Len Zwelling

Managing Health Care, Managing Doctors; These Two Things Do Not Go Together But They Should By Leonard Zwelling          President Obama has just appointed an Ebola Czar, Ron Klain.  Mr. Klain is a highly respected government manager with good relationships in the executive branch and on Capitol Hill.  This would seem to make sense.  But, […]

Big Money, Small Money and Really Small Money, But Not Blood Money By Leonard Zwelling          On August 26, Stripes, a group of convenience stores headquartered in Corpus Christi, launched a campaign to raise funds for the MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital during September, Childhood Cancer Awareness month. This money came from small donations of

Texas Contagion: The Spread of ISIS, Ebola and Indifference By Leonard Zwelling          There are three threats to the citizens of Texas. Texans share susceptibility to these threats with the rest of America, but in Texas, two of these threats have taken particularly nasty turns.          ISIS is the contagious threat that looms for all

If (When?) Ebola Comes to MD Anderson By Leonard Zwelling        At this point it is reasonable to conclude that the United States is not entirely ready to handle an outbreak of a deadly disease like Ebola. And the current cases in Dallas and possibly beyond were not even from a terrorist attack with weaponized

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