All Posts by Ted Tsai, MD
The Joint Commission and the Current Opioid Crisis
The Joint Commission wields such power that any hospitals that failed to meet the Joint Commission’s standard in pain management would be given “requirements on improvement” and be expected to follow them in order to remain accredited.
Read moreLessons of Freakonomics – USMLE Step 2 CS is Excellent at Revenue Generation
Last time I discussed the book Freakonomics and how it described that people do what they are incentivized to do– often to unintended results. Today I’m going to discuss a recently controversial aspect of medical education where Freakonomics applies, namely […]
Read moreFreakonomics Taught Me that Simple Solutions Aren’t Always Best
“What do schoolteachers and Sumo wrestlers have in common?” That’s the title of the first chapter of Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, a book that I often cite as my introduction to how the world really works. Before […]
Read moreEpiPen Controversy: Price Gouging, Systemic Issue, or Both?
I’ve had a long interest in understanding how systems work (all systems including economic and social — not just organ systems). I’ve come to realize how often an intervention (be it a drug, surgical procedure, tax law, or healthcare policy […]
Read moreIs this a job search, or a mid-life crisis?
Not long ago, I went through an “I should get a new job” phase. It wasn’t prompted by any specific dissatisfaction with my current position. I didn’t dislike my patient population or co-workers, and the work wasn’t bad– yet I […]
Read moreCognitive Bias and Antibiotic Overuse
Attempts to correct the problem of antibiotic overuse have typically revolved around education, with very little attention paid to psychology. A Google search for ‘antibiotic overuse’ brings up articles from the CDC and Mayo Clinic with titles like “Antibiotics: Misuse […]
Read moreHow Internal Medicine Chose Me
As an internal medicine physician, the #3 question people most often ask me is why I chose to be an internist (the top two being “What is internal medicine?” and “What’s this thing growing on my genitals?”). So I thought […]
Read more
