Author's posts
Break the rules of health care with technology
In the 21st century, all but one U.S. industry has used information technology (IT) to cut costs, increase access to products and services, and improve quality. Health care is the lone exception. For decades, medical costs have risen faster than inflat…
Endemic COVID-19 will be a cause for celebration
There was a time, not long ago, when COVID-19 was one of the scariest things on earth. In the summer of 2020, scientists were stunned as infections climbed and deaths spiked. They couldn’t say (exactly) how the virus spread, how deadly it was or how to…
The troubling similarities between primary care physicians and MLB relief pitchers
When I was young, my father told me that baseball is a metaphor for life. As a lifelong fan, I’ve found professional inspiration and valuable lessons in this game, time after time after time. This year was no different. Throughout the 2021 MLB playoffs…
5 technologies that will transform medicine post-COVID
When medical historians write about the coronavirus pandemic, they’ll likely focus on the slow U.S. response and failures of leadership that led to a tragically high death toll. But that will be only part of the story. From the wreckage and devastation…
If businesses can mandate vaccines, they should mandate affordable health care, too
Earlier this year, Houston Methodist gave its 26,000 hospital employees an ultimatum: Get vaccinated or get a new job. It was one of the nation’s first vaccine mandates. And it was a big, multilayered risk: with legal, financial and ethical consequence…
Doctors and the 5 stages of grief
Thanks to the marvels of medicine, newly vaccinated Americans are returning to life as normal and partying like it’s 2019. Doctors, who are emerging from the pandemic as national heroes, would like to turn back the clock even further—to the halcyon day…
Doctors can’t cope with the anguish of COVID-19 casualties
In the “before times,” most Americans went about their lives relatively unpreoccupied with death. In fact, one CBS News poll found only 14 percent of Americans spent “a lot of time” thinking about their own mortality. What a difference a pandemic makes…
COVID-19 and The Queen’s Gambit: What will be the pandemic’s endgame?
The Queen’s Gambit, a seven-part Netflix series, has been the darling of streaming television during the coronavirus pandemic. Seen by more than 60 million people, the story chronicles the life of fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon, who grows up in a …
COVID-19 will kill 500,000 Americans. Here’s why.
Among the questions I’m asked most often as host of the podcast Coronavirus: The Truth are: “How have other nations effectively contained the pandemic?” and “Why can’t the United States copy their success?” For months, health experts have answered thes…
How the health care system fails to match its hype
No player received as much media-generated attention heading into Super Bowl LIV as Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. All eyes were on him and, when it mattered most, the young signal-caller came through, bringing his team back from a 10-…
