If you ask any United Nations official “What is our scarcest global resource?” he or she will reply without hesitation, “Water.” But surprisingly, there’s little global coordination to address the problem, even as it has rapidly accelerated. Water is charting the same course as did Global Warming. In the latter case, the facts, and some […]
As you’ll see in this week’s Health Politics program, the threat of a cholera epidemic in the United States is not huge — although we came close after Hurricane Katrina — but many developing nations struggle with it constantly. The bacterium that causes the disease lives and thrives in contaminated water, and once a victim […]
The recent study on Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) prevalence in U.S. women (published in the Feb. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association) added fuel to the fire in the debate over whether states should mandate the vaccine for middle-school-aged girls. The numbers were dramatic — the overall HPV prevalence among U.S. […]
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Edison the Sponge
My brother-in-law, Dan O’Connell, sent along a link worth sharing with all those interested in reforming and improving our health care system. It’s produced by Frank Attwood, who makes a living these days “channeling” the life and insights of Thomas Edison. I was especially taken by two clips. One defining the inventor as a sponge, […]
According to the EPA’s new WaterSense program, “super low-flow” toilets use 1.28 gallons of water or less per flush. Older toilets, still used in many households, use 4 to 6 gallons per flush. The difference over a single year? A savings of at least 4,000 gallons of water per toilet. I’ve done a fair amount […]
How do you get yourself going in the morning? Are you a coffee drinker? Maybe soda does it for you? If you’re lucky, you might not need any caffeine at all, but for so many, that’s just not the case. Caffeine is part of our daily routine, and beverage manufacturers are finding new ways to […]
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel at the National Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. At this annual event jointly sponsored by AcademyHealth and Health Affairs, our panel focused on the current status of technology in health delivery systems. The topic and the excellent presentations by the panelists — Shannah […]
