How to Obtain Health Care Without Insurance

For the 50 million people without insurance in the United States, this blog is for you. How do you obtain health care if you have no insuran...

What the Demise of California Health Care Reform Teaches Us

Yesterday the California Senate Health Committee killed California’s vigorous foray into health care reform, by a 7 to 1 vote, with 3 abste...

Physician Incentives, Generic Medications, and Ethics

A recent Wall Street Journal shows how hard it is to get incentives right. Blue Care Network, an HMO owned by BCBS of Michigan, paid primar...

Murder and Medical School

I've never had an ethics consultation like the one that could have come from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm: "We just found out ...

Transparency, Pharma Ethics, and the Blogosphere

“Transparency” is arguably the key political concept for the early 21st century. But I often feel that the term is used as a PC slogan, with...

Harvard Medical School Embraces the 21st Century

In the movie Casablanca, just before accepting a bribe from the croupier at Rick’s casino, Captain Renault (Claude Rains) says, “I'm sho...

Five Things you need to ask yourself about Health Care Reforms

Since 2008 is an election year, there will be much attention on domestic issues and the elephant in the room is health care reform. This hea...

Civil Disobedience in the British National Health Service

This week the UK government considered ruling that GPs in the National Health Service will no longer be allowed to provide treatment to asyl...

Access to Experimental Drugs - the Supreme Court Gets it Right

Today’s Los Angeles Times reports that the Supreme Court has turned down an appeal that claimed a right for dying patients to have access t...

Genes, Organizational Ethics, and Calling

Many people – myself included - see health care as a calling. But as I asked a few months ago - where does the calling come from? For those...

Transplant Ethics in China

An article in today's China Daily describes China's effort to clean up its act with regard to transplantaion ethics. China has been...

Former Governor's Death With Dignity Initiative

Booth Gardner, former Washington State Governor is campaigning to have physician-assisted suicide legalized in Washington State. Since the N...

Suicide, Malpractice, and Clinical Ethics

Ruth Farrell, a 41 year old librarian in Westport, Connecticut, was admitted to Silver Hill Hospital in mid January, 2002. On January 28, 20...

Taking Action for Good Prescribing Ethics

Ethical analysis is only worthwhile if it ultimately leads to action. This is a fan letter about two terrific projects that translate ethica...

The Ethics of the Hospital Safety Net (2)

The U.S. hospital safety net is under siege. Today’s New York Times reports on yet another safety net hospital - Grady Memorial Hospital in...

Good Politics but Bad Ethics in New Hampshire

On December 20, 2007, in California, 17 year old Nataline Sarkisyan died of leukemia and liver failure. On January 6, in New Hampshire, Nata...

Amazon.com and Organizational Trust

In yesterday’s New York Times , Joe Nocera reports how Amazon rescued his Christmas. The story has lessons for health care organizational et...

Trust (and lack thereof) in Health Organizations

Without trust, the patient-clinician relationship goes nowhere. Trust encourages us to adhere to the recommendations we receive. And, as the...

The Cost to Die; An Insiders View on Terminally ill Patients and Advanced Directives

February 2, 2008, is the one-year anniversary of my brother’s death, due to the collapse of his pulmonary function following complications f...

Guinea-Pig Ethics

Carl Elliott’s excellent article on “Guinea-Pigging” in the forthcoming January 7 New Yorker (only the abstract is available on-line) educa...

Outpatient Psychiatric Commitment

President Harry Truman only wanted advice from one-armed economists, to avoid being told “one the one hand…but on the other hand…” I have tr...

AIDS, Global Health Priorities, and Ethics

How could it possibly be ethical to recommend spending less money on AIDS in Africa and other underdeveloped areas? In today’s New York Time...