January 2010
53 posts
“In early January a friend mentioned that his New Year’s resolution was to beat...”
– Begley, “The Depressing News About Antidepressants” (via newsweek)
And again, please read The Truth About Drug Companies
Drug companies understand that most drugs help 1/3 of people, don’t do anything for 1/3 of people, and harm 1/3 of people. But the cost and time required to get FDA...
Whole Foods Puts Its Mouth Where the Money Is →
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who recently published a controversial op-ed on health care, announced that the company will soon offer higher store discounts for healthier employees. The company will consider blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking status, and body mass index (BMI) in determining the discount level. “Our intention for all of these lifestyle programs is that they are empowering and fun...
New patients--- Are you prepared for your visit? ...
hjluks:
Physicians are under pressure to see patients in a timely, effective, and efficient manner. Take a little time, organize your thoughts, come prepared and your visit could be much more productive.
What to bring:
Pad and pen… you will likely receive recommendations and many patients forget them as soon as they leave the office.
A list of your medical problems
A list of your...
Doc Who Tied Vaccine to Autism Ruled Unethical →
This is very good news. The doctor who scammed the world and the celebrities into thinking there was some connection between vaccines and autism has finally been punished. Rational scientists all over the world are now waiting to see if he’s kicked out of the rational circle and losing his license.
Women, the best freaking firewall in the world! →
franklieu:
One human cell contains 75MB genetic information. One sperm contains a half of that; that is 37.5MB. One ml of semen contains 100 million sperms. In average, ejaculation lasts for 5 sec and contains 2.25 ml semen. This means that the throughput of a man’s member is equal to (37.5MB x 100,000,000 x 2.25)/5 = 1 687 500 000 000 000 byte/second = 1,6875 Тerabyte/sec This means that the...
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Watchtopherchris:
Lawrence Lessig outlines why money + politics ≠ democracy for his Change Congress group back in 2008. After searching for news and opinions in the wake of the Citizens United v. FEC decision, I’ve found that this speaks to me more than anything else. (I love Lessig’s presentation style, so I’m already predisposed to like this.)
Like I’ve said in the past, Lessig is one of my...
Its not the size of your market, its what you do...
brycedotvc:
One of the most pedestrain of questions that arise in many VC meetings is that of market size. How big is your market? Really. I’ve found that should this question arise more than once over a series of meetings, you’re better off looking elsewhere for funding than the blue shirt and khaki MBA staring at you pointedly from across the table.
If history is a guide you will not be able...
TicketMaster And LiveNation Get Approval As One... →
Excellent. Our music experience made even better. I’ve recently been paying more in fees than ticket prices.
“We’ve been taught that our government, ostensibly a representative democracy, is effectively neither. We’re powerless. We’ve had the civic engagement beaten out of us. Friedman’s assumption that we think our job is done is condescending and incorrect. We’ve been shown by all three...
The xx - Hot Like Fire
snippets from this...
“The best way to counter the Tea Party movement, which is all about stopping...”
– More (Steve) Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs - NYTimes.com (via fred-wilson)
UK Launches Open Data Site; Puts Data.gov to Shame →
A new website dedicated to making non-personal data held by the UK government available for software developers has launched today with the help of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Data.gov.uk is being slammed with traffic but 6 months after the US government opened its Data.gov site the UK site already has more than 3 times as much data as the US site offers today. The...
“The rate of health cost growth in the United States has been reduced almost by...”
– Health Affairs: An Inconvenient Truth— The Health Care Cost Curve Is Already Bent by Jeff Goldsmith
“I am hopeful that some Republican senators will be willing to discuss a revised...”
– Barney Frank
Barney…I’m sorry but it’s time to start solving problems for ourselves. All I ask is that you work toward lifting the insane restrictions that have been legislated by the insurance industry and enacted by you and your colleagues as federal and state law that sustain...
Why Tumblr Is Kicking Posterous's Ass →
How come Posterous is eating dust from a small startup started by a high school dropout?
The answer is as easy as it is counter-intuitive: Tumblr is a New York company and Posterous is a Silicon Valley company.
Or, to put it another way: Posterous is an engineered product, while Tumblr is a designed product.
Watchsoupsoup:
Must see: Jon Stewart rips Democrats for mismanaging the Massachusetts special election and health care reform.
Making Health Care Better →
This is the fundamental problem of healthcare in America. And this is the reason why top down regulation won’t work. Regulation will work with assembly lines where every car is the same with no variability. It won’t work when the widget is a unique person with unique health problems in their own unique life situation treated by a revolving door of unique doctors. I urge you to read the...
