Journalism
The Dubious Promise of Digital Medicine
In a stimulus-fueled frenzy, GE, Google and others are piling into the business. But electronic health records have a checkered history. (BusinessWeek)
The Uber Lobbyists of Washington
From lobbying power couple Tony and Heather Podesta to icon Tommy Boggs, they’re the lobbyists likely to be a big influence in the new Washington. (BusinessWeek)
Network Security Breaches Plague NASA
Cyberspies, thieves lurk in satellite and shuttle networks
As workers prepared for a Space Shuttle launch in 2005, cyber-burglars slipped into supposedly super-secure digital networks at Kennedy Space Center. Their clandestine gathering of data soon spread to Mission Control in Houston, the Lockheed Corp., and other public and corporate networks. Nobody knew – even though NASA has suffered from such significant intrusions since the 1990s (BusinessWeek)
Finding of Fact
In medical science, there’s often a big difference between what one thinks is true – and the facts. A sampler of occasional articles from The Washington Post:
Ginger: As wonderful an herb as it seems?
Killer Trucks – Why the Slaughter Won't Stop
Big rigs aren't required to have the safest brakes available
Trucks equipped with self-adjusting brakes would have fewer accidents, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in medical costs and property damage – and hundreds of lives. Yet the government dawdled in requiring them. (The Plain Dealer)
While Grownups Squabbled, Children Died
Meanwhile, tests to save childrens' lives stalled
Automakers and federal regulators fought for more than a decade over who could create an adult crash test dummy, stalