New tech in university healthcare systems brings secret costs for patients
New machinery and medications are crucial to meeting healthcare demands. But should the burden of cost be on the consumer? (pixpoetry/Unsplash/)Michael Williams is an associate professor of surgery and director of the UVA Center for Health Policy at the University of Virginia. This story originally featured on The Conversation.$2.4 million. $1.5 million. $2.28 million. These are the amounts of money the health system where I work, teach, and get medical attention spent purchasing a PET scanner, a CT scanner, and a three-month supply of pembrolizumab, a drug that treats a variety of solid-organ cancers.To meet the clinical (read “market”) demands of patients, who are typically disinclined to wait for diagnosis or treatment, UVA Health already owns seven CT scanners (that I know of) and three PET scanners, which are used to detect small deposits of known cancer. It also has enough “Pembro” to treat all patients who will or might...