Ain’t Nobody’s Fault But Mine

The politics of rhetoric Over the past few months as campaigns have saturated the media, it’s occurred to me that the rhetoric of politics – whether from the halls of Congress or from candidates from whatever hue or political persuasion — has taken on a new tone. There’s a pervasive sense of assigning blame for […]

Consumer Technology

Insourcing and outsourcing at the speed of lightIn the home consumer electronics business, progress is moving at the speed of light. Take digital cameras for instance. In 2006, only 20 percent had resolutions of 7 megapixils or more. By 2007, 70 percent of the cameras performed at this level, and that occurred without price increases. During that […]

Candidates Should Read Dr. David Reuben’s Article

Better care for older persons means better care for all of us Dr. David Reuben from UCLA penned an article in JAMA in December, 2007 that all Presidential candidates should read. In two concise pages he shares six principles that he sees as essential in providing "optimal health care delivery for older persons with chronic disease." […]

An Alternative Plan

Some closing thoughts about Families USA Health Action 2008 A wonderful meeting (Full disclosure: They brought me in to blog my impressions.), The Families USA conference that ended Saturday brought together some impressive Congressional politicians – Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, Ken Salazar, Blanche Lincoln – and true health care experts – Don Berwick, Tony Fauci […]

Berwick on Everything Health Care

Can we manage the health of populations while improving the experience for individuals? One of the pleasures of the Families USA Health Action conference was that the speakers represented a nice blend of top politicians and genuine health care experts. Tony Fauci MD, the wonderful head of NIH’s National Institutes for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, […]

Tom Daschle on Reform

Former U.S. Senate leader is well aware of the health care challenges aheadFormer Senator and Majority/Minority Leader Daschle gave the opening address on the 2nd day of the Families USA Health Action conference. Mr. Daschle has a new book coming out in March on America’s health system and our past efforts to fix it. I […]

Patient Safety and the Purse Strings

Will medical errors stop because hospitals (and doctors) don’t get paid? The State of Pennsylvania just announced that it would no longer make Medicaid payments to hospitals for serious, preventable medical errors, following the path laid out by the Federal government’s Medicare no-pay policy announced last August. Of course, both programs mean they will no […]

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