Dear clients and friends: Given your interest in health and medicine, we would like to share with you our collection of the most interesting perspectives on our industry's trends and developments. We are happy to share them with you — and hope you share your thoughts with us.

1. 23 and Not Me

The cancer vaccine revolution is upon us! Personalized medicine is coming for you! AI is going to help treat, well, everything! 

And, meanwhile… public trust in science is in “continued decline.” What gives? The Editorial Board at Bloomberg points its finger at bad incentives, fraudulent researchers, and impotent government oversight: 

Fudging the numbers to engineer standout results has become disturbingly easy. One survey of research psychologists found that 64% had engaged in questionable practices once or twice, including omitting or falsifying data; more than a quarter admitted to doing so occasionally; and 10% frequently. Social scientists are hardly alone; the biomedical and physical sciences have blemished records, too. Publications, meanwhile, can take years to retract papers — if they do so at all. 

2. Dr. Walmart Retires

Walmart is shutting the doors on its health centers. After 30 years of some trial and more error, Fortune examines why the retail supergiant’s healthcare dreams are being discharged: 

 Karissa Price, Walmart Health’s former VP of marketing, told Fortune that it quickly became clear in some Walmart Health communities that there weren’t enough prospective patients who would want to pay in cash, which she says was supposed to be the backbone of how Walmart differentiated its model: charge low prices in cash to those without quality health insurance and eventually make up the difference in volume.

3. All in Your Head?

The Economist collects a growing body of research that suggests mental health problems have biological origins. By looking at the biology in the body, researchers may find better ways to diagnosis and treat: 

Evidence is accumulating that an array of infections can, in some cases, trigger conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, tics, anxiety, depression and even psychosis. And infections are one small piece of the puzzle. It is increasingly clear that inflammatory disorders and metabolic conditions can also have sizeable effects on mental health, though psychiatrists rarely look for them. All this is symptomatic of large problems in psychiatry.   

If this research continues to develop, the longstanding gap between psychiatry and neurology will close. 

4. Too Much of a Good Thing?

Youth mental health is so in. A quick search on Google Trends shows a steady increase in conversations over the past five years. But some experts think schools may be overdoing it, as highlighted in The New York Times: 

Mental health awareness campaigns, they argue, help some young people identify disorders that badly need treatment — but they have a negative effect on others, leading them to over-interpret their symptoms and see themselves as more troubled than they are…Researchers in the study speculated that the training programs “bring awareness to upsetting thoughts,” encouraging students to sit with darker feelings, but without providing solutions, especially for societal problems like racism or poverty. They also found that the students didn’t enjoy the sessions and didn’t practice at home. 

5. Does Medicine Work?

Reader discretion advised: internet rabbit hole ahead.

Economics professor Robin Hanson and psychiatrist Scott Alexander have brought blog warfare to a new stratosphere. Hanson, writing on his Substack, Overcoming Bias, argues that academic literature on medical outcomes “often shows huge biases” and can rarely be replicated.

Scott Alexander, writing on his blog, can’t resist taking the bait:

I’ve spent fifteen years not responding to this argument, because I worry it would be harsh and annoying to use my platform to beat up on one contrarian who nobody else listens to. But I recently learned Bryan Caplan [another economics professor] also takes this seriously. Beating up on two contrarians who nobody else listens to is a great use of a platform!

So I want to argue:

Medicine obviously has to work.

Examined more closely, the three experiments Robin cites don’t really support his thesis.

There are other experiments which provide clearer evidence that medicine works.

Multiple back-and-forth blogs follow. The result is the rare debate that dodges the usual internet problem of screaming past each other. Rabbit hole notwithstanding, it’s worth reading.