Liza-Marie Johnson, MD, MPH, MSB and Deena Levine, MD
In prescribing a medication that is in short supply, it is critical that physicians use evidence-based medicine and ethical analysis of treatment goals, rather than relying on emotional biases or social-worth criteria.
Patients who have been encouraged to think of themselves as consumers and a medical system that is driven by individual demands rather than big-picture planning can undermine fairness in the distribution of vaccines.
Medicaid is a vital piece of health care for children; any decision to close a practice to new Medicaid patients means more preventable illness, more severe, acute illness among children, and an overloaded community emergency department.
Assigning community based on race suggests that phenotype reveals something consistent about biology that is equal in standing to factors like weight, dietary habits, smoking history, and whether or not you had rheumatic fever as a child.
In cost-effectiveness research, the cost of a medical intervention is reported as a dollar amount per quality-adjusted life year gained—the quality of health and the length of time over which the health state exists.