From The Back Pages – June 2006: The Power Of The Placebo; A Link Between Intelligence and Health Disparities?; Be Ready For A Blog Attack
While scanning the headlines for interesting healthcare-related stories, I often find little tidbits of information and save them to blog about in the future. To highlight these stories, I have decided to start a new series, “From the Back Pages.†Each month, I will post links and commentary on a few of them. The first edition is below.
-The Power Of The Placebo: A study conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School indicates that the placebo effect varies greatly depending on whether patients receive a sugar pill or a medical procedure (i.e., acupuncture).
Commentary: Given the evidence of a pronounced placebo effect, I wonder how and whether physicians leverage it in their practices?
-Intelligence & Heath Disparities Link?: An interesting study indicates that low IQ may not explain the differences in healthcare outcomes between people of varying socioeconomic status.
Commentary: It’s best not to forget that socioeconomic status has a significant impact on access to healthcare and treatment outcomes. See this post for more on this subject.
-Prepare For A Blog Attack: In Februrary, The Economist looked at the impact of blogs on corporate reputation. Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion warns that hospitals and other healthcare organizations have to be ready to respond to negative commentary published in an on-line forum.
Commentary: This is a good point, but as we’ve seen with Edelman (The Wal-Mart blogger relations campaign) and other companies, engagement does not always turn the tide of negative opinion. Despite this drawback, it is important for hospitals (and other healthcare organizations) to be thinking about the impact of consumer-generated media on their reputation and consider devoting resources to monitoring blogs.
