Since Ancient Greece, a guiding principle of Western medicine has been paternalism the idea that doctors have intrinsically superior insights, patients should defer to their edicts, and this asymmetry is a desirable state of affairs. In the 20th century, new medical knowledge and technologies...

The FDA s system for regulating medical devices has been criticized for retarding innovation because it adds uncertainty and costs to the invention process and delays the approval of devices. Because this system was created 40 years ago, it does not reflect societal changes in information...

The Healthcare Openness and Access Project (HOAP) is a collection of state-by-state comparative data on the flexibility and discretion US patients and providers have in managing health care. HOAP combines these data to produce 38 indicators of openness and accessibility. In turn, these...