Last week I spoke with Matt Freeman, one of the editors of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Human Capital Blog, about the development of Asthmapolis and where we’re headed as a company. The conversation is posted here.
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Questionnaire layout and wording influence prevalence and risk estimates of respiratory symptoms in a population cohort
One of the more interesting aspects of asthma epidemiology is the challenge of identifying who in a population has the disease. By and large, asthma remains a clinical diagnosis, made on the basis of a characteristic history of symptoms, occasionally supported by physiological measurement. Without a discrete clinical test, epidemiologists have to rely on proxy [...]
Crossing paths with James Crow, the geneticist (1916-2012)
Jim Crow, a pioneer and legend in the field of population genetics, and an influential and widely loved faculty member here at the University of Wisconsin, died last week at the age of 95. John Hawkes has a fantastic profile of him here, while his faculty page at the UW Laboratory of Genetics faculty testifies to his seemingly [...]
Q&A with The Commonwealth Fund
I recently spoke with Sarah Klein from The Commonwealth Fund, one of the leading private foundations focused on healthcare research and quality. Our Q&A – about Asthmapolis and the potential of mobile technology to improve the quality of care and public health – is published in their Quality Matters newsletter this month. Read more » [...]
Young Epidemiology Scholars (YES) competition closes
Having been a judge in this competition for the past few years, and a believer in the value of epidemiology as an important and underused discipline in education, I’m disappointed to see this program, funded by RWJF and run by the College Board, come to an end. For a great perspective on it’s potential – [...]
AAAS session on anthropology and global health
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to speak at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Washington DC. I was part of a panel on anthropology and public health organized by anthropologist Cynthia Beall from Case Western Reserve University. Kathleen Barnes (Johns Hopkins) presented research examining how allergic asthma [...]
The limits of adherence to daily asthma treatment
In an interview with the BBC about an article published by his group in the Lancet, Fernando Martinez, from the University of Arizona, said: “If you have a daily drug and a very significant number are not taking it, then that tells you it’s a losing strategy.” The BBC summarizes: “Researchers at the University of [...]
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Only half of specialist referrals ever happen
Indiana Univ study shows that only 71 percent of patients age 65 or older who are referred to a specialist are actually scheduled to be seen by that physician. Furthermore, only 70 percent of those with an appointment actually went to the specialist’s office. Thus, only 50 percent (70 percent of 71 percent) of those [...]
My ER Wait Times Experiment
Last year, I became interested in emergency room wait times when a family member needed medical attention but did not want to spend his day waiting for treatment. I had recently seen an article about the growing number of hospitals publishing their wait times online, but since that information is scattered across multiple sites, I found [...]
About
Medical anthropologist, asthma epidemiologist in Madison, WI. Co-Founder of Reciprocal Labs and Asthmapolis.
