Len Zwelling

Why I Am For The Republican Health Care Bill By Leonard Zwelling Not surprisingly, The New York Times’ editorial page hates the bill that might emerge from the Republican-controlled US Senate. If it at all reflects the House version of the bill it will displace the health insurance of over 20 million Americans, many of […]

Needed: An Operational Visionary And I Don’t Mean A Surgeon By Leonard Zwelling There is one sure way to improve the balance sheet of MD Anderson. Spend less. It’s already working as June’s financials demonstrated. This seems like an obvious solution, but it is not, because everyone at Anderson is convinced that his or her

The Future Is Texas By Leonard Zwelling http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/10/americas-future-is-texas Austin-based author Lawrence Wright encapsulates my dread with regard to the impending selection of the next president of MD Anderson in an article with this title. In brief, it’s a state-appointed position. In this lengthy piece in The New Yorker of July 10-17, Wright describes the current

The Danger Of Cliques By Leonard Zwelling When I began my lab training at the National Cancer Institute, I had a friend. He had recruited me into the lab in which he was working because he understood my research question could be better addressed by the technology developed by the leader of the lab he

Is Donald Trump, Jr. Really Fredo Corleone? By Leonard Zwelling The rise of Michael Corleone, the Ivanka Trump of his family, was hastened by the demise of Sonny Corleone on the Causeway. The latter is an event that would never have transpired had there been EasyPass in the late 1940’s. The mantle of power was

The Enormous Lift of Hicks and Hahn By Leonard Zwelling Perhaps the most frequent criticism I get as a blogger is that my prose is too vitriolic and rarely has anything nice to say about anything. Guilty. My goal from the beginning has been to shine a light on the corruption and wrong-doing I saw

Controversy At The Wall Heightened; Controversy On Holcombe Lessened By Leonard Zwelling Isabel Kershner does an excellent job outlining the latest dispute roiling Israel where politics and religion clash on a regular basis. For those of you who do not know, the Western Wall in Jerusalem is the last vestiges of the Second Temple that

The Vanishing CEOs By Leonard Zwelling http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/In-a-surprise-St-Luke-s-CEO-resigns-11251779.php The fourth one is down. This year alone, four of the leaders of major institutions in the Texas Medical Center, including the TMC itself, Hermann, MD Anderson and now St. Luke’s are gone. What’s going on? When the leader of any business entity leaves, follow the money—and that

Transparency By Leonard Zwelling http://www.houstonchronicle.com/neighborhood/woodlands/news/article/MD-Anderson-Cancer-Center-opening-outpatient-11237379.php Apparently the leaders of MD Anderson are continuing the expansion of the brand to all regions of Houston. This suggests that the strategy of franchising the MD Anderson name will continue. I say suggests because other than the commercial that states “Cancer, we have you surrounded,” it is pretty tough

The End Of The Beginning By Leonard Zwelling There’s a word for this in Yiddish. Rachmones—mercy. Finally, the new leadership of MD Anderson made the most essential of changes required if the institution is going to put the DePinho years in its rearview mirror. I am in Cleveland for a joyous family wedding of my