Twelve People, Three Hours, A $207 Million Medical Malpractice Verdict
What the record in the largest malpractice verdict in Pennsylvania history actually shows
Dr. Anish Koka's Newsletter
Medicine, Cardiology and health policy
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The Bridge to Nowhere: Medicare's GLP-1 Program Was a Rout, Not a Negotiation
Like many physicians, I was excited to hear about the Medicare Bridge program from the Trump administration that promised to get cheaper GLP-1s to the Medicare population.
Scientifically Elegant Placebos
Eteplirsen, Elevidys, and now deramiocel — a pattern at the FDA
The Zero-Sum Trap: Why Medicare Will Never Pay Physicians Fairly
The Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) was established by legislation passed in 1989 and went into effect in 1992.
Little League Nation
That’s my son batting in the picture.
"We Cannot Afford to Miss a Superiority Outcome"
How a securities lawsuit uncovered data manipulation at the heart of an FDA drug approval — and what happened to the regulator who acted on it
Fire the Regulator. Approve the Drug.
The FDA fired its acting drug chief after she blocked approval of an immune-suppressing drug for children.
They Were Fixing the FDA. Then They Were Pushed Out.
On January 12, 2026, the FDA approved Zycubo — copper histidinate — for Menkes disease.
Pennsylvania Had a Functioning Medical Malpractice Market. Then It Didn't.
What eighteen years of NAIC financials reveal about a reform regime that worked, and the judicial order that ended it.
Follow up to MIS-C post: Response from a Pediatric Immunologist
A follow up FAQ
Did MIS-C Ever Really Exist?
How a clinical syndrome with no specific test became a generation-defining pediatric emergency, and then quietly vanished
When the Data Doesn't Hold Up: Inside Replimune's Second FDA Rejection
A small biotech, an oncolytic virus, and a four-year regulatory story that's now ending in a media campaign instead of a randomized trial.
The Economists Who Saw Medicare Coming
What Buchanan, Tullock, and Hayek understood in 1962 that we're still pretending not to understand in 2026
America Has Solved the Hardest Healthcare Access Problem Better Than Anyone Else — Here’s the Data
A bivariate analysis of 84,000 census tracts reveals that only 2% of Americans live beyond guideline-recommended access to emergency cardiac care.
Quantifying the Rural Access Problem: Emergency Cardiac Care as a Window into American Healthcare
I was listening to a conversation between two critical thinkers I respect greatly: geneticist/technologist/blogger Razib Khan and Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle.
What VESALIUS Really Tells Us About the New Lipid Guidelines
Andreas Vesalius, the 16th century Flemish anatomist, founded modern medicine on a simple but radical principle: look carefully at what is actually in front of you, not what received authority tells you should be there.
The Price of Progress
Bennie Solis was three years old when he changed medicine forever.
How Vinay Prasad Came to Washington — And Why It Was Always Going to End This Way
From UCSF outsider to CBER director: ten months of raising the evidentiary bar, and the forces that brought it to an end.
Paid in Full, Evidence Pending: The Coronary CT Plaque Volume Story
How plaque quantification technology collected federal reimbursement before anyone proved it changes patient outcomes
Why CT-FFR Doesn't Work — And Why Its Reference Standard Is Suspect Too
When you build a derivative test on top of a shaky reference standard, the errors compound.