Senate election in Massachusetts could be... →
More Americans are opposing reform.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 44 percent of Americans support the proposed changes in the health-care system being debated in Congress, while 51 percent oppose them. Opposition is more intense than support, with 39 percent saying they strongly oppose the legislation and 22 percent saying they strongly favor it. Fifty-three percent said the...
WatchGermans surf: from my recent trip to Munich.
“To put yourself forward as someone good enough to do interesting things is, by...”
– A Rant About Women « Clay Shirky
The FDA approved 26 drugs in 2009. →
I always ask people how many drugs the FDA approves in a given year. Most people guess in the hundreds. In fact, it’s normally 18-26. Out of these new drugs, about 75% of them are me-too drugs. Me-too drugs are marketing gimmicks— minor variations of drugs already on the market that can be re-branded and sold to the public as the next greatest thing. Most of the top selling drugs on...
What will happen when "health reform" goes into... →
via Vijay Goel, MD:
If “Health Reform” as presently constructed gets passed, what happens? Would love to hear what you think. Here are my predictions:
The actual calculation of “Cadillac” plans will create a new audit function that will increase the cost of all plans
Community Rating approaches will dramatically drive up premiums in individual-rated states. This will force non-sick people to...
“The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport,...”
–
Mikey Hicks, 8, Can’t Get Off U.S. Terror Watch List
And there are those that want the government to be the “single payer” for healthcare. If they can’t manage a list of 15,000 people, I don’t think they’ll even come close to managing 300 million people’s...
Doctors Without Borders on Tumblr →
staff:
Doctors Without Borders is doing an extraordinary amount in Haiti. Please support their efforts and donate anything you can.
“Detroit is particularly well suited to become a pioneer in urban agriculture at...”
– What Should We Do With a Semi-Abandoned U.S. City? » INFRASTRUCTURIST
Hantz Farms will use a trellised system that’s compact, highly efficient, and tourist-friendly. It won’t be like apple picking in Massachusetts, and that’s the point. Score wants visitors to Hantz Farms to see that...
NYC taxis vs. Healthcare
I’m riding home from a very nice evening out with friends and my cabbie is taking the longest route possible back to my apartment. It just made me think that he probably thinks I’m ignorant of the most efficient route home. He’s making money off my ignorance. It’s the same situation in healthcare. If you knew the proper issues and how much you should pay for them, you wouldn’t be spending way more...
David Simon talks 'Treme' at the National Press... →
claytoncubitt:
“If you look at everything from the way Road Home money was administered to the way FEMA behaved - not just in the immediate aftermath but in the months and years since - and now in terms of the state and local government and what they’re doing in terms of everything from zoning issues to the hospitals - that city’s enduring and trying to find its way home on its own and without...
AsthmaMD Helps Asthma Sufferers, Gathers Aggregate... →
Each day 11 people die of asthma in the U.S., and it accounts for one-quarter of all emergency room visits. Since 1980 the asthma death rate overall has increased by 50%.
A new iPhone app called AsthmaMD, which was created by am Pejham (a doctor and researcher) and Salim Madjd, aims to help some of those sufferers. The application let’s them keep a diary of attacks, helping them keep records of...
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Study Shows Health Care Spending Spurs Economic...
submitted by noosphere:
excerpted from North Carolina State U. Newsroom:
As the national discussion of health care focuses on costs, a new study from North Carolina State University shows that it might be more accurate to think of health care spending as an investment that can spur economic growth. The study also shows that government projections of health care costs and financing may be unduly...
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Pitting junk food makers against healthcare giants
submitted by Tyler Willis:
Just watched this video of Pollan on The Daily Show, he made an interesting point that the food industry and the healthcare industry may have competing objectives - good food for thought on how we might be able to pit them against each other to encouarge better health.
However, I think his suggestion of hope may be flawed — the healthcare industry is more likely to...
Health reform could further erode retiree health... →
via health populi:
In the long run, it’s said, nothing is sure but death and taxes. In addition to those, there’s an increasingly sure thing: no retiree health benefits from employers.
Once considered a “throw-away benefit” in the 1940s and 1950s when there were few retirees, retiree health benefits are an endangered species.
In Implications of Health Reform for Retiree...
Doc... "Do I need Surgery ?"
hjluks:
Saw a fairly active middle aged patient this weekend in the office…
Fairly straight forward case, went to push off, felt a pop around the ankle. Looked back to see who shot them (typical story).
Diagnosis… Achilles Tendon rupture.
We discussed the alternatives available…. plenty of research supports both non-operative as well as operative management of these injuries. We used a few...