October 2014

Fearing For My Children By Leonard Zwelling          I do not see any way that my kids can be protected from the world I am going to leave them. No, I am not worried that ISIS will invade Houston although Ebola is possible. I am not even worried about the collapse of medicine, although having […]

Ebola, ISIS and Moral Relativism Must Be Resisted-The Gardening Analogy of Thomas L. Friedman By Leonard Zwelling          Personally, I find Nancy Snyderman an awful representative of the medical profession. Most of her reports focus on what she thinks or does and not what the experts with whom she is supposed to be an intermediary

Peggy Noonan’s Lessons on Ebola, Leadership and Common Sense By Leonard Zwelling          Regular readers of this blog know that I have a great deal of admiration for the Wall Street Journal’s Saturday columnist Peggy Noonan. Ms. Noonan was a former Reagan speechwriter, an obviously conservative voice, but often one of the few voices of

Defiance By Leonard Zwelling          When a 17-year old wins the Nobel Peace Prize, it’s time to look closely at why.          In this case a close look isn’t necessary.          That Malala Yousafzai shared the Prize today is not only easily understandable, it is both commendable and deserved.          The story of the young

TMCx, IACS and The Confused Search For More Money By Leonard Zwelling http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Drug-companies-paying-Houston-doctors-for-5807658.php          If conflict-of-interest has become an issue once again, and members of the Houston medical community rank high on the government’s list of recipients of industry’s largess (above), how could turning Houston into a biotech incubator be far behind as a centerpiece

Conflict of Interest: What? Again? By Leonard Zwelling http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/health/article/Data-shows-drug-companies-paid-billions-to-doctors-5791775.php          The Affordable Care Act-mandated federal report that lists the money doctors received from big (and little) pharma and biotech companies has been released. During the final five months of 2013, the total largess was $3.5 B.  That’s a lot of free lunches, so I am

E-bola, E-MR, E-gad! By Leonard Zwelling          If there was one take home lesson from my time in DC, it was how many different groups of people wanted to tell me how doctors should practice medicine. Interestingly, none of these people were doctors themselves and some were so young that the last doctor they saw

Denouement-The Meaning of the Gonzalez-Angulo Verdict to MD Anderson and to Colombia By Leonard Zwelling          On September 29, the jury that found Dr. Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo guilty of aggravated assault in a dating relationship the week before, a charge that could have landed her in prison for 99 years, sent her to prison for

Resign Yourself By Leonard Zwelling          I know that in this day and age, there is a premium placed on sticking to your guns, never quitting, and seeing things through to the end regardless, but sometimes it really is better to just let go. Kenny Rogers talks about knowing when to walk away and knowing

What If I Got This All Wrong?: Is There an Untold Back Story to the Gonzalez-Angulo Trial? By Leonard Zwelling          Without belaboring the story with another rehashing of the trail’s evidence, verdict, and sentencing, there are on the surface a very few irrefutable conclusions.          Dr. Gonzalez-Angulo poisoned Dr. Blumenschein with ethylene glycol on