The uselessness of current hospital rankings

Personalized Hospital Ratings — Transparency for the Internet Age

Eric Topol said in a tweet: It's high time to transcend hospital ratings and move to indvidualized ratings of hospitals. He refers to an NEJM article that supports personalized hospital ratings like the Rand ones.

As currently constructed, the weighting systems that underlie overall hospital performance ratings are expressions of the values, preferences, and tastes of their creators. Why not ask patients what’s important to them instead?

It makes sense.

PS. FT life of a song

The paucity of public information about medical devices

The need for transparency of clinical evidence for medical devices in Europe

Last year EU approved a new law for assessing safety and efficacy of medical devices. Unfortunately, it comes late and it is not enough to solve current situation of lack of information on evidence. An article in Lancet explains precisely what should be done to increase the transparency of information on medical devices.All the details in this list:

 A small task force of regulators and invited stakeholders has recommended what information should be included in the summaries of safety and clinical performance and which components of the Eudamed database need to be open to public access. Those recommendations are now under revision. The European Commission has been delegated authority to translate them into further legislation, but it has indicated that it does not consider that to be a priority. Any member of the public or any organisation with an interest in these issues should therefore make representations now to the European Commission. The medical device regulations will take effect from 2020.

The time is now.