December 2016

EMR=BAD

EMR=BAD By Leonard Zwelling          A close friend recently forwarded me an article and editorial from the Annals of Internal Medicine (165:753 and 818, 2016). The article describes the results of a series of time-motion studies examining the actual time doctors spend with patients vs. the time they spend with the electronic medical record (EMR) …

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EXTRA: LZ’s Letter to Chronicle Dec 17 re: MD Anderson

Hospital expenses Regarding “MD Anderson battles $111m deficit” (Page A1, Thursday), that a nonprofit like MD Anderson should have both an $111 million deficit and a $2.8 billion cash reserve is mysterious enough given the institution’s tax-exempt status as an agency of the state of Texas. The article and the MD Anderson spokesman suggest that …

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It’s Beyond Belief: DePinho Gets $208,000 Bonus; Grad Students Can’t Get Cake

It’s Beyond Belief: DePinho Gets $208,000 Bonus; Grad Students Can’t Get Cake By Leonard Zwelling https://www.texastribune.org/2016/12/12/ut-system-administrators-receive-more-2-million-bo/          And I thought I could not be surprised any longer. Silly me!          The Texas Tribune reported on December 12 that over $2 M in bonuses were distributed to top administrators in the UT System by the Board …

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Not John Glenn

Not John Glenn By Leonard Zwelling http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/us/john-glenn-dies.html?_r=0          It is very difficult to convey to those under fifty what John Glenn meant to Americans of my age. In fact, even after his death, his courage, his bravery, his accomplishments and his “right stuff” continue to awe and inspire.          The details of his extraordinary life …

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The Fallacy Of Turning A University Into A Drug Company

The Fallacy Of Turning A University Into A Drug Company By Leonard Zwelling http://www.wsj.com/articles/big-pharma-short-on-blockbusters-outsources-the-science-1481042583?mod=djemalertNEWS          We need to get back to first principles.          Academic research is research for research’s sake. You cannot justify the pursuit of enzymology in deep-sea bacteria any other way. Why we cannot seem to get comfortable with the notion that …

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