Book Club

Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape our Decisions, spoke at Wednesday’s Donaghue Foundation annual meeting in Farmington. How choices are framed has a lot to do with how we respond. For example, a group of people were asked to name either 3 or 10 reasons they love their significant other.…

I had already ordered her book online after reading a review in Health Affairs when I got an invitation to hear Rosemary Gibson, author of the Treatment Trap: How the Overuse of Medical Care is Wrecking Your Health and What You Can Do to Prevent It. Her visit yesterday was hosted by AARP-CT and the…

I usually avoid reading about other countries’ health systems; it’s depressing how backward America is about health care. It is odd that the best way to motivate policymakers to do something is to suggest that other states have done the thing and that we are behind, but the worst way to move them is to…

Who knew that economics, microeconomics at that, could be entertaining? Super Freakonomics, our newest Book Club addtion, includes more examples of why everything, even things that don’t seem it, involves competing incentives and how to find simple, cheap solutions by thinking about things differently including information technology and ER overcrowding, measuring the skill of doctors,…

Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives (Edited by Lee Gutkind, 2007) is a collection of essays describing real life stories from providers and victims about their experiences with medical errors. Providers’ descriptions of pain, guilt, shame, and fear for their future are compelling. Victims’ stories include indifferent and careless providers and a stupid system…

According to the Environment Protection Agency, a human life is worth $6.1 million. That estimate came out of cost-benefit analyses of arsenic from drinking water. Priceless, by Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling (2004), provides a fascinating look at the assumptions and questionable methodologies used to develop cost benefit analyses across fields. The costs of arsenic…

I just finished Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman. A fascinating book that details the psychological forces that keep us from making good decisions. There are dozens of great examples, but my favorite is the “twenty dollar auction”. One the first day of class, a Harvard business school professor…

To get ready for this weekend and the unofficial start of summer with its long days of reading, we have added to our Book Club. In between your Beach Reads, try these. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die – interesting, engaging stories that help all of us make sure that what…

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Annual Meeting of the Donoughue Foundation. The keynote speaker at the event was Atul Gawande, a general surgeon, writer for the New Yorker and author of two books, Complications and Better. Gawande spoke about the small things that can be done to make the healthcare system…