The Future of Medicine: Do Pre-med Students Have a Clue?
At this writing, I am in Atlanta visiting our daughter at Emory University. This may be the only college campus in the nation where you can’t buy Pepsi. Coke is…
How to Be a Responsible Hospital Administrator
This is an issue really close to home for two reasons. First, this facility is truly in my neighborhood and second because I did some work for this agency in…
Advocating for Patients at ASCO, The “World Series” of Cancer
I am off to Chicago to mingle with 30,000+ people from around the world whose passion is curing cancer and helping people who are living with it. In years past…
Rationing the Doctor’s Time
In the early 1990s, prior to Medicaid and SCHIP expansions, physicians spent about the same number of minutes with both Medicaid and privately insured patients. By the year 2000, physicians…
How to Use Genomics to Treat Lung Cancer
Drug companies can use genomics to create targeted drugs like imatinib (Gleevec) and trastuzumab (Herceptin.) Physicians can then use the results of genomic studies to guide prescribing. As discussed in…
Irrational Attitudes Toward Risk
When is the last time you heard anyone suggest that the climbing of Mt. Everest should be banned? Never? Yet: When is the last time you heard anyone suggest that…
Don’t Kick a Unicorn When it’s Down
There has been a significant outcry against the proposed ACO regs: everything's wrong and nothing's right about them, or so some would have us believe. There has been a significant…
Top Quotes of the Week
“Working for rich people to make them richer isn’t all that fulfilling.” David Gilboa, the co-founder of the New York-based startup eyewear companyWarby Parker, describing why he walked away from a lucrative…
The Challenges of Health Care Cost Control
A MedPage Today post by what appears to be an informed consumer (and not a health care professional) provides a little peek into the factors that affect health care quality…
Cleveland Clinic CEO Recommends Changes to Current ACO Rules
In addition to the Cleveland Clinic, several other hospitals and chains have sent their concerns and suggestion to CMS. The Cleveland Clinic specifically saw conflicts that would ultimately put barriers…
