Opinion: Pay for Performance: The Wrong Time, the Wrong Place?

Right pace, wrong place.

Wrong place at the wrong time: A case of cervical embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in pregnancy

•First case of NACT in cervical embryonal RMS•Second case occurring in pregnancy•Histological review outlining diagnostic difficulties.

Is general practice in the wrong PLACE?

In 1958 John Lykoudis, a dyspeptic smalltown Greek doctor, cured himself with antibiotics. Convinced of infective cause he prescribed his multiple antibiotic formulation ‘Elgaco’ to 30 000 patients with ulcer.1 Barry Marshall, credited with discovering the bacterial cause for ulcers, acknowledges Lykoudis.1 The JAMA considered that the association between acid and ulcer was proof of causation a...

Rescuing Collective Wisdom when the Average Group Opinion Is Wrong

The total knowledge contained within a collective supersedes the knowledge of even its most intelligent member. Yet the collective knowledge will remain inaccessible to us unless we are able to find efficient knowledge aggregation methods that produce reliable decisions based on the behavior or opinions of the collective’s members. It is often stated that simple averaging of a pool of opinions ...

The disappointing performance of the new "Magnetic Sphincters": a wrong idea or a wrong realization?

In these last years devices based on magnetic activity have been proposed and marketed to reinforce weak gut sphincters, as the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), to prevent gastroesophageal reflux (GER) [1], and the anal sphincter to prevent feca l incontinence [2], with the purpose of replacing previous surgical solutions. However, these artificial sphincters have revealed some drawbacks and i...