Open data, sort of: In a post on the Health Affairs blog, some big brains from Brookings talk about how open data can help end over-treatment and high-cost treatment when science doesn’t support either one. In my opinion (which I shared in a comment on the post) they left somebody out in the data-share: patients. “How Open Data Can Reveal and Correct the Faults in Our Health System”

That which does not kill you … might still kill you: Dr. Aaron Carroll takes up the question of what are called the social determinants of health on his Healthcare Triage YouTube channel. Here’s a link to a post on The Incidental Economist with that video, and some other perspective on the topic. “How Long Are You Going to Live?”

Overwhelmed by over-treatment: One of our friends, Shannon Brownlee, is a globally known thought leader on ending medical overtreatment and shared decision making. From her view on the leadership team of the Lown Institute, she’s seen all the science on why overtreatment is still a pernicious issue in US healthcare. Her op-ed on the subject from DrKevinMD: “Fixing overtreatment: Lone rangers need not apply”

“Let Patients Help” – hospital board edition: In a piece on the NY Times Upshot blog, Austin Frakt says that hospital boards need to have more clinical expertise on them, so that treatment guidelines in the facility don’t wander off the evidence-based/quality-outcome reservation. We think he left out an important consideration: *patients* on hospital boards. “In Hospitals, Board Rooms Are as Important as Operating Rooms”

It’s not your funny bone, it’s your funny brain: It turns out that the old bromide about laughter being the best medicine might actually be true, at least in preventing age-related cognitive impairment. From Medical News Today:  “Laughter may be the best medicine for age-related memory loss“