Over the years, media advocacy groups and news outlets have jotted off letters to the Supreme Court pleading for a basic form of access their counterparts in other democracies already have: cameras in the country’s highest courtroom. The response has always been the same, but with varying explanations. Cameras would be too obtrusive. The wires and equipment would get in everyone’s way. Filming the court would turn it into a circus. The whole demeanor of the place would change. Justice David Souter summed up all of this with a jurist’s eloquence: “I can tell you the day you see a ... Read More
A Legacy of 9/11: Years of Increased Illness
September 9, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
To most Americans, the 9/11 terrorist attacks were shocking, frightening, enraging. Newly published research suggests they were also, quite literally, sickening. Two University of California, Irvine, researchers report the tragedy triggered a large and lingering rise in self-reported health problems, as well as visits to medical professionals, across the nation. Among a nationally representative sample of about 2,000 American adults, reports of physical ailments increased 18 percent over the three years following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. This story originally posted on July ... Read More
Holes in the Medical Safety Net
July 17, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Cynder Sinclair, chief executive officer of the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics in Southern California, wants to keep her doors open for the poor and sick, but it’s getting harder by the day. On top of their normal caseloads, Sinclair’s four clinics are seeing 400 new patients per month, a record. No one is ever turned away, regardless of his or her ability to pay. Yet this month, state Gov. Jerry Brown signed a budget that cuts funding for Medicaid — a federally funded, state-administered program for the poor that goes by the name Medi-Cal in California — by $2 billion. The cuts ... Read More
Can Privacy, Electronic Medical Records Coexist?
June 15, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The stimulus bill passed in 2009 set aside $27 billion to encourage doctors to migrate their illegible handwriting and paper charts into the electronic medical records that policymakers and politicians have for years been saying could revolutionize medical care (and the amount of money it costs us). That windfall, now fueling a booming health IT industry, was intended to address another goal outlined in the stimulus bill: Every American should have an electronic health record by 2014. The promise is enormous. Patients could take control of copies of their own personal health histories. ... Read More
Obesity — Not Aging — Balloons Health Care Costs
June 7, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
"I guess I don't so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old." — Peter Gabriel Our rising life expectancy has been nice for those who like being alive, but it seems a bummer for society as a whole. Even if Social Security doesn’t go bust as baby boomers slowly saunter into the sunset, their massive Medicare costs seem likely to crush the economy. Not surprisingly, further major gains in longevity, which researchers on aging have recently achieved with drugs in animals, is about the last thing deficit-obsessed policymakers want to see happen. Accordingly, less than 0.5 percent of ... Read More
An Etiquette Book for Patients and Caregivers
March 6, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
As far as my chemo nurse Olga* is concerned, I can do nothing right. She scolded me for sending an e-mail when she thought I should have called, and vice versa. She scolded me for going home before my next appointment was scheduled. She scolded me for asking to speak to her personally instead of whichever nurse was available. She scolded me for calling my oncologist directly. She scolded me for asking whether my clinical information and questions are shared between my oncologist and the staff of the chemo suite. I could go on … “Funny,” I think to myself. “If she had told me the ... Read More
Staunching Aggression From the Womb
March 4, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Crime and delinquency have roots in the womb, and so the risks can and should be addressed early on, even before a child is born, a University of Pennsylvania researcher says. According to a large body of research, the early risk factors that may predispose a child to violence include teen pregnancy, birth complications, lead exposure, head injury, child abuse, and maternal stress and depression. Jianghong Liu, an assistant professor at Penn’s School of Nursing and School of Medicine, argues that these factors, whether biological, psychological or environmental, can interact with each ... Read More
Comparative Effectiveness Research Cornered by Foes
February 11, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
That's how much the 2009 stimulus bill — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — devoted to this type of research, which aims to produce better information about the costs and benefits of alternative treatment options. It differs from clinical trials that compare new drugs to placebos and treatments to control groups. It instead compares multiple treatments, evaluating both effectiveness and cost. When done well, it can both improve treatment and save money. But that may not be enough. Although reliance on comparative effectiveness research seems eminently reasonable, opposition ... Read More
