Random Acts of Medicine, with Freakonomics MD Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD and Christopher Worsham, MD, MPH

Published: July 1, 2023, 2:36 a.m.

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Guests: Freakonomics,\\xa0MD\\xa0host, UChicago-trained economist, and Harvard medical school physician\\xa0Anupam B. Jena,\\xa0MD, PhD, and Harvard physician, Mass General critical care doctor, and healthcare policy researcher\\xa0Christopher Worsham,\\xa0MD, MPH\\xa0on their singular work of popular science,\\xa0RANDOM ACTS OF MEDICINE (published by Random House), on sale July 11, 2023, and available for pre-order on Amazon.

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Book Summary

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Why do kids born in the summer get diagnosed more often with ADHD and the flu? How are marathons harmful for your health, even when you\\u2019re not running? And what do surgeons and salesmen have in common?
As a University of Chicago-trained economist, Harvard medical school professor and doctor, and host of the\\xa0Freakonomics,\\xa0MD\\xa0podcast,\\xa0Anupam B. Jena,\\xa0MD, PhD\\xa0is uniquely equipped to answer these questions. And as a critical care doctor at Massachusetts General who researches health care policy,\\xa0Christopher Worsham,\\xa0MD, MPH\\xa0confronts their impact on the hospital\\u2019s sickest patients.

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In\\xa0RANDOM ACTS OF MEDICINE, Jena and Worsham show us how medicine really works\\u2014and its effect on all of us. In the spirit of\\xa0Freakonomics,\\xa0Cribsheet, and\\xa0Noise, this singular work combines popular topics like behavioral science, health, and medicine through the lens of economic principles and big data insights to reveal the unexpected but predictable events that profoundly affect our health. Relying on ingeniously devised natural experiments\\u2014random events that unknowingly turn us into experimental subjects\\u2014Jena and Worsham do more than offer readers colorful stories. They help us see the way our health is shaped by forces invisible to the untrained eye. Is there ever a good time to have a heart attack? Do you choose the veteran doctor or the rookie?\\u202fDo you really need the surgery your doctor recommends? These questions are rife with significance and their impact can be life changing.\\xa0RANDOM ACTS OF MEDICINE\\xa0will not only help readers gain a better understanding of how medicine is practiced or what motivates human behavior; it will empower them to see past the white coat and find out what really makes medicine work\\u2014and how it could work better.

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