Those of you who like your reality dressed up as fiction might like this new book, which Greg Pawelski recommends as telling lots of truth about the oncology-industrial complex. It’s called A Test of Survival and the web site is worth exploring at least.
The Supreme Court Challenge Will the Supreme Court overturn the Obama Administration's attempt to reshape the health care industry? THCB's experts address this question and many others around the political fight in Washington over the future of health care. |
Doctor Versus DoctorBy Jim deMaine I felt sad when I went to make rounds in the hospital. One of my patients, a colleague, had been readmitted in poor condition for recurrence of a primary lung sarcoma. I spent a few minutes examining Dennis and chatting. He then, with a quizzical look, said, “Jim, I’m going to have...
What if We Regulated Legal Services Like Health Care?By John R. Graham Well, the future of American health care is now controlled by lawyers. That may not be news – doctors, drug makers, and medical-device makers have long complained about the cost of lawsuits. But this different: The future of PPACA is in the hands of the Supreme Court. Hundreds of lawyers billed...
How Obama Botched and Bungled the Health Reform MessageBy Michael L. Millenson While it’s comforting to just blame the GOP for the unhappiness with health reform threatening the president’s re-election, the truth is that Barack Obama repeatedly botched, bungled and bobbled the health reform message. There were three big mistakes: The Passionless Play While Candidate Obama proclaimed a passionate moral commitment to fix...TEDMED 2012 1,500 delegates from the worlds of technology, medicine and science gathered in Washington DC this month. Our coverage from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. |
Washington Stuck Fighting Wrong Health-Care BattleBy Peter R. Orszag While Washington wonks continue to bicker over health policy, positive change is occurring outside the Beltway. Last week, the Altarum Institute, a research organization based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, reported that the moderation in the growth of health-care costs we have seen over the past few years is continuing: Total health...
Is the Fact that I Am a Woman Considered a Pre-Existing Condition?By Maggie Mahar The male body has long been considered the “standard” for health care coverage. Having a woman’s body is seen as an expensive anomaly, and women pay dearly for being different. When they buy their own health insurance in the individual market, women must lay out an extra $1 billion a year, simply...
Crossing the LineBy James Salwitz, MD Recently a patient with advanced lung cancer was admitted to a local hospital. Pain in his abdomen was diagnosed as a gallbladder infection. Because he had metastatic cancer, in addition to the new problem, the patient and family decided that if things deteriorated he should not be given CPR or put...
Is There a Republican Alternative to ObamaCare?“GOP to the Uninsured: (Feel Free to) Drop Dead.” So reads the title Michael Millenson post at the Health Care Blog yesterday. It gets worse: [N]o Republican presidential candidate has ever presented a serious plan to cover all the uninsured … The difference between Democrats and this generation of Republicans — unfortunately including even the...
A Safety Checklist for PatientsFar too many patients are harmed rather than helped from their interactions with the health care system. While reducing this harm has proven to be devilishly difficult, we have found that checklists help. Checklists help to reduce ambiguity about what to do, to prioritize what is most important, and to clarify the behaviors that are...
Digital DietIt’s been said that losing weight is much harder than kicking cigarettes or alcohol. After all, because one doesn’t need to smoke or drink, the offending substances can simply be kept out of sight (if not out of mind). Dieting, on the other hands, involves changing the way a person does something we all must...
This one also reads like fiction, but sadly is a true story. “108 Days” exposes the harsh and cruel realities that await you once you’re admitted to a hospital. The website is worthy of a visit. http://www.108DAYS.com
I finished reading the novel. It was very much like one book critic described it, “what Tom Clancy did for naval intelligence and submarine design/functionality in ‘The Hunt For Red October,’ she does for cancer research in this book.” Science taking a back seat to public posturing, private bargains, and scandal, set in the cancer industry. I couldn’t put the book down. I had to read it from cover to cover as soon as I could. The characters are fictional, but the science is fact. The only thing it needed (like all novels) was the benefit of either a car chase or a gun fight or preferably both (in order to have a movie made of it). The writer made sure to make it factually supportable, “assays aren’t even complementary medicine much less alternative.