Do you want to be a machine? What happens when your employer wants to treat you like one? What does this do to health care? The digital economy allows you to measure much. What gets measured gets managed. The ideas of “scientific management” achieved their first apotheosis over a century ago with Frederick Taylor. Henry Ford […]
Whatever Happened to Health?
Checklist Health Can your health be reduced to a bunch of numbers? American medical care is about to test that idea. Beware the results. Checklists – and the checked off numbers – do not a healthy population make. Why Are Checklists Taking Over? People love numbers. They like to count things. Medical care costs enormous […]
How Can I Prevent Cancer?
Preventing Tumors British researchers now argue that over 40% of tumors are preventable through lifestyle change. The biggest factors are: tobacco, diet, physical activity, and environment (sunlight and pollution.) People greatly fear cancer. But does knowing what causes cancer prevent people from doing what’s dangerous? No. Why not? Because some of the most powerful global […]
No Treatment, No Problem (10/14/13)
Without Care If you’re psychotic and you don’t want treatment it’s no problem. At least until you harm or kill somebody. Navy veteran and computer contractor Aaron Alexis killed twelve people at the Washington Navy Yard. By all evidence he had been psychotic for weeks or months. He told his friends and neighbors that their […]
Who Will Pay For Health Care? (11/13/12)
So Where’s the Money? The election is over. Who will now pay for health care? There’s a simple answer – you will. Where Will You See Increased Costs? First through higher co-pays. The Affordable Care Act does little to control health insurance pricing or capriciousness (we paid for it last week but we decided against […]