Fight Health Worries|Healthy Living Techniques

When we began Health Care Renewal in late 2004, we focused on “concentration and abuse of power” as a driver of dysfunction in the health system.  We have frequently discussed how problems with the leaders of health care organizations, who may be uninformed, incompetent, self-interested, conflicted, or even corrupt, may be a major cause of rising costs, declining access, and poor quality.  This week, the news reminded us how unsustainable US health care costs have become.  The average cost of health care insurance for those fortunate enough to have it provided by employers exceeded $15,000 last year (look here), a year in which median house-hold income fell under $50,000 (look here).  Yet there is no evidence that the country with the world’s most expensive health care has anything approaching the world’s best health care. 

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I first became dimly aware of how dysfunctional health care had become in the US after seeing, up close and personal, a case of attempted suppression of medical research because its content offended vested interests.  (See ”Academic Freedom and the Corporate University” by Jennifer Washburn here.)  We have since blogged frequently about suppression of research, other threats to free speech and academic freedom in health care, and the larger anechoic effect, which undermines discussion of many of the threats to core values in health care.

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The world of electronic medical records is very secretive.

Vendors will not allow their programs or data structures to be examined, even by the academic community. Their products, medical devices, are not vetted by regulatory agencies such as the FDA for quality.

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The world of electronic medical records is very secretive.

Vendors will not allow their programs or data structures to be examined, even by the academic community. Their products, medical devices, are not vetted by regulatory agencies such as the FDA for quality.

Read the rest of this entry »

The bureaucrats always seem to find new ways to waste precious medical resources and capital to justify their existence.

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It was just a short article in Bloomberg about yet another misstep by Johnson and Johnson….
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As former Director of Scientific Information Resources for Merck Research Labs a decade ago, I emphasized the importance of new investment in informatics tools and databases to promote new drug discovery.

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Perhaps New Zealand professor Shaun Goldfinch’s article “Pessimism, Computer Failure, and Information Systems Development in the Public Sector” should be required reading in their neighboring continent due northwest:

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The recent in-depth investigation by Fortune reporters of 10 years of dysfunctional leadership at Pfizer, the “world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company,” raises many issues about leadership and governance in health care (see our post here).  We then discussed lack of transparency in Pfizer’s communication about management performance here, and how bad management was rewarded with outsize compensation here.  To continue what has become a lengthy series, let us now discuss the board of directors who were responsible for “stewardship” or governance of what turned out to be a very troubled company.

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In an article in the Bradenton Herald, Bradenton, FL, I found the following passage I bolded below truly striking:

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