Canada vs. U.S. Health – Report Card

Mike Magee In 2007, the Cambridge based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), self-defined as “the nation’s leading nonprofit economic research organization”, produced a singularly myopic white paper comparing the U.S. and Canadian health care systems. Noting that Canada is a “single-payer and mostly publicly-funded system” while the U.S. is a “multi-payer, heavily private system”, […]

A Sweet Deal: NIH Nutrition Research Task Force

Mike Magee “NIH Charts a Path for Nutrition Science” read the JAMA release offering on-air interviews with Griffin P. Rodgers, MD, chair of the new NIH Nutrition Research Task Force. “We hope that the strategic planning … encourages scientists to conduct innovative and really ground-changing studies in nutrition as they relate to health,” was the […]

The Three Pillars of the Medical-Industrial Complex – and the Physician. Part 4. Inside the White House – Cost vs. Coverage.

VIEW ENTIRE SERIES Mike Magee When President Obama entered office in 2008, and made the political assessment that it was now or never for health care reform, he saw waste and excess everywhere he looked. As New York Times columnist, Steven Brill, explained in 2015, he found: an $86 billion expenditure annually for ineffective treatments […]

ACA Will Amplify Healthy People 2020’s Early Successes

Mike Magee We are now in the fourth decade of “Healthy People”, the US Public Health’s strategic road map for both guiding and measuring the success of population wide health initiatives. The scope of the initiative is impressively broad, including 42 different categories and over 1000 touch points. We’re currently striving to reach goals outlined […]

“You” Are Not You, But “We”: How The Microbiome May Change Everything.

Mike Magee In 2003, I was moderating a Q&A session with Craig Venter, the American biologist and entrepreneur of DNA mapping fame. On behalf of the audience, I asked him what percentage of the knowledge required to optimally care for human beings did we currently possess. His unhesitant response? “Less than one percent.” Over the […]

Low Fat Milk And The Shifting Winds of Evidence Based Medicine.

Mike Magee Reversals in medical science are not uncommon. As new evidence emerges, old tenets are easily discharged, and new “pillars of truth” adopted. It’s a necessary process, but confusing both for those who deliver care and those who receive it. Nutritional science is a perfect example of the phenomenon. Back in 1995, excess fat […]

Home-Cooking: Gender-Neutral and Too Important To Outsource.

Mike Magee Home may be “where the heart is”, but few would argue that it is currently “where the health is”. In America, we abhor homelessness, but we have historically been unusually tolerant of “healthlessness”. Many of us worked on the concept of “Medical Home” only to find it fall far short in its’ implementation. […]

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