Doctors estimate $6.8 billion in unnecessary medical tests For many adults, a routine visit to a primary care physician might involve blood tests, a urinalysis, an electrocardiogram, maybe a bone density scan. Too often, however, these tests are inappropriate and they cost a bundle, according to a recent study, not only for the health care [...]
U.N. analysts deploy many tools to project world’s population NEW YORK — In a cramped office on the 19th floor of Two United Nations, Danan Gu, a nerdy population analyst, found 7 million children in China who didn’t officially exist. They materialized in front of him, on a desktop computer. Gu pulled up a chart [...]
Medical Mystery: Giving birth didn’t ease a woman’s dangerous hypertension Through the haze of exhaustion and elation that often characterizes the first disorienting weeks of motherhood, Karen Good felt something else: a gnawing fear for her own health. Good, then 41, had given birth to a healthy baby boy shortly after Christmas 2007. Her son [...]
Demand is high for pretend patients Ted Bell knew his portrayal of a depressed, elderly patient was convincing when the medical student who was examining him broke down in tears. Her instructors had to call a timeout because his flat monotone and unkempt appearance reminded her too much of her father, who had similar symptoms. [...]
Hospitals, health groups use purchasing power to push for greener medical products Hospitals and health systems are organizing the industry’s vast purchasing power to push manufacturers of medical products to make them with safer chemicals and to be more environmentally friendly. Five large groups that buy $130 billion of these products every year on behalf [...]