Addressing threats to health care's core values, especially those stemming from concentration and abuse of power - and now larger threats to the democracy needed to advance health and welfare. Advocating for accountability, integrity, transparency, honesty and ethics in leadership and governance of health care.
Introduction - the New York Times Notes Trump's History of Impunity In today's New York Times, and article entitled "New Trump Charges Highlight Long-Running Questions About Obstruction" touched on former President Donald Trump's long history of gamesmanship on his part with prosecutors, regulators and others who have the ability to impose penalties on his conduct.in the context of the recent
Influence of Hostile Foreign PowersThink about the implications of having hostile, authoritarian foreign powers trying to disrupt democracy by means overt and covert. Think about the accumulating evidence that this has been and is happening.Also, see our discussion last month about the importance of this topic.Trump/Russia Alignment[No collusion? - How many who helped Trump will turn out to
Influence of Hostile Foreign PowersWe have previously posted lots of words about the anechoic effect: the lack of echoes produced by seemingly important stories about health care dysfunction. It seemed as if such stories were taboo, presumably because even discussing them was seen as a threat to the rich and powerful who increasingly run health care. Those involved in the leadership
Influence of Hostile Foreign PowersReminders of how the US home-grown anti-democratic movement has been egged on by hostile foreign powers, chiefly Russia:- How tied to Russia much of the far-right in the US now are: "the most energetic Kremlin propagandist around today" tells Tucker Carlson "We'll happily offer you a job if you wish to carry on as a presenter and host!"https://
Introduction: Propaganda and Disinformation in Health Care and Elsewhere We used to write about propaganda and disinformation used to promote health care goods and services (stealth marketing campaigns), and advocate for policies favorable to private health care organizations (stealth health policy advocacy and stealth lobbying). Some stealth marketing, lobbying and policy
Influence of hostile foreign powers[Like the late 1930s or peak of the cold war] Russian spy network operating in North Sea- spy ships disguised as fishing vessels to monitor potential sabotage targets[Feels so much like the 1930s or depths of the cold war] Russian ‘ghost ships’ mapping wind farms [near the UK] in sabotage plotRussian propaganda, disinformation, and related active
We started Health Care Renewal in 2004 to address the worsening dysfunction in health care, primarily in the US. We were aboutAddressing threats to health care's core values, especially those stemming from concentration and abuse of power. Advocating for accountability, integrity, transparency, honesty and ethics in leadership and governance of health care.But starting in 2015,
RIP, April 10, 2023
Impunity: an Introduction We believe that unaccountable leadership is a major cause of health care dysfunction. Impunity is an extreme form of unaccountable leadership. We have noted that despite numerous legal settlements made by health care organizations of allegations like fraud, bribery, and kickbacks, almost never do top leaders who presided over these actions face any
Introduction: Health Care Corporations' Political Contributions: From Bipartisan to Trumpian At one time, leadership of large health corporations were circumspect in their financial support for US politicians and political causes. They provided some funds directly to politicians and political organizations, but often amounts given to different parties and organizations with different
To encourage wider dissemination, we're pleased to provide here an author-abridged and -authorized version of a recent number of the Stethoscope on Rome blog by Susan Levenstein, MD. A long time resident of and practicing internist in Rome, she has been interviewed in many countries both in the US and in Europe. She here dissects the latest news, as of four days ago, on the Covid-19
[Below is the text of a letter to the editor I wrote to the Providence Journal about one state legislator who praised the "joyful" resistance of health care professionals to vaccination. It was published today, December 4, 2021, but appears to be unavailable on the internet. I believe that it applies to many other similarly irresponsible, reckless political leaders throughout the US.]Dear
We Health Care Renewal (http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com) bloggers once again apologize for our chronic lack of posting on the blog. However, we remain perplexed about what contribution to make on now an old-school, long-form web-based publication. Our oft-stated, somewhat nuanced concerns about aspects of health care dysfunction (see: What the US "Health Care Reform" Debate
I have not written much at this site, or any site, in recent years due to being kept busy supporting litigation regarding bad healthcare information technology as an expert witness.A recent letter, however, so caught my eye regarding both current events and my past writing about bad health IT, that I decided to write about it.It is perhaps a poignant reminder of the craziness of the times in
Introduction: Health Care Corporations' Political Contributions: From Bipartisan to Trumpian At one time, leadership of large health corporations were circumspect in their financial support for US politicians and political causes. They provided some funds directly to politicians and political organizations, but often amounts given to different parties and organizations with different
In my previous posts, I haven't talked too much about the price set for aducanumab. Since I think it should not have been approved on current evidence regardless of price, the approval has been my focus. But of course the price is an issue, especially given that there is a HUGE pool of potential patients and that most are probably Medicare age, meaning that this drug can have huge impacts on
To recap: the FDA recently (and foolishly) approved Biogen's monoclonal antibody aducanumab as a treatment for Alzheimer's. It did this on the basis of a surrogate endpoint, amyloid plaque reduction, even though, in NUMEROUS trials, that has not been associated with clinical improvement. The company is claiming that there IS clinical improvement based on high-dose patients in one of two clinical
At one time, leadership of large health corporations were circumspect in their financial support for US politicians and political causes. They provided some funds directly to politicians and poltical organizations, but often amounts given to different parties and organizations with different ideologies were balanced. Presumably, the goal was to promote access to whomever was in power at any
So how did a drug with such dubious benefit get approved? At best, another clinical trial might be warranted, but certainly not approval. It's a result of a huge campaign by a company (Biogen) that would not accept the failure of its drug and of pressure from patient organizations like the Alzheimer's Association (which receives major money from pharma, including Biogen and its Japanese partner,
Almost twenty years ago, I was a volunteer nursing-home ombudsman. The doctor at the nursing home I visited was a huge proponent of preventive therapies, and prescribed as many preventive drugs as possible for residents (while frequently ignoring complaints about current medical problems that were bothering them). Among the drugs he very freely prescribed were cholinesterase inhibitors for
This week, reports appeared that former US President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization of which he is the principal owner, and other people connected to the Trump Organization are the subjects of a special grand jury investigation going on in New York City. As the Washington Post reported, Manhattan's district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether
Health Care Renewal presents a guest post by Dr. Gene Dorio. Dr Dorio is a geriatric physician from the Santa Clarita Valley in California, providing house calls to older adults. He has been an advocate and whistleblower for his community leading several causes from attempting to preserve the hospital Transitional Care Unit for seniors in 2006, to today trying to allow
Are there no foes for me to face?Must I not stem the flood?Verse 3, Isaac Watts (1674-1748),"Am I Not a Soldier of the Cross?"IntroductionIn what follows I expand on our ongoing series—most recently appearing here—on the crisis of fair and accurate information in science and medicine. I divide this meditation into four sections—"meditation" used to excuse a certain amount of meandering,
Some recent but not well publicized articles suggests how big health care corporations are still enabling some of the worst aspects of health care and larger political economic dysfunction.Introduction - Health Care Corporate Political Donations Become More Partisan and IdeologicalA long time ago in a galaxy far, far away big health care corporations in the US had an apparently
The coronavirus pandemic in the US seems past its third peak, but daily case rates have now plateaued at a level similar to the last peak. While hospitals and health care professionals are not totally overwhelmed, they are working extremely hard and continuing to burn out. People are still getting sick, some seriously, chronically, or fatally. With the continuing rapid spread of the