The Moseley study found no significant difference between those in the arthroscopic lavage and debridement arm of the study and those in the sham surgery arm.

This process of developing EBM-based guidelines and applying them to clinical care highlights the tension between generating unbiased knowledge based on statistical aggregation and the application of this information to individual patients.

When a disaster occurs at home or abroad, Americans give generously, and volunteers support many important community services. Yet proposals to spend taxpayer money on services for people who are poor, hungry, homeless, or just frail and elderly are resisted vigorously.

Policymakers, with input from the medical profession about which services are most needed, must devote the necessary attention to determining the means-based pricing that will lead to optimal use of services, that which is neither harmful nor wasteful.

The combination of low HIV literacy on the part of older adults and health care professionals’ assumption that they are at low risk leads to insufficiently early testing for HIV and late diagnosis.

The Employee Retirement Income and Security Act (ERISA) has created a loophole through which managed care organizations can escape liability for full compensatory damages solely because the patient is insured by his or her employer.

If a physician worries that a treatment will benefit the patient through the placebo effect, should he perform it?