David Newman

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How The U.S. Power Grid Is Like A Big Pile Of Sand

Marina Koren | Nextgov.com | April 9, 2014

Last month, The Wall Street Journal gave us quite a scare.  "The U.S. could suffer a coast-to-coast blackout if saboteurs knocked out just nine of the country's 55,000 electric-transmission substations on a scorching summer day," Rebecca Smith wrote.

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Not All Snake Oil Is Digital

A different take on "snake oil" in health care was a thoughtful piece in Health Affairs, by David Newman and Amanda Frost, discussing the quality measurement morass in health care. They cite a study that estimated we spend some $15.4b annually collecting several thousand different quality measures, few of which have any meaning to consumers and all-too-few of which seem to be used to actively improve quality. It isn't that they don't think we should be measuring quality -- far from it -- but, rather: "Patients should not be able to choose substandard quality care, and substandard quality care should not be allowed to be offered in the market." Now, there's a novel concept!

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This Man’s Simple System Could Transform American Medicine

Sarah Fallon | WIRED | October 14, 2014

...Developed by a trio of epidemiologists back in the ’80s, the NNT describes how many people would need to take a drug for one person to benefit...It’s unfortunate, then, that the NNT is not a statistic that’s routinely conveyed to either doctors or patients...

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WELL Health Technologies Becomes World’s First Billion-dollar Open Source EMR Company

Canadian start-up company WELL Health Technologies (WELL) just crossed the threshold a month ago to become the world’s first billion-dollar open source electronic medical records (EMR) company. WELL, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has accomplished this milestone less than three years after its founding. WELL’s market cap is currently hovering between $1.2 and $1.3 billion. The company has developed a disruptive digital health platform model with an open source EMR core, and a firm focus on improving clinical outcomes by using the technology to assist physicians and patients focus on health and wellness. Its goal is to shift the industry from a highly fragmented and expensive sick-care system to a health care system.

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What You Don't Know About Your Doctor Could Hurt You

Rachel Rabkin Peachman | Consumer Reports | March 29, 2016

Thousands of doctors across the U.S. are on medical probation for reasons including drug abuse, sexual misconduct, and making careless—sometimes deadly—mistakes. But they're still out there practicing. And good luck figuring out who they are. The state medical board's report on Leonard Kurian, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Southern California, tells in stark clinical detail what it says happened to several patients in his care. And it's not easy to read...

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