May 2010
7 posts
4 tags
1 tag
3 tags
Randomized Controlled Trials: Panacea or Mirage? →
afeldman:
In response to MIT economist Esther Duflo’s completely brilliant advocacy of randomized control trials for foreign aid allocation (if you haven’t seen the TED video yet, click the link), James Copestake comments that “I am worried by reports of bright young “randomistas” narrowing the research agenda by selecting issues for research to fit their preferred tool, rather than finding the...
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
New American 10k record →
Ohhh my goooddddd, he’s an ANIMAL
2 tags
April 2010
2 posts
1 tag
4 tags
March 2010
18 posts
4 tags
On Inequality →
6 tags
re: re: health reform →
Continuing the conversation:
What aspect of access to healthcare is a right? What kind of healthcare? Acute, life-threatening? Chronic, annoying? Chronic, life-threatening? Cosmetic, vanity? Cosmetic, reconstructive? Evidence-based vs. non-evidence based? Who decides what’s a right? Who/what companies influence the czar who decides?
First I would make the distinction between the right to health,...
4 tags
“Health is a fundamental human right indispensable for the exercise of other...”
– UNHCR
3 tags
Comments on Healthcare Reform →
In response to a post by Jay Parkinson:
Today the average health insurance premium is $11,000 a year per employee. In 2020 it will be $29,000. Health insurance reform spreads the cost of premiums across three entities— employers, individuals, and the government. Costs are being redistributed to land less on employers and individuals and more on the government.
The health reform bill begins to...
3 tags
4 tags
Why healthcare reform is essential
Previously undisclosed records from Mitchell’s case reveal that Fortis had a company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV. A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy. As was the case with Mitchell, their insurance policies often were...
3 tags
With so much need, where do I serve?
The director of the global health program at our medical school and her daughter, a colleague of mine in the M1 class, recently wrote an excellent article on global health and medical education. I would encourage everyone to read it in its entirety.
With So Much Need, Where Do I Serve?
The article captures my attitudes completely — in fact I wrote a very similar post a few months ago....
5 tags
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have...”
– Don Helder Camara
While I part ways with the church on many (if not most) topics, this (PDF warning) makes for a good read.
2 tags
The worldwide war on baby girls →
The timing of this article is impeccable
6 tags
1 tag
2 tags
A New African Land Grab? →
3 tags
6 tags
1 tag
February 2010
5 posts
4 tags
1 tag
Ocean deep
Once again science leaves me feeling utterly inspired and insignificant:
That’s not the diver — it’s the blue whale
1 tag
2 tags
2 tags
The hardest hit from the current economic... →
November 2009
2 posts
1 tag
4 tags
October 2009
11 posts
4 tags
A welcome surprise: African-American infant...
Newsweek is giving little ol’ Dane County here in Wisconsin some press this week, and for very good reason:
“Between 1990 and 2001, the county recorded 73 black infant deaths. The figure dropped to 17 between 2002 and 2007, representing an incredible 67 percent decline from 1990. It is the first known example of the black-white gap closing in any one state or county.”
There are...
1 tag
2 tags
1 tag
“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never...”
– Richard Dawkins
2 tags
Taking about the death of languages brings to mind one of my favorite poems — The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart by Jack Gilbert
How astonishing it is that language can almost mean,
and frightening that it does not quite. Love, we say,
God, we say, Rome and Michiko, we write, and the words
get it wrong. We say bread and it means according
to which nation. French has no word for home,
and...
3 tags
What happens when a language dies?
An interesting article from BBC Today recently caught my attention — it discusses how hundreds of languages are rapidly becoming forgotten as the world continues to globalize. There are some pretty interesting statistics:
There are 473 languages currently classified as endangered, according to Ethnologue, a US organization that compiles a global database of languages
There are 133...
2 tags
1 tag
2 tags
4 tags
WatchI hope very much that I am not guilty of presenting the ‘single story’. I started this blog in part to discuss the health challenges in East Africa, not to paint a picture of universal poverty, suffering, hunger, and disease (I know that many of my posts focus on these issues). In my limited experiences in Kenya I have time and time again met dedicated, well-educated, clever Kenyans...
5 tags
September 2009
14 posts
7 tags
2 tags
9 tags
Debating Paul Farmer
The UW SMPH Ethics Committee, a group of mostly M1 and M2 students, met for the first time last week. We talked a bit about a snippet from a paper entitled, “Anthropologist to activist: Paul Farmer’s changing perspectives on cultural difference and human rights,” Anthropology Southern Africa, 2008, 31(1&2).
“Farmer also argues that medicine, medical ethics, and...
3 tags
4 tags
