Let's talk about how advances in medicine and squeezed budgets are forcing countries to rethink health care. 

For most of us, hospitals conjure up some very specific images: nurses and doctors running around, fancy machinery beeping away, somebody yelling “STAT!” While hospitals are chaotic places, they are also strangely reassuring. No matter how you are injured or what strange illness you’ve contracted, going to the nearby hospital can make you better. But maybe you don’t need a hospital after all. Did you know:

·        Hospitals are an extremely expensive way to treat people

·        Technology has made many surgeries less invasive, so that we don’t need to spend as much time in a hospital bed

·        Patients in hospitals are often overtreated or required to stay longer than necessary

·        Germany has a higher number of hospital beds than Spain, but the Spanish system is one of the world’s best

·        People with chronic health issues are best treated outside of a hospital setting

·        20% of all health spending is wasted on ineffective care

On this episode of Monster Under the Bed, Tunde Szabo and Dana Burduja from the European Investment Bank’s Life Sciences division talk about how many countries actually need to close hospitals, or at least slim them down, to free up resources for other, more effective forms of care.

At the European Investment Bank, we have all kinds of experts who can challenge the assumptions, notions and prejudices we all have about anything from health care to cybercrime, and from urban planning to education. All throughout the episodes we’ll be tackling those myths and fears to identify people and projects that are taking a more rational approach— which is good for our economy and our society.

Subscribe to Monster Under the Bed! This way you won’t miss any episodes. We’re also very grateful if you rate and review us – that helps others find the podcast. And you can suggest myths to bust and monsters to slay by tagging me @JSiemplenski on Twitter, or @AllarTankler. 

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A myth-busting podcast takes on the environmental impact of your fear of the dark.

Did you want your parents to leave a light on at night when you were little, because you were afraid of the dark? Are you still doing it?

Our fear of the dark (and the scary creatures that lurk in it) is but one of many fears and irrational beliefs that keep us from doing the rational thing. At the European Investment Bank, the EU bank, we have all kinds of experts who can challenge the assumptions, notions and prejudices we all have about anything from climate to cybercrime, and from healthcare to education.

So we started a podcast about these myths. In each episode of the podcast, we fight one imaginary monster under the bed and hopefully win the battle for a more sensible way of doing things. One that costs society less.

In the first episode we address, together with the EIB’s climate change specialist Wouter Meindertsma, the actual monsters – or, to be more specific, our fear of them – and how the light we leave on at night wastes money on electricity and causes unnecessary greenhouse gases.

You might think that the effect is minimal. But is it? In this episode you will find out:

·        The astonishing number of tons of CO2 that is emitted in Europe because of our fear of monsters under the bed

·        How to measure the CO2 emitted by pretty much everything we do, so you understand better whether the emissions are worth it

·        Why people are scared of the dark, and whether they are mostly afraid of monsters or… kidnappers

·        What ‘exposure therapy’ is and how it can help you deal with your fear of the dark.

So instead of milk and cookies, listen to our podcast for a good bedtime story.

So that you don’t miss a future episode, subscribe to Monster Under the Bed!

Let me know if you can think of a monster we should expose on future episodes. Get in touch with me on Twitter @AllarTankler.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.