Sc.D versus Ph.D Degree

Posted on March 15, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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In the United States, the difference between a Ph.D and a Sc.D is that the former is awarded to most, if not all, disciplines, while a Sc.D is awarded to science or STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) disciplines.

This means that, in the United States at least, a Ph.D and a Sc.D are equal to one another in terms of telling people about an individual’s mastery of a particular skill, training, and prestige. A Ph.D holder and a Sc.D holder are viewed as peers and equals by most, if not all, American universities.

Meanwhile in Europe, according to Emily Summer, the difference between a Ph.D and a Sc.D is that the former is awarded at the start of an academic career, while the Sc.D is awarded much later, after the individual has built up an impressive body of work.

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SURVEILLANCE: Pricing and Gouging

Posted on March 15, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

DEFINITION

By Staff Reporters and FTC

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Surveillance pricing is a broad term to describe the practice of linking pricing to individualized consumer data.

Companies employing it might use algorithms, personal information, and AI to set a price for their goods based on everything from where you live to your age to your browsing or credit history. The practice, sometimes called dynamic pricing or personalized pricing, is growing increasingly common, but isn’t completely new.

In 2012, the travel website Orbitz began directing people on Macs to higher hotels after realizing they often had more purchasing power. It stopped the practice after the Wall Street Journal reported on it.

Is surveillance pricing the same thing as surge pricing? Yes and no.

You might know about surge pricing from the last time you tried to call an Uber during a rainstorm. As demand skyrockets for a ride share, so does the price. This is one kind of surveillance pricing, but what the FTC is targeting appears more specific. The FTC said its probe concerns “when the pricing is based on surveillance of an individual’s personal characteristics and behavior.”

Is surveillance pricing bad?

The FTC opened its probe into companies using surveillance pricing because it’s worried about the risks it might pose to consumers

“Firms that harvest Americans’ personal data can put people’s privacy at risk. Now firms could be exploiting this vast trove of personal information to charge people higher prices,” FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in a statement. “Americans deserve to know whether businesses are using detailed consumer data to deploy surveillance pricing, and the FTC’s inquiry will shed light on this shadowy ecosystem of pricing middlemen.”

The FTC is looking into four major areas of the practice: types of products being offered, data collection, customer and sales information, and impacts on consumers and prices.

Many Americans, it fears, don’t know when their data is being harvested and how it is affecting what they pay. “Consumers may now be subjected to surveillance pricing when they shop for anything, big or small, online or in person: a house, a car, even their weekly groceries,” the FTC said.

The FTC sent the orders for more information to Accenture, Bloomreach, Chase, Mastercard, McKinsey & Co., Pros, Revionics, and Task.

“Advancements in machine learning make it cheaper for these systems to collect and process large volumes of personal data, which can open the door for price changes based on information like your precise location, your shopping habits, or your web browsing history,” the FTC wrote.

FTC: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/features/surveillance-pricing

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MEDICAL LABORATORY RESULTS: Direct Patient Access?

Posted on March 15, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

PROS and CONS

BY DR. DAVID EDWARD MARCINKO MBA MEd CMP®

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§ DIRECT PATIENT ACCESS TO LABORATORY RESULTS

According to Patricia Salber MD [personal communication], there are a number of reasons why direct patient access to laboratory medical results is a good idea:

  • Between 8 and 26% of abnormal test results, including those suspicious for cancer, are not followed up in a timely manner.  Direct access could help reduce the number of times this occurs
  • Self-management, particularly of chronic illness has known benefits.  Just like the QS people, many folks with chronic illness obtain and manage to self-acquired lab results every day via gluco-meters, home pulmonary function tests, blood pressure measurements, and so forth.  Direct access to laboratory-acquired data, one could argue is a continuation of that personal responsibility
  • Patients want to be notified about their results in what they perceive as a timely fashion.  In one study, patients who received direct notification of their bone density tests results were more likely to perceive they had timely notification compared to usual care even though there was no measurable effect on actual treatment received after three months
  • Being more responsible for test results could encourage consumers to try to learn more about the meaning of the test results, conceivably increasing their health literacy. 

But, the arguments against direct access discussed include the following:

  • Patients prefer their physicians contact them directly when they have abnormal test results, although the major studies published in 2005 and 2009, preceded the extraordinary use of the internet to access health information that exists today.
  • There is concern over whether patients will know what to do when they receive the results – will they make erroneous interpretations or fail to contact their docs?  This could be, but the intent of the proposed rule is shared access to the results.  We suspect if the rule become law, docs will develop better notification mechanisms so that they reach the patient before the patient directly accesses the results or lab companies will design better lab test notifications with easy-to-understand interpretations or a whole new industry will appear that can provide instantly available individualized lab interpretation…or maybe all three of these would happen and that would be a very good thing.
  • Unknown impact of dual notification (doctors and patients) of lab test results on physician behavior…would docs simply shift responsibility for initiating follow-up care from themselves to their patients?
  • Would direct access of life-changing lab tests, such as HIV or malignancy, lead to unnecessary patient anxiety – or worse?  (Conversely, is there less anxiety, desperation, or suicidal ideation if the bad news is delivered face to face? 
  • Individuals likely may contact their physicians immediately after getting the lab results asking for a telephonic or face-to-face interpretation … it is not known how this would impact physician workload and/or potential for reimbursement [personal communication, Richard Hudson DO, Atlanta, GA].

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DAILY UPDATE: Bayer Executive Arson, Pi Day, Ides of March as Stock Markets Lift Off!

Posted on March 15, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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At least eight agencies are investigating a recent fire at a Bayer executive’s New Jersey home as a possible arson, authorities said. The fire happened around 7:30 a.m. March 4th “at an occupied residence on East Lane in Madison,” the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office told CNN yesterday.

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US stocks bounced back sharply on Friday to cap a volatile week on Wall Street as the risk of a government shutdown eased while investors stayed on watch for the next move in an escalating trade war. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) climbed more than 2.1% after the benchmark index sank on Thursday to close in correction territory. The NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) jumped over 2.6% as tech stocks soared. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) moved up more than 600 points, or 1.6%.

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Yesterday March 14th was Pi Day! (Yes, the mathematical constant, although we fully support celebrating with actual pie.) Put simply, Pi—aka π—is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It also sneaks its way into medicine. For one, it’s part of Poiseuille’s Law, an equation that helps explain how fluid flows through tubes, including arteries and IV lines. So, whether you’re crunching numbers or crunching on a slice, Pi is definitely worth celebrating

And, today is the Ides of March!

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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