Saturday, August 30, 2003

Molly Ivins, amended and expurgated.

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If you get your Molly Ivins fix by visiting the Startlegram's website, as I do, you might want to rethink that strategy. They edit out ...
Thursday, August 28, 2003

Court-ordered treatment for patient in persistent vegetative state.

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Terry Schiavo has been in a "persistent vegetative state" for 13 years (I think the American Academy of Neurology would call this ...
Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Comparing prescription drugs.

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The New York Times editorializes today that pharmaceutical manufacturers should not be allowed to bring a new drug to market unless it can...
Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Texas and uninsured children.

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In yesterday's Fort-Worth Star-Telegram writer Mitch Mitchell provided excellent coverage of the SCHIP scandal in Texas. We are second...

Medicare reform bill.

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The Kaiser Family Foundation picked up a report (requires paid subscription) from today's Wall Street Journal that Sen. Grassley (Rep...
Sunday, August 24, 2003

Dallas Morning News blogatorial page.

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Congrats and a high-five to the editorial board of the Dallas Morning News for letting it all hang out on their new DMN daily , a blog-like...

Conjoined twins.

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Two brothers from Egypt who are joined at the tops of the their heads (a condition known as "craniopagus") are scheduled to be sep...
Saturday, August 23, 2003

Health care industry's federal fines at record pace.

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According to a Wall Street Journal article reprinted in today's St. Lous Post-Dispatch , "[i]n the last three fiscal years, the g...

Medicare HMOs under the spotlight in South Florida.

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South Florida, one of the last places where managed care organizations can make a pretty healthy profit in the Medicare+Choice program, and ...
Friday, August 22, 2003

Non-heartbeating [organ] donors.

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Canada is now engaged in a very healthy debate over whether to initiate protocols to harvest organs from non-heartbeating donors (NHBD), acc...
Thursday, August 21, 2003

Medicare prescription drug benefit.

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As noted repeatedly in this space, Congress is currently fighting over the details of a projected $400-billion-Medicare-prescription-drug-be...

Medicare to Pay for Major Lung Operation.

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The Medicare program has approved a controversial procedure (discussed here earlier this week) that offers significant relief from symptom...

International notes from all over.

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France. In addition to Germany , whose health care reform plans were mentioned here last month, France's Jacques Chirac has acknowled...
Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Pediatric drug testing.

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This is a good Associated Press article that reports the unsurprising news that the FDA believes pediatric drug testing has made drugs safe...
Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Organ transplant shortage.

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This is the public-health version of the saying "no good deed goes unpunished." Fewer young people's organs are available for...
Monday, August 18, 2003

JCAHO.

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It's a rare day when JCAHO revokes a fully accredited hospital's accreditation. I have found only one so far, but I've only che...

Patient Privacy Rules Bring Wide Confusion.

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HIPAAmen .

Antitrust claims of medical residents.

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I've always thought that the medical residents' antitrust challenge to the National Resident Matching Program -- in which hospitals...
Sunday, August 17, 2003

Rationing health care.

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Two articles in today's New York Times raise provocative questions of health-care rationing and justice. One story is about Zell Krav...
Saturday, August 16, 2003

Cryonics.

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So: Alcor, the cryonics firm that has Ted Williams' body frozen in Scottsdale, now admits that they mistakenly decapitate the Splendid S...