On February 29th, 2020 Italy had 655 confirmed cases of COVID-19 while New York did not yet have a confirmed case. However, by March 17th New York had hit the 1000 case mark, with a total of 1,706 cases. Quickly after that date the rate of residents infected with COVID-19 in New York State sharply […]
As of February 29, 2020 Italy had reached 1,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. At this time Japan had 241 cases and the United States had 68 cases. As of March 27, 2020 all three countries were substantially above the 1,000 case mark. In fact, the United States has since overtaken the world for the most […]
As of March 20th, Washington, New York, and California had a total of 11,011 combined confirmed cases, comprising 58% of all known confirmed cases in the U.S. (N= 19,069).The first known case of COVID-19 in Washington state, and in the U.S., was confirmed on January 21, 2020. By February 1st, California had recorded their first […]
An article was recently published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) describing the association between income and life expectancy in the United States between 2001 and 2014. The article highlights major differences in life expectancy by income group and that these differences increased from 2001 to 2014. The figure below, an adaptation of […]
A colonoscopy is a procedure that uses a colonoscope, a thin, flexible tube, to inspect the inner lining of your rectum and colon for ulcers, polyps, tumors, inflammation or bleeding. While the procedure itself is fairly standard, the cost for the procedure is not. The figure below highlights the differences in the cost of a […]
The 2015 women’s world cup just ended and the U.S. came out on top. However, when we look at the social progress of the same countries that competed in this year’s world cup, Norway wins out as the most socially progressive nation. The two teams that competed in the final this year, Japan and the U.S., […]
Yesterday, for the first time, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released data on prescription claims under Medicare part D at the provider-level. This means you can now see the number and cost of drugs prescribed by each individual health care provider (e.g. physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner). Over the course of […]
The first data viz below shows the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with any cancer among blacks and whites in the U.S. by sex. White males have the highest lifetime risk (44.3%), while black women have the lowest risk (36.4%). Black men have the same risk as white women (42.0%). It is important to note that these […]
An article published in the New England Journal of Medicine and discussed on Vox, showed that the incidence of thyroid cancer in South Korea has skyrocketed in recent years while mortality from the cancer has remained relatively stable. The figure below shows the relationship between incidence and mortality from thyroid cancer for high-income countries in 2012. While […]
A recent article published in the American Journal of Infection Control found that only 53.9% of nursing home staff in three states (Florida, Georgia and Wisconsin) had been vaccinated against the flu during the 2011-2012 flu season. Low vaccination rates among nursing home staff are of public health concern as they may put many nursing home residents […]