This episode was adapted from a column written by Austin Frakt and Jon Skinner. The original article can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/upshot/medical-mystery-why-is-back-surgery-so-popular-in-casper-wyo.html. You might think that once drugs, devices and medical procedures are shown to be effective, they quickly become available. You might also think that those shown not to work as well as alternatives are immediately discarded. Reasonable assumptions both, but you'd be wrong. That's the topic of this week's Healthcare Triage. John Green -- Executive Producer Stan Muller -- Director, Producer Aaron Carroll -- Writer Mark Olsen – Graphics Meredith Danko – Social Media http://www.twitter.com/aaronecarroll http://www.twitter.com/crashcoursestan http://www.twitter.com/johngreen http://www.twitter.com/olsenvideo http://twitter.com/br8ybrunch And the housekeeping: 1) You can support Healthcare Triage on Patreon: http://vid.io/xqXr Every little bit helps make the show better! 2) Check out our Facebook page: http://goo.gl/LnOq5z 3) We still have merchandise available at http://www.hctmerch.com