February 2017

Lock Her Up? By Leonard Zwelling In all the discussion and news coverage about the $61.2M cost overrun that was the MD Anderson Watson Project, there has been no asking, from my reading, of the question of whether any laws were broken. It was obvious from the audit results that policies were not followed, but […]

Hang On. It’s Almost Over By Leonard Zwelling (https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/02/ibms-watson-proves-useful-at-fighting-cancer-except-in-texas/) Here is yet another article about the fiasco that was Lynda Chin, IBM Watson and Price Waterhouse Cooper. Over $60 million came off the bottom line of MD Anderson’s budget and that does not count the opportunity cost of using the MD Anderson faculty and staff

Fast Forward: America In Four Years Looks Like MD Anderson Now By Leonard Zwelling https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/how-to-build-an-autocracy/513872/?mc_cid=b1ed05da98&mc_eid=ff67b66aee In this piece sent to me by son Richard, David Frum, a former W speechwriter, paints a picture of how Donald Trump’s election in 2016 could lead to an autocratic America. He ends the piece this way: “Those citizens who

Is The MD Anderson Financial Recovery True Or Fake News? By Leonard Zwelling That’s a hard one. First, it would seem easy to define true vs. fake information. But that no longer seems to be the case. The President of the United States says that intelligence leaks are real, but the news about them is

Ron and Lynda’s Excellent Adventure By Leonard Zwelling https://cms.utsystem.edu/sites/utsfiles/documents/system-audit/ut-system-administration-special-review-procurement-procedures-related-utmdacc-oncology-expert-advis/ut-system-administration-special-review-procurement-procedures-related-utmdacc-oncology-expert-advis.pdf Buried among the reports on the UT System website is one recent one to the Chancellor that describes the findings of a UT System audit of the Oncology Expert Advisor Project led by Lynda Chin until her departure from MD Anderson in 2015 (link above). This

“Take Me To Your Leader”: In Washington, In Houston, In Austin By Leonard Zwelling If the proverbial aliens landed on the Potomac today and tried to ascertain who was really in charge of the American government, they may well have a dilemma. “Take me to your leader,” they might ask. Would you send them to

The Best And The Brightest—NOT! By Leonard Zwelling It’s bad enough when we have seen the death of truth due to a President of the United States who is only occasionally acquainted with it. When irony dies, that is sad indeed. In Marc Tracy’s op-ed in the New York Times on February 5, he, a

Another Layer of Bureaucracy Won’t Be Enough: Who Will Have The Upper Hahn? By Leonard Zwelling (Please check out the Media Gallery on www.lenzwelling.com/media-gallery/ for videos. Thanks) It’s a step in the right direction that the Chancellor finally awoke and put a thin layer of protection between Dr. DePinho and the rest of the institution.

The Dark Prince Whispering In The King’s Ear: Iago, Bannon, and Fontaine By Leonard Zwelling As Frank Bruni noted in the New York Times on Wednesday, February 1, it was hoped that Jared Kushner would serve as the thoughtful, rational balance to the bomb throwing alt-right Prince of Darkness that is Steve Bannon. Nice try!

One Small Step For Faculty, One Giant Leap For MD Anderson By Leonard Zwelling I was gratified to learn on Friday afternoon, February 3, that the Chancellor and Board of Regents persuaded Dr. DePinho to bring in a Chief Operating Officer who, I assume, will be running the day-to-day operations of MD Anderson. Someone needs