“The diagnosis is well-established. A cure is within our reach, and the wisest among our practitioners of the healing arts are offering valuable counsel. When the U.S. government and science, in its most principled form, work together, insulated …
Category: Public Health & Policy
It is time for Supreme Court to help stem gun deaths
Every morning when I turn on the local Philadelphia TV news to hear the weather report, I also hear about the shootings that have occurred. This morning I heard that a 66-year-old man was shot while driving past his old high school. A fight had broken …
The blueprint for a Gold Medal Health Care System
An excerpt from Blueprint for a Gold Medal Health Care System. We do not currently have a Gold Medal Health Care System. There may be more than one way to build one, but this book is about my vision of a Gold Medal system, and I will henceforth refer t…
The success of Australian firearms regulation: What it could mean for children
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018 noted the sad milestone that firearms were causing 15% of all deaths in children and adolescents. Somewhat encouraging, a later study showed states with stricter firearm laws correlated with low…
Systemic racism and Indigenous deaths in health care
Ni cta ni akohikon: That hurts me. Carol pe ntamici: Carol, come see me. Ni taci sa micta mackikikatakoiin: They are overdosing me on drugs. Wipatc tca: Do it quickly. Those were the chilling words of Joyce Echaquan, broadcasting live from Facebook on …
This doctor will be running for the legislature in the future
You don’t know who I am yet, but you will in the future. I haven’t decided yet if I will run for the House, Senate, or the U.S. Congress. If you are a health care professional, whether it be a doctor able to change medicine, nurses, respira…
Medical debt is the enemy of everyone
An excerpt from End Medical Debt: Curing America’s $1 Trillion Unpayable Healthcare Debt. Medical debt is the mortal enemy of the patient, the physician, the hospital, the community, the state, and the nation. When we think of others’ debts, we tend to…
To “fix” health care delivery, turn to a value-based health care system
With over two-thirds of the public believing that health care should be a top policy priority, there is no debating the importance of “fixing” our health care delivery system. On one extreme of the aisle, there is a growing chorus in support for “Medic…
HIV/AIDS vaccine underscores need for better health access
“HIV has been a blessing in my life.” Lola was a 48-year-old woman living in Denver when I interviewed her in 2002 about her HIV-positive diagnosis. She said the diagnosis improved her life in important ways; she had received income and hou…
Women are still being “burned at the stake” in medicine
Are you a woman, and your sanity has been questioned? Congratulations: You are now an activist. There is such a thing as implicit bias in which we may not be aware of how our subconscious thoughts are affecting our conscious thoughts, opinions, or acti…
