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“The Difficult Science”: series by Kent Bottles

Kent Bottles MD is one of the best healthcare thinkers I’ve met. Yesterday he completed a two-part tour de force on The Health Care blog titled “The Difficult Science.” Here are part 1 and part 2. This is about “how do we know what we think we...

“A lot of shackling lives in language”

What do we (patients) call ourselves? This is a deep subject that’s been debated a lot. (If I were Susannah Fox I’d toss in a dozen worthy links here:), but I’m short on time. Please add some in comments.) There is indeed power in the words we use,...

Cancer 2.0

Given the evidence that people are ready, willing, and able to engage in online discussions about cancer prevention and treatment, what steps are being taken to ensure that the U.S. (and the world) does not miss this latest opportunity for education and discovery? The...

Going Viral Against HIV and STIs

The New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute, in partnership with AIDS.gov, held a one-day forum on social media, HIV, and sexually transmitted infections (STI) that turned out to be an unfiltered discussion of love, truth, and technology. Why was it so...

“Consent to Hoard” and other news from #IHI

I’m at the annual IHI Forum in Orlando, in an all-day workshop (class photo at left) titled “Whose Care Is It, Anyway … and Can Health IT Help?” Laura Adams of the Rhode Island Quality Institute was just talking about the social obstacles to...

Fools! Damn fools! And Medical Science. (Right, Santa??)

(To help you visualize the scene, see the famous Coca-Cola Santa image. Now imagine Peter Frishauf asking Santa for that train set!) Dear Santa, I always believed in you Santa. All those kids who said it wasn’t true, you weren’t real, well guess what: I knew you were....

President’s Cancer Panel: Input, Please

What evidence would you bring to convince cancer researchers and policy makers to pay attention to how the internet is changing health and health care? That’s my challenge for the Dec. 14 meeting of the President’s Cancer Panel, “The Future of Cancer...

Avoiding harm in the hospital

I spoke recently at a summit organized by Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project, and learned in detail about the persistence and prevalence of hospital-acquired infections and other safety risks. Hospitals are not as safe as they should and could be, and...

Engage With Grace Over Thanksgiving

Can you and your loved ones answer 5 questions about the end of life?  Alex Drane, founder of Engage With Grace, explains why Thanksgiving is a good time to talk about these issues: If you have thoughts to share about Engage With Grace, end-of-life decisions, or...

Connected Health: Patient networks panel

My research findings and their connection with real-life health care were given new life when I discussed them with Lisa Gualtieri, Josh Bernoff, Tim Edgar, and the audience at the Connected Health symposium. If you’re intrigued, watch a video of the panel and...

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