new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Marissa King, most patients aren’t staying on the drug long enough to get its benefit, and it isn’t reaching young people.
![A patient with a bottle of buprenorphine outside a clinic in Olympia, Washington, in November 2019. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren.]()
Study: Controlling COVID-19 Outbreaks in Residential Colleges Requires Frequent Testing
Using a computer model, the researchers found that weekly testing will keep outbreaks under control under relatively optimistic scenarios, but that testing every three days would be more reliable.
![A healthcare worker holding a COVID-19 testing swab]()
The Secret of Connecticut’s Success in Battling COVID-19
Prof. Edward Kaplan explains how Connecticut has dramatically reduced the rate of infection of COVID-19 in the state—and what risks still remain.
![Shop window in a Connecticut town]()
Supporting Patients and Families
Jessica Nymeyer ’16 describes working on the palliative care team at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
![An illustration of a nurse in full PPE holding the hand of a patient attached to a respirator]()
Frontline Healthcare Providers Need Proactive Mental Health Care
The devastating mental health consequences of working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic are already becoming apparent. Yale SOM’s Julia DiBenigno and Harvard’s Michaela Kerrissey propose assigning dedicated mental health personnel to frontline medical units.
![A nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital in April 2020. Photo: Erin Clark for The Boston Globe via Getty Images.]()
