June 21, 2007
Newsmakers
EVALUATING EVALUATIONS — UW psychology professor Anthony Greenwald was quoted extensively in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article about student evaluations of university instructors. The story followed the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science. “At best, student ratings provide a weak measure of instructional quality,” Greenwald said. “They’re heavily influenced by grades, and they’re also influenced by class size. Greenwald had presented research findings indicating that most of the variance in student evaluations related to differences in the student’ grades — the more rigorous the grading, the lower the scores. He also said the UW has improved the way it collects and uses student evaluations, and urged other institutions to make similar changes.
UNDERSTANDING APPETITES — A recent Time Magazine story titled “The Science of Appetite” on the human circuitry of eating and satiety quoted David Cummings, UW associate professor of medicine. Researchers are studying the human brain to better understand how and where appetite is perceived and satisfied, the article stated, and pinpointing the receptors related to hunger. It’s part of understanding “how we were booby-trapped for overeating from the start” and how that connection can be broken. “The scourge of body-weight disregulation has become a leading cause of death worldwide,” Cummings said. “Understanding it is perhaps the most compelling agenda in the field of medical research.”
A TECH BREAK — A recent Los Angeles Times article about technology-dependent people taking a break from their devices when on vacation quoted David Levy, a professor in the Information School and director of the UW’s Center for Information and the Qualify of Life. There are ways, the article suggested, of “loosen the tether of communications” for a few days of silence, but it’s good to let colleagues know in advance. “We’re all part of a larger social network,” Levy said. “You have to let people know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, so friends don’t think you’re shunning them. Or, in the case of work, that you’ve suddenly become irresponsible.”
CHEMO CRACKDOWN — The New York Times recently ran a story about whether some physicians responded to a Medicare crackdown on drugs administered in their offices (as opposed to in hospitals) by performing additional treatments to bring up revenues — regardless of whether the treatments benefit patients — rather than spending the time interacting with the patients. Cancer patients and their families play a role in the rising costs, too, because they typically want doctors to exhaust every possible treatment. Oncologists make money administering chemotherapy, the article stated, and some can be reluctant to tell patients when chemotherapy is no longer effective. The article quoted Dr. Richard Deyo, UW professor of medicine and an expert on health care spending, who works at Harborview Medical Center. “There’s pretty good evidence at this point that there are plenty of patients for whom there’s little hope, who are terminally ill, whom chemotherapy is not going to help, who get chemotherapy,” Deyo said.
