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Showing posts from July, 2018

Spin it Again - Four More Go Through the Revolving Door From the World of Corporate Health Care to Top US Government Leadership Positions

While we were distracted by the daily onslaught of news, it appears that the revolving door continues to spin. This month there has been a flurry of transitions from big health care and health care related corporations to the federal government.  So it appeared to be time for another revolving door update. We start with a transition from a few months ago that we had not previously
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Chipping Away at the Anechoic Effect: Now the New York Times Protests the Demise of the AHRQ National Guidelines Clearinghouse

Background: the Quiet Announcement of the Death of the Clearinghouse On June 1, 2018, we wrote: Apparently as of late April, a terse announcement appeared on the website of the US AHRQ National Guideline Clearinghouse: The AHRQ National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC, guideline.gov) Web site will not be available after July 16, 2018 because federal funding through AHRQ will no longer be
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A Physician Who Had Run Clinics Which Proselytized Patients is Now a Government Health Care Leader Positioned to Enforce Her Religious Beliefs on Patients and Citizens Who Do Not Hold Such Beliefs

Introduction: Physicians' Values and Organizational Missions Physicians professional values require them to put the interests of their individual patients ahead of all else, including the physicians' self interest.  The AMA Principles of Medical Ethics, for example, includes VIII. A physician shall, while caring for a patient, regard responsibility to the patient as paramount. Similarly, in
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"Hope in a Bottle" - Components of Purdue Pharma Stealth Marketing Campaign for Oxycontin Revealed by Legal Documents from Tennessee

Introduction: Disinformation and Stealth Marketing Campaigns Back in the distant past the US government made some attempt to hold big health care corporations to account for misleading marketing practices.  We learned a lot about these practices from documents revealed in the resulting litigation, and in particular, about stealthy, deceptive systematic marketing, lobbying, and policy advocacy
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Growing Health Care and Grand Governmental Corruption - But Still Anechoic After All These Years

Here we go again.  We have long been concerned about health care corruption as a major cause of health care dysfunction. Our last post on the topic was in January, 2018. Summary: the Corruption of Health Care Leadership as a Major Cause of Health Care Dysfunction As we wrote in August, 2017, Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as Abuse of entrusted power for private gain In
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