The Industry of Illness It is a reality of our time that the same companies promoting health care products are also largely responsible for underwriting their research. Skepticism about this model of business has led to pharmacoeconomic studies of the popular antidepressants, which demonstrate a clear association between study sponsorship and quantitative outcome (Baker etRead… Read more »
Spending More, Getting Less — The Public System Because of their identity as government programs, societal scepticism about the US government’s ability to manage efficiently, and the relative reduction of power and status allotted to the primary recipients of public health care (the poor and elderly), Medicare and Medicaid are often the target of spendingRead… Read more »
As I write this, the Obama Administration is still pushing for a major overhaul to the American health care system — a plan with with an uncertain future since the Democrats lost their Senate vote last month. As a Canadian who lived and worked in the United States for a number of years, I considerRead… Read more »
With so many people I know fighting the flu and our concerns about the H1N1 epidemic, I have been thinking about the Global Public Health Intelligence Network, GIPHIN, the Canadian’s based public health early warning systems, and the role it played during the SARS scare. I first heard about GPHIN back in late 2005 andRead… Read more »
Alright the truth squad is in the house. I am the president’s biggest fan so let’s be clear about that. But, I am starting to see a pattern in the president’s administration that I find disturbing. The pattern? Everytime one of the president’s proposals or issues get challenged by the right, his advisors trot himRead… Read more »
The Crib Note Cram on Health care Reform In our current world, political realities require a simple, 3-second sound bite solution for even the most complex problems. I consistently talk of the need for an 8th Grade solution to a graduate school problem if a solution is to be politically viable. If it were notRead… Read more »
The Open Source community has a history of using the FOIA version of the VHA’s VistA/CPRS and making it accessible for use outside the VHA. The open source, Liberty Medical Software Foundation has now started an organization proposing collaboration with the VHA for further development and innovation of the VHA’s system. In this time ofRead… Read more »
I just saw the new on Microsoft’s new “pricing plan” for its “free” online version of office. While working my way through grad school doing consulting for a medium sized business, I see once again the “incompatibility creep” being introduced in the new version of office. Since the company uses Open Office – I wonderRead… Read more »
From October 27th through November 3rd, 2008, over 3,000 interested citizens from across the United States and 80 foreign countries participated in a National Dialogue on Health IT and Privacy, hosted by the National Academy of Public Administration. Dialogue participants came together in this online forum to tackle the question: How should we expand theRead… Read more »
How should we expand the use of information technology and protect personal privacy to improve health care? Next week, Americans will elect a new president. This is your chance to send a strong message to the next Administration about what our health IT and privacy policies should look like. The National Academy of Public Administration,Read… Read more »