Fads in medical care management and policy

The author has a longstanding concern about the gaps between fact and fiction in the depiction of public problems, policy remedies and managerial techniques. He explores the cycle whereby a trendy idea is over-enthusiastically promoted and then dropped for a new idea when it fails to live up to expectations, a cycle sometimes called ‘the persistent pursuit of panaceas'.

He also comments on the broad subject of fads themselves and highlights particularly the spread of ideas from business schools and management consulting to the world of medicine.