August 2012
1 post
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Half of longevity gains are due to healthcare →
Here’s a cool bit of literature review (yes, I deliberately wrote “cool bit of literature review”) by economist Austin Frakt in response to a previous infographic I posted on this blog.
July 2012
2 posts
2 tags
Charting a Staggering Excess of Health Data →
Kaiser Fung shows that less can be more when it comes to visualizing complex data. If you show too much, none will read or understand; better to sacrifice a little detail for the sake of clear communication.
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June 2012
1 post
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May 2012
7 posts
1 tag
Realigning Health with Care →
This article has been on my to-read list for what feels like a burdensome amount of time, so I’m going to try to take a stab at lunch tomorrow.
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A Prostate Screening Picture Worth A Thousand... →
This graphic, from WBUR’s Common Health blog, originally comes from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, which further based the graph on epidemiological data from a 2010 BMJ paper.
Hat tip to Austin Frakt.
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What would be the worst pie chart ever? →
Kim Rees imagines the horrific answer to be a Venn diagram made with pie charts. And it turns out there’s an app for that.
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No, higher US cancer spending isn't worth it →
It’s great to see experts and reporters dig down into methodology. I recently posted on a critique of a study which suggested that higher US cancer spending drives superior outcomes. (At least, that’s how I read it.) Faced with significant criticism, the authors of the study published a response on the HealthAffairs blog. And now Dr. Aaron Carroll has written a lengthy response to that response on...
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Is high spending on US cancer care worth it? →
I’m delighted to see Reuters report on the sometimes confusing nature of cancer statistics, and how these numbers can sometimes mislead (otherwise well intentioned) researchers.
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Atul Gawande on Two Hundred Years of Surgery →
I was drawn to the article by this parenthetical anecdote posted by Austin Frakt on the Incidental Economist: “Liston operated so fast that he once accidentally amputated an assistant’s fingers along with a patient’s leg, according to Hollingham. The patient and the assistant both died of sepsis, and a spectator reportedly died of shock, resulting in the only known procedure with a 300%...
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Two Amazing Healthcare Charts →
I love great charts. A great chart tells a story with a balance of clarity, beauty, and parsimony. Kaiser Fung (@junkcharts) shares two such charts on the relationship between national per capita health expenditures and life expectancy. These data aren’t new, but they are beautifully presented here to tell a very clear story with such elegant simplicity.
I wish I made more charts like these....
April 2012
3 posts
3 tags
Taishanese on your Windows Phone
I ran across a Taishanese mobile app. It’s 99¢ for a list of vocabulary terms and common phrases. The app publisher, WAGmob, lists 39 other language apps with the same vocab lists, simple quizzes, and flashcards.
I haven’t tried out the Taishanese app, but based on the screenshots I saw, it would be hard for me to recommend it. The app follows a generalized phrasebook template, and leaves out...
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Pay Gap Between Women and Men →
This is an amazing interactive chart by Nathan Yau. Women RNs make 4% less than men. For pharmacists the difference is 5%. For techs it’s 9%. The largest gap is for physicians, where women make 21% less than their male counterparts.
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Vesak
It’s been nine years since the University Buddhist Association first held a Vesak celebration at UCLA. If there is a universal Buddhist holiday it would be Vesak, which commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death. From a more practical and cross-cultural standpoint, Vesak’s recognition by the United Nations makes this celebration something of a lowest common denominator Buddhist...
December 2011
1 post
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Meditation Workshop at UCLA
On Tuesday I led a workshop on meditation and relaxation for UCLA SEACLEAR and the University Buddhist Association. I gave five tips for relaxation: stretch, think happy, be mindful, focus on the breath, relax & release. These exercises aren’t anything new, but it was good to get the support of a big group to encourage individual students to step back and relax a little. I certainly...
