health department

Introduction: Blogging About Taboo Topics in Health Care We started Health Care Renewal in 2004 to discuss the causes of health care dysfunction that rarely were mentioned in polite conversation at the time.  When we started Health Care Renewal, such issues as suppression and manipulation of research, and health care professionals' conflicts of interests rarely appeared in the media or in

 Mysteries still abound in the not so wonderful world of health care dysfunction, so, quick, the game's afoot... Today's mysteries involve beneficial ownership.  Beneficial ownership questions are important to anti-corruption campaigners.  Beneficial ownership simply refers to "anyone who enjoys the benefits of ownership of a security or property, without being on the record as being the

Introduction: the Cult of the CEO Although the US and most developed countries are nominally democratic, many of us seem to be again yearning for a man on a white horse, and in the current era, the horse ridden is corporate. On Health Care Renewal, we having been talking about this pheonomenon for a long time. We have written about it in terms of the messianic (or visionary, or charistmatic)

Summary: the Corruption of Health Care Leadership as a Major Cause of Health Care Dysfunction As we wrote in August, 2017, Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as Abuse of entrusted power for private gain In 2006, TI published a report on health care corruption, which asserted that corruption is widespread throughout the world, serious, and causes severe harm to patients and

Background: the Quiet Announcement of the Death of the Clearinghouse On June 1, 2018, we wrote: Apparently as of late April, a terse announcement appeared on the website of the US AHRQ National Guideline Clearinghouse: The AHRQ National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC, guideline.gov) Web site will not be available after July 16, 2018 because federal funding through AHRQ will no longer be

Here we go again.  We have long been concerned about health care corruption as a major cause of health care dysfunction. Our last post on the topic was in January, 2018. Summary: the Corruption of Health Care Leadership as a Major Cause of Health Care Dysfunction As we wrote in August, 2017, Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as Abuse of entrusted power for private gain In

Introduction - Dr Gu's History of Activism Made Him Unpopular at Vanderbilt We first wrote in February, 2018, about the plight of Dr Eugene Gu, a surgical resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).  Dr Gu has a history of political activism, resulting in being  blocked on Twitter by President Trump after Dr Gu criticized him online, until a court forced Trump to unblock him on

The Quiet Announcement of the Shut Down Apparently as of late April, a terse announcement appeared on the website of the US AHRQ National Guideline Clearinghouse: The AHRQ National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC, guideline.gov) Web site will not be available after July 16, 2018 because federal funding through AHRQ will no longer be available to support the NGC as of that date. AHRQ is receiving

In the US, our political situation seems to be leading to new threats to free speech in academic medicine.  Background: Dr Gu's Activism   his story was first reported by The Chronicle at Duke University, and here it is in chronological order Congressional Subpoena about Fetal Tissue Research Dr Eugene Gu is a pediatric surgical resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).  He

Remember the good ol' days, when most US challenges to free speech or the free press in health care came from aggrieved corporate or academic managers?  Now government health agencies have gotten into the act, never mind First Amendment guarantees of free speech and a free press. CMS Attempted to Intimidate a Journalist for Modern Healthcare This story first appeared on the blog of the

Introduction: the Corruption of Health Care Leadership as a Major Cause of Health Care Dysfunction For a long time we have argued that health care corruption is a major cause of health care dysfunction.  As we wrote in August, 2017, Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as Abuse of entrusted power for private gain In 2006, TI published a report on health care corruption, which

We have noted  (most recently here),  that health care corruption, particularly its global nature and its presence in developed countries like the US, is a taboo topic and thus remains anechoic.  Yet corruption in general, and health care corruption in particular, are huge global problems. Transparency International just released the full results of the 2017 version of its Global Corruption

On Health Care Renewal we discus the dark side of health care, particularly of the leadership and governance of health care, that has enabled health care dysfunction.  Our discussions are based on publicly available information, often produced by dogged health care journalism. Uur work has become more difficult as journalism is challenged by economic circumstances.  Yet now there are worse

We have been going on about the ruinous effects of health care corruption, the role of impunity in enabling worsening corruption, our lack of good ways to challenge these problems, and our ongoing inability to even discuss what amounts to taboo topics (which we dubbed the "anechoic effect.") But as  corruption, and crime are increasingly linked to the most powerful leaders in the US, it

There is one tiny silver lining in the political storm clouds swirling over the US.  Some of the issues about which we have been ranting on Health Care Renewal are no longer so easily dismissed.  We have long harangued about the ruinous effects of health care corruption, the role of impunity in enabling worsening corruption, our lack of good ways to challenge these problems, and our ongoing

The executive order by President Trump that temporarily banned immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries provoked health care professionals and trainees to challenge another health care leader whom had not been so challenged previously. We recently described how professionals and trainees protested the decision by Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove not to cancel a fund raising event