Given its noticeable abundance, it is likely that even individuals who are barely sensate realize that quite a bit of BS exists in this world, even in health care. Fortunately, Lawton Burns and Mark Pauly from the Department of Health Care Management at The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania have arrived on the scene with a timely remedy in the form of a detection tool to offset a variety of preposterous claims that clutter up the landscape. Their position is buttressed by a belief that in the past several months, they have observed several notable signs of deceptive, misleading, unsubstantiated, and foolish statements that they call “BS” in the health care industry (e.g., fraudulently marketed products, ridiculous assertions of ways to reduce health care costs by huge percentages, and purported wonders that are supposed to occur as a result of business mergers).
A starting point is to ask the question, why does this kind of behavior occur? While flat-out dishonesty for short term financial gains is an obvious answer, a more common explanation is the need to say something positive when there is nothing positive to say. The two researchers present their Top 10 BS candidates, in both pictures and words. Each picture is presented untitled and without text, thereby inviting readers to discern what the BS message is and engage them in the BS detection process. Then, they offer an explanation of what the picture conveys, which aims at helping readers to become more skilled “BS Hunters.” They also note that they reserve the option to expound further since there is a likelihood of the danger of wading into even more BS in the future. (Link to special report)
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