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Performance-based funding: A carrot in the quest for better health care


[The Globe and Mail] The words “health-care costs” were affixed to the phrase “not sustainable” nearly five years ago in a Throne Speech in the B.C. Legislature.
At the time, the provincial government promised to tackle the tough questions of how to keep a public health-care system alive in the future. And in every budget since [...]

New Drugs Stir Debate on Rules of Clinical Trials


[NYTimes] Growing up in California’s rural Central Valley, the two cousins spent summers racing dirt bikes and Christmases at their grandmother’s on the coast. Endowed with a similar brash charm, they bought each other matching hardhats and sought iron-working jobs together. They shared a love for the rush that comes with hanging steel at dizzying [...]

China mass measles vaccination plan sparks outcry


[AP] China’s plans to vaccinate 100 million children and come a step closer to eradicating measles has set off a popular outcry that highlights widening public distrust of the authoritarian government after repeated health scandals.

Since the Health Ministry announced the World Health Organization-backed measles vaccination plan last week, authorities have been flooded with queries and [...]

The Surgeon’s Pact With the Patient


[NYTimes] The patient, in her late 50s with failing kidneys, had come to the hospital for what she and her doctors thought would be a simple procedure preparing her for dialysis. But instead of returning home the next day, the woman ended up in the hospital for nearly half of my internship. Her procedure went [...]

Study finds that combined costs of medical malpractice & ‘defensive medicine’ comprise only 2.4% of US health care costs


[aboutlawsuits - blog] A new study has found that the combined costs of medical malpractice and so-called defensive medicine make up only 2.4% of the total costs of health care in the United States. 
The study was conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and was published in the September issue of the journal [...]

People want to be asked before sharing genetic data


[Scienceblog] People want to be informed and asked for consent before deciding whether to let researchers share their genetic information in a federal database. This is according to a team of investigators at Group Health Research Institute and the University of Washington (UW). The team’s report, called “Glad You Asked,” is in the September 2010 [...]