How AI could revolutionise NHS healthcare

In the run up to the Imperial-LSE symposium on Generative AI and The Knowledge Economy, Miqdad Asaria argues that AI could lead to a paradigm-shift in healthcare systems likes the NHS. AI could help personalise medical treatments, enhance research and development of new drugs and help with the administrative burden currently undermining the productivity and efficiency of healthcare providers

Peran Motivasi Terhadap Keterlibatan Karyawan

This study aims to determine the significance of the influence of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation on employee engagement. This study uses sampling techniques with purposive sampling method, where the determination of sampling based on the criteria and the desired amount. The sample studied as many as 110 respondents. The stages of testing in this study are instrument test, model test, and hypothesis test using SPSS 25 Software. Based on the results of research shows intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation have a significant positive effect on employee engagement. With the motivation of the employees and the support of the company makes employees always involved in the work that can benefit the company. Keywords: Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, Employee Engagement

Working with dogs in India is the only way to tackle one of the most fatal diseases in the world

To mark the 17th World Rabies Day on September 28th, the authors discuss their research findings and explore the implications of strategies aimed at eliminating this life-threatening disease in India

The impact of management on hospital performance

There is a prevailing popular belief that expenditure on management by health-care providers is wasteful, diverts resources from patient care, and distracts medical and nursing staff from getting on with their jobs. There is little existing evidence to support either this narrative or counter-claims. We explore the relationship between management and public sector hospital performance using a fixed effects empirical econometric specification on a panel data set consisting of all 129 non-specialist acute National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in England for the financial years 2012/13 to 2018/19. Measures of managerial input and quality of management practice are constructed from NHS Electronic Staff Records and NHS Staff Survey data. Hospital accounts and Hospital Episode Statistics data are used to construct five measures of financial performance and of timely and high-quality care. We find no evidence of association either between quantity of management and management quality or directly between quantity of management and any of our measures of hospital performance. However, there is some evidence that higher-quality management is associated with better performance. NHS managers have limited discretion in performing their managerial functions, being tightly circumscribed by official guidance, targets, and other factors outside their control. Given these constraints, our findings are unsurprising

Myopic self-interest restricts access to COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19 vaccination presents a picture of inequality: about 51% of the world’s vaccines are in the hands of 14% of the global population. Between and within countries, the distribution of vaccines has reflected existing racial and socioeconomic hierarchies rather than allocations that would maximise collective social welfare. Many countries see this as a contest. As a result, ‘winners’ order many more vaccines than they need, leading to reduced supplies and higher prices for everyone else. Miqdad Asaria and Joan Costa-Font explain why this doesn’t make sense from a health security point of view and is likely to backfire economically

Smartphone Applications and Website Software Available for Pre-Operative Virtual Rhinoplasty Planning

Background: There are emerging virtual simulation technologies that allow facial plastic surgeons to accurately and objectively show patients how they may appear following rhinoplasty surgery. There is no collective understanding of which virtual rhinoplasty preoperative planning software exist and their associated features. Aim: This article will synthesise information on smartphone and web-based resources for virtual rhinoplasty planning to provide facial plastic surgeons with an up-to-date understanding of the available technologies. Methods: This was a cross-sectional website and smartphone application software review. The Apple App Store and the Google Play were searched for smartphone applications and the Google search engine was searched for website software. Results: Five websites and six smartphone applications met inclusion criteria. Software features included self-directed simulation, in-app purchases, multiple languages, three-dimensional facial rendering and patient-specific perioperative planning. Conclusion: Many smartphone and website based software exist for surgeons to plan their patients’ rhinoplasties. Further data is needed to understand how facial plastic surgeons and patients perceive this software

The costs of inequality: whole-population modelling study of lifetime inpatient hospital costs in the English National Health Service by level of neighbourhood deprivation : Whole-population modelling study of lifetime inpatient hospital costs in the English National Health Service by level of neighbourhood deprivation

BACKGROUND: There are substantial socioeconomic inequalities in both life expectancy and healthcare use in England. In this study, we describe how these two sets of inequalities interact by estimating the social gradient in hospital costs across the life course. METHODS: Hospital episode statistics, population and index of multiple deprivation data were combined at lower-layer super output area level to estimate inpatient hospital costs for 2011/2012 by age, sex and deprivation quintile. Survival curves were estimated for each of the deprivation groups and used to estimate expected annual costs and cumulative lifetime costs. RESULTS: A steep social gradient was observed in overall inpatient hospital admissions, with rates ranging from 31 298/100 000 population in the most affluent fifth of areas to 43 385 in the most deprived fifth. This gradient was steeper for emergency than for elective admissions. The total cost associated with this inequality in 2011/2012 was £4.8 billion. A social gradient was also observed in the modelled lifetime costs where the lower life expectancy was not sufficient to outweigh the higher average costs in the more deprived populations. Lifetime costs for women were 14% greater than for men, due to higher costs in the reproductive years and greater life expectancy. CONCLUSIONS: Socioeconomic inequalities result in increased morbidity and decreased life expectancy. Interventions to reduce inequality and improve health in more deprived neighbourhoods have the potential to save money for health systems not only within years but across peoples' entire lifetimes, despite increased costs due to longer life expectancies

COVID-19 has made us more averse to both income and health inequalities

Evidence from Italy, Germany, and the UK shows high levels of inequality aversion – a dislike for inequality and a preference for fairness – in both income and health, explain Miqdad Asaria, Joan Costa-Font, and Frank Cowell (LSE). In the UK in particular they find that people are more inequality averse, especially to health, but that the effect is stronger among those not directly affected by the pandemic

Erring on the side of rare events? A behavioural explanation for COVID-19 vaccine regulatory misalignment.

The development of new vaccines against COVID-19 has triggered a debate about which of the vaccines should be chosen, and in some countries which vaccines to authorise. The choice of vaccines in Western countries seems to be largely driven by trust in the vaccine manufacturers, with safety concerns regarding potential rare side effects rather than relative efficacy playing the pivotal role in this choice [1]. So far, vaccines developed by China, Russia and India have largely been ignored in Western countries. Amongst the vaccine candidates currently in use in many western countries, access to the AstraZeneca (AZ) and Johnson & Johnson’s (JJ) vaccine has been restricted and, in some cases, suspended as they hav been perceived to be the least safe despite being approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) [2] and recommended by the WHO [3]. We argue that regulatory vaccine misalignment can be explained by an ‘erring on the side of rare events’ phenomena. That is, when rare events are heavily publicised, regulators tend to favour a precautionary approach, even when the fatalities from vaccine side effects are only 10% as likely to occur as the risks arising from COVID-19 infection [3]. Furthermore, we argue that such decisions have detrimental consequences for vaccine trust and the success phenomena logically follow not just from the overestimation of the risk of such events, but also from a combination of ambiguity aversion, joint risk, and benefit formation. All of which add to a background of limited trust in government decisions with regards to vaccines, which weaken the vaccination rollout. This note will provide a discussion of these arguments. The next section argues that vaccine regulation follows a clear regulatory misalignment resulting from some countries ‘erring on the side of rare events. We examine the erosion of public trust, followed by a discussion on different behavioural explanations for the ‘erring on the side of rare events’ phenomena. Finally, we conclude with suggestions for a way forward