Only two countries on Earth let drug companies pitch their products directly to you and me: New Zealand and the United States. Canada dabbled in these direct-to-consumer ads but quickly tightened up their rules. The European Union, back in 2008, took one look and said, “Nope – not here.” ...
Editor’s note: This column draws on Dr. Aaron E. Carroll’s essay, “The Bright Spots of American Healthcare: A Beacon of Innovation and Progress,” published in The New York Times on Sept. 5. When people talk to me about health care in the U.S., it’s usually a conversation filled with ...
During my lifetime, there have been more doomsday predictions than I can count. Religious leaders, cult founders and politicians have been warning, “The end is near,” for as long as I’ve been around. I looked ’em up. Harold Camping had billboards, Marshall Applewhite had his ...
My high school band director (who quit and became a priest) had just been discharged from the Army. He lived by the motto: “If you aren’t at least 15 minutes early, you are late.” I can remember him standing at the door, and if you arrived late, you got paddled. Up until the mid-70’s, ...
The phrase “health care” in health care administration was a complete oxymoron and the least healthy job of my career, and remember, I started as a junior high band director. That music teaching job had me in a room with 120 tweens and teenagers, all armed with loud instruments and a ...
Like about 55% of men at the time, my dad was a smoker. You know, there were commercials that claimed, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette,” and “20,679 physicians say ‘Luckies are less irritating.’” Dad smoked Kent cigarettes that used asbestos in their Micronite ...