Here is a blog post I wrote for the Hastings Center, laying out some hopeful thoughts about how we can use Medicaid crises, which are occurring in so many states right now, to figure out how to control health care costs.
Check out my recent webcast interview with Duke University “Office Hours”
Check out my latest podcast, which accompanies a new article I co-authored with Robert Silbergleit. In the article, and in the podcast, I discuss a problem plaguing clinical research: that doctors are sometimes not convinced by previous research, and thus want to see more evidence before changing their practice, but at the same time experts, […]
Take a look at a brief summary of a new paper i just published, led by a wonderful medical student at Michigan, Michael Kozminski. It shows that oncologists seem to place far greater value on quantity of life over quality of life.
I gave a talk Wednesday as part of an ethics series here at Duke. Here is one take on my presentation. See if you can spot the Far Side reference!
In a recent post, I asked for your thoughts on how you would feel if your doctor posted an anti-health reform letter in his waiting room. Link The letter was a direct quote from one posted in Dr. Hal Scherz’s urology clinic in Atlanta. Scherz is president of Docs4PatientCare. For all I know, Scherz is […]
I need to know what you think of the following situation. You walk into your doctor’s office, turn your insurance information into the clerk, take a seat in the waiting room and discover the following letter sitting on the couch-side table, authored by your very own doctor: “Dear Patient: Section 1311 of the new health […]
No sooner had the Obama administration committed a billion dollars to comparative effectiveness research than the critics began laying out their concerns: such research is a prelude to rationing, they said; it threatens to thwart doctors’ and patients’ abilities to make their own decisions. It will transfer too much power to government bureaucrats and treat […]
Eighteen years out of training, and I still find myself struggling to understand the moral imperatives of medical practice. Not long ago, as part of my hospital duties, I cared for a man who could no longer swallow. This dysphagia was his only medical complaint, one that had sneaked up on him over the course […]
With jobs disappearing faster than a major league fastball, the public is understandably irate at the damage that greed has wrought upon our economy. Financiers destroy their companies, and our retirement portfolios, and then complain when their bonuses are less than 7 figures. The greedy behavior in recent headlines has not been limited to Wall […]