Nancy Pelosi’s Vision for Health Reform

Great goals, but do they really get at the roots of our problems? The featured highlight address at the opening session of the Families USA Health Action 2008 conference is by Nancy Pelosi, Congress’ first woman Speaker. Speaker Pelosi is clearly a brilliant and warm woman, a friend of Families USA, and she was introduced […]

Health Care Window of Opportunity?

Arkansas senator focuses on pressing issues Along with other familiar voices like Maggie Mahar and Ezra Klein, I’m in DC today writing from the Families USA Health Action 2008 conference. Families USA is a progessive (liberal) consumer advocacy organization dedicated to universal coverage, driven by mobilizing the nation’s passionate citizen advocates. I am here at their […]

Increasing Breastfeeding Rates in the United States

What can be done? The United States Department of Health and Human Services developed specific recommendations for breastfeeding initiation and duration in the United States as part of their Healthy People 2010 national initiative for health promotion and disease prevention. Because the health benefits associated with breastfeeding for both the mother and baby are well […]

Leveraging the Doctor as a Trusted Authority

How the medical community can influence society I was on the phone with my good friend Bill Bestermann MD recently. Dr. B, a preventive cardiologist who is passionate about the underlying mechanics of cardiovascular disease and the horrific toll the American diet and lack of exercise is taking on everyday people, lives in spectacularly beautiful, […]

Doctors and the Death Penalty

The role of physicians in lethal injectionMore than 3,000 U.S. citizens are living on “death row” in prisons, awaiting execution. They have each been there an average of just over 12 years since sentencing. As they languish, legal battles continue over the constitutionality of both the death penalty and the means of execution. And as […]

Stay warm, but stay healthy

As students move indoors this winter, taking health precautions is a good idea As the start of a new semester begins, students across the country will be returning to their college campuses with the winter months upon us. As the students try to keep warm indoors, the breeding and spreading of sickness becomes very real, […]

It Helps to Look Back If You Want To Look Forward

What the “Father of Medical Informatics” said in 1991By Mike Magee, MD It helps to look back if you want to look forward. Why? Well, a look back not only provides a check on current ideas and theories, but as importantly gives some indication of the pace of change. Today’s case in point will be […]

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