How Chance, Timing and Cognitive Bias Shape Our Health

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You wouldn’t think that the month in which you’re born has much to do with your medical outcomes. In fact, kids who have summer birthdays are more likely to get the flu than kids born later in the year, and kids diagnosed with ADHD and born in August are prescribed an average of 120 more days of medication than kids born in September. These anomalies are just some of the many hidden forces that “can send two otherwise-similar people down very different paths of care, by chance alone,” according to Harvard Medical School doctors Anupam Jena and Christopher Worsham. We learn why chance events influence how we experience the healthcare system and how we can begin to correct for them. Jena and Worsham’s new book is “Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape Our Health.” Guests: Anupam B. Jena, professor, Harvard Medical School; co-author, "Random Acts of Medicine"; host, Freakonomics, M.D. podcast Christopher Worsham, pulmonary and critical care physician, Massachusetts General Hospital; researcher, Harvard Medical School; co-author, "Random Acts of Medicine" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho LaPuerta, a health resort with 85 years of wellness experience, providing summer vacations centered on well-being. Special rates on three-and-four-night August vacations include sunrise hikes, water classes, yoga, and spa therapies, all set in a backdrop of a dreamy summer sky. A six-acre organic garden provides fresh fruits and vegetables daily.
0:24.0	Learn more at Ranchoer Tuerta.com.
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0:42.8	From KGB in San Francisco, this is Forum. I'm Mina Kim. You wouldn't think that the month in which
1:06.0	you're born has much to do with your medical outcomes, or if a surgeon is operating on their
1:10.6	birthday, but chance
1:12.7	and timing can have a big impact on how we're treated and diagnosed in hospitals and
1:17.4	doctors offices, sending quote, to otherwise similar people down very different paths of care.
1:24.3	This hour will learn how happenstance influences our experience with the health care system
1:28.9	and how we begin to correct for them from doctors Babu Jena and Christopher Wersham,
1:34.0	whose new book is called Random Acts of Medicine.
1:37.5	Join us.
1:48.3	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
1:50.7	The month in which you're born.
1:56.1	A marathon that's taking place when you need an ambulance, a national cardiology conference being held on the day you have a heart attack.
1:59.8	There are random events, but also what my guests call
	...

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