Tag: Stephen Soumerai

  • Science & Tech

    Value of direct-to-consumer drug advertising oversold, study finds

    Direct-to-consumer advertising may not be giving big pharma such a big bang for their five billion bucks after all. Despite the billions spent on bringing drug marketing campaigns straight into patients’ living rooms, such strategies have a modest effect at best—and in some cases, no effect at all. “People tend to think that if direct-to-consumer…

    4–6 minutes
  • Health

    Hospital length of stay may not affect a newborn’s health

    Researcher Jeanne M. Madden and colleagues used seven-and-a-half years of data on 20,366 mother-infant pairs with normal vaginal deliveries within a large Massachusetts health maintenance organization to determine the effects of reductions by the HMO in the postpartum length of stay and a subsequent state law establishing a minimum stay. The investigators measured the effects…

    1–2 minutes