The Burness Effect Blog

Bioethics Commission Scrutinizes Research Involving Human Subjects

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues held a two-day hearing in Washington, D.C. where it revealed findings from its investigation into research abuses in Guatemala in the 1940s. The investigation is part of a larger inquiry by the Commission into whether current research standards adequately protect people participating in scientific studies from harm and unethical treatment.

An Early Warning System to Help Fight Cholera

Across the developing world, cholera—which hasn’t seriously threatened the U.S. for a century—is a major problem. That’s not likely to change soon. In fact, it is likely to become an even greater scourge. People are still going to suffer. But today, a new early warning system is promising to reduce suffering and deaths from the disease by predicting outbreaks before they start.

Once I asked a pain expert, “why do you care about pain treatment so much?” The story that followed – about a dying girl writhing in pain who changed the course of his medical career - silenced the room. And then It became the lead to an opinion editorial he published soon after in Toronto’s Globe and Mail. More leaders need to open up and share what drives them day in and day out.

Following the Money—from the Pharmaceutical Industry to Advocacy Groups

Every day, health advocacy organizations testify on Capitol Hill, write op-eds, give interviews and publish studies. They exist, in part, to influence public and policymaker opinion, and some are highly effective in doing just that. But many of these groups, a new study in the American Journal of Public Health has found, receive substantial contributions from the pharmaceutical industry – and disclose few of them, if any.

Two Years After CHIP

A new state-by-state scorecard reveals that the CHIP reauthorization and Medicaid expansions in the economic stimulus bill succeeded in preserving and, in some states, even expanding health coverage for kids, in spite of the economic downturn. That’s the good news.

There was a discussion between two former solicitors general, Walter Dellinger and Paul Clement, about the recent court ruling that the provision in health reform requiring most Americans to buy health insurance is unconstitutional.

Health insurance costs continue to rise, hitting consumers with high premiums and co-pays despite the downturn in the economy. Adding insult to injury, a new report from Consumers Union (a Burness client) has found that over the past decade, nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) health insurers accumulated vast amounts of surplus cash.

Today at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., a unique event is in progress: leaders from the health, finance and community development sectors are coming together to discuss how their collaboration could help build healthier communities.

Confronting America’s Primary Care Shortage

The shortage of primary care providers is well-publicized. But, as studies in the May issue of the health policy journal Health Affairs point out, recruiting more primary care doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants to fill that void is only part of the solution.

“We have to start seeing health information systems as a mainstream technology that is part and parcel of medical practice, not something that is appended to it as an afterthought, not something that’s imposed on it, but something that will very soon be integrated into it and indistinguishable from all the other work that physicians and other health professionals do every day.”