Michael Millenson on How To Make Medical Errors Less Profitable.

Michael Millenson’s column in Forbes last week drew attention to the profitability of hospital errors, and attempts to interrupt the perverse cycle. In his words, “…the push for safer care has had much less urgency and been much less far-reaching than it can or should be. Perhaps the latest results of the HHS-hospital partnership herald a new patient safety culture […]

Holiday Greetings: What is Health?

Magee Grandchildren In this country, we continue to struggle in answering the fundamental question “What is health?” A large part of our thought process has involved defining what health is not. It is not the health care system. It is not the reactive elimination of disease. It is not a simple commodity to be weighed against all […]

Dealing with Cholera – Educational Video and WHO Cholera Vaccine Position Paper.

As the recently reported cholera epidemic in Kenya illustrates, this infectious disease remains a killer. The video above, produced in 2006, provides an open source summary of Cholera well worth viewing. The original program (Health Politics) no longer exists. But the transcript of this program can be downloaded HERE. The 2010 WHO position paper on […]

Rooting Out Gun Violence — NEJM

Editorial from The New England Journal of Medicine — Rooting Out Gun Violence Source: Rooting Out Gun Violence — NEJM

The Man-made Opioid Epidemic: Part 5 – Quality Control of AMA Federation Societies.

CDC: Rx Drug Overdoses Mike Magee “Since the desire of man to alter his state of consciousness is as old as human history, and technology continues to provide a breathtaking array of drugs capable of producing everything from oblivion to nirvana, I think it safe to assume that we may never win a ‘war’ against […]

The Man-made Opioid Epidemic: Part 4 – The Linchpin.

Bronze Linchpin,Zhou Dynasty, China Mike Magee In the first three segments of this 5-part series, The Man-Made Opioid Epidemic, I have defined the crisis, the shared responsibility, and the growth of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) as a counter-balance to pharmaceutical data mining and marketing, which have been a shared venture of pharmaceutical and medical […]