Tuesday, December 2, 2003

Managed care just can't manage That Ounce of Prevention Grew Too Big. Primary care, particularly preventive medicine, is becoming untenable in the era of 15-minute office visits. By Sandeep Jauhar, M.d.. [New York Times: Science] 10:13:31 PM    comment []  trackback []

So... Heal Health Care System? Start Anew. Dr. Steffie Woolhandler wants to change the health care system. Soon, and not in the way Congress just did. By Judy Foreman. [New York Times: Science] It's a topic very much on my mind these days, since I've spent a lot of the last 3 months as a patient advocate stewarding my father through the American medical "system." Good hospitals, fine doctors, and yet a system that is madly broken and full of cracks. Just one case in point: 3-5 MDs, 10-15 medications, and guess who gets to be responsible for making sure prescriptions are carried out, problematic interactions are flagged, negative reactions are caught? Family. My dad's lucky enough to have smart and agressive kids, but what if he didn't? There's a world of opportunity here: As just one example, couldn't there be a database system -- at least at the hospital, if not an inter-doctor communicating one -- that could coordinate and track all a patient's meds? And block potentially dangerous drug combinations? 10:12:14 PM    comment []  trackback []

China's emerging environmental consciousness Jared Blumenthal in the Dec 1SF Chronicle (tree pulp only, link not available yet) notes "there is a national goal established to recycle 50 percent of all industrial waste." Some local jurisdictions in the US have comparable goal, but on a national level the US seems to have its head in a dark place. New Zealand is going a step further: zero waste. (The living world. of course, has been zero waste for a few billion years...) 8:09:36 AM    comment []  trackback []