Episode #114 High Truths on Drugs and Addiction with Dr. Jason Doctor on Death Diary Research

Death Diaries is what I call the  research I did with Dr. Jason Doctor. We reviewed data on every single person who died of an unintentional medical overdose and compared the drugs on autopsy to what was prescribed to the person. This list of medications were diaries that lead to death.  The research changed my life as a doctor and how I prescribe medications. Dr. Jason Doctor is an Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Faculty at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California. His research program centers on decision-making in healthcare. Dr. Doctor specializes in applying behavioral economic methods within health and medicine and current leads a multi-site federally-funded multi-site cluster randomized clinical trial that evaluates behavioral economic approaches to improve physician adherence to comparatively effective treatments.  In other federally-funded research, Dr. Doctor has developed Bayesian decision algorithms to identify errors in blood panels to improve patient diagnosis. He also maintains a research program in understanding preferences for health from a behavioral economic perspective. He has extended the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) preference model to accommodate preference for helping others in medical need (social preferences) and has developed mathematical representations in QALY calculations that accommodate cognitive limitations people have in abiding by rational principles in decision making. JAMA Letter: Effect of Prescriber Notification of Patient's Fatal Overdose on Opioid Prescribing