We are 2 months into the outbreak with H1N1 (swine) influenza, a variant not previously identified in humans. However, data suggest it was circulating unnoticed in pigs for years. It has two characteristics of concern: it spreads from person to person a bit more readily than older flu strains, and it seems to keep on…

Atul Gawande wrote a 2004 article in the New Yorker that was a stunner. I thought cystic fibrosis patients died around thirty years of age. Turns out they don’t have to. At one cystic fibrosis clinic in Minnesota, patients hardly ever die. How was this achieved? It took a doctor who was absolutely compulsive about…

Over 9,000 undocumented microbial samples turned up in Fort Detrick’s three-month long inventory, completed last month. But that doesn’t mean we have a problem with biosecurity at the Army labs, does it? Nor does it suggest a similar problem might exist at the many labs that have sprung up since 9/11 in the US Government-sponsored…

Finally a mainstream article (in the NY Times, no less) redefines the misunderstood notion of rationing and healthcare reform. David Leonhardt’s timely and important article deconstructs (I love that word; here’s one definition of it: textual analysis that can reveal hidden ideological assumptions) rationing. Here is a definition of rationing: the controlled distribution of resources…

Health care per capita in the United States costs at least double nearly every other country on earth. Yet our longevity, infant mortality, and other health indices lag behind the rest of the industrial world. What’s not to change about such a system? Think of it: we do the same tests and radiology studies as…

Atul Gawande is a marvelous writer, as well as a surgeon. In an article in today’s New Yorker, Gawande proves himself to be in the first rank of health care pundits, as well. His extraordinary article is a joy to read, but also extremely important. For example, it identifies and explores the reasons a negative…