The conventional wisdom regarding the source of progress in medical practice highlights the role of basic scientific research into the nature of disease pathologies. This perspective neglects the important role of two other sources of progress in medicine. One is the advance of technologies that...

The placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical trial (RCT) holds unique advantages for evaluating medical technologies, and figures prominently in clinical drug investigations. However, medicine, like other social sectors, has experienced a movement toward evidence-based practice and...

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Foreword -- Preface -- Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care: ‘‘Why Arrow? Why Now?’’ -- Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care (American Economic Review, 1963) -- PART I Supply, Demand, and Health Care Competition -- General...

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