February 2, 2010
This being Groundhog’s day, I thought it might be fun to post a set of issues that seem to come up over and over again – seemingly never to be solved, and often involving the same arguments, if not precise language with each passing year. Sadly, these issues don’t seem to go away with increasing utilization and improvement of technology. Indeed, as the technology gets better, it seems these arguments are heard with increasing frequency. So, over the years I’ve been involved in using data to improve quality, here are some of the issues I’ve heard from clinicians over and over and over.
January 31, 2010
Back in the days when I was on the faculty of medicine, there was a rather pejorative phrase used to describe the practice of authors who would dole out results of a study piecemeal, in “slices” spread out over the largest practicable number of publications, thereby maximizing the number of CV entries per study. It was called “Salami Science.” With Healthcare reform legislation now being described as “on life support,” many folks are wondering what, if anything is going to happen.
July 24, 2009
Not quite two months ago, Atul Guwande published an article in The New Yorker magazine that has already attained something close to the status of legend. Its findings have been cited by President Obama who reportedly made it required reading for his staff. It is cited by congressional leaders and it seems to come up at just about every healthcare conference I’ve attended over the last two months.
June 11, 2009
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. H. L. Mencken As we get closer to healthcare reform
April 30, 2009
In case there were any doubts about the inevitability of substantive healthcare reform, the recent conversion of Senator Arlen Specter (R PA,
April 17, 2009
meaningful –adjective full of meaning, significance, purpose, or value; purposeful; significant: a meaningful wink; a meaningful choice.
