Politics

More on the Oregon case

October 9, 2005

The New New Federalism The Oregon case will be an early test of whether the Roberts Court will continue and extend William Rehnquist’s legacy of restoring meaning and force to the notion that our system of government is one of limited and enumerated powers. For at bottom, the Oregon case turns on whether the Attorney [...]

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Reward or punish success

August 18, 2005

How should we (the government) respond to successful programs? One can easily argue that we should reward success. After all, this is the meritocratic approach. However, this proposal would – by advantaging less successful programs – handicap against success! Guarding the Fight Against AIDS It doesn’t take a degree in public administration to know that [...]

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Frist makes a medically correct decision

July 29, 2005

Senate’s Leader Veers From Bush Over Stem Cells In a break with President Bush, the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, has decided to support a bill to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, a move that could push it closer to passage and force a confrontation with the White House, which is threatening [...]

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A comment on pay for performance

July 19, 2005

Due to the huge amount of spam comments that I receive, I occasionally do not approve a comment. This rarely has anything to do with content, rather browsing through 400 spam comments, I might miss your real comment. This comment is worthy of consideration: Tried to post this to the pay for performance post but [...]

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Frist on DTC TV drug ads

July 2, 2005

Senate Leader Calls for Limits on Drug Ads The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, called yesterday on the pharmaceutical industry to limit drug advertising directed at consumers, increasing the pressure on companies to curb such marketing. Senator Frist, a Tennessee Republican, embraced an increasingly popular idea, a delay in advertising after a drug is introduced. [...]

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Electronic health records and politics

June 16, 2005

Frist, Clinton to introduce healthcare IT bill Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) plan to introduce bipartisan healthcare information technology legislation. The bill aims to harmonize disparate healthcare data standards and remove legal barriers to IT uptake. In a joint statement from Frist and Clinton released last week, the [...]

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The Lancet on professionalism

May 4, 2005

An editorial in the April 30th issue of The Lancet has this quote: … But, sadly, Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat politicians have all failed to address the single most important factor hindering the improvement of health services—the catastrophic collapse in morale among doctors. Doctors at all levels within the NHS are utterly demoralised. They [...]

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I just do not understand

April 18, 2005

Why do we even have an FDA? Why would a Federal Judge overrule their scientific opinion? Will ephedra products return to stores? The judge Thursday ruled in favor of a Utah supplement company that challenged the Food and Drug Administration’s year-old ban. Nutraceutical claimed that ephedra has been safely consumed for hundreds of years. Research [...]

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Schiavo – more from Bioethics

March 21, 2005

Two more thoughtful entries from the Bioethics Discussion Blog – If Schiavo Why Not Jones? (1) What the Congress and presumably the President is forgetting is who is the person who deserves the actions in the best interest. It is not the President, the Congress, the court system, political or religious groups, news media, the [...]

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Canadian drug importation is not the answer

January 19, 2005

For those with a subscription to JAMA – A Perspective on US Drug Reimportation – written by two Canadian physicians. I know the senior author very well, and greatly respect his intellect – especially as pertains to economic issues. Since most do not have access, I will quote several key paragraphs: Arguably, drug reimportation from [...]

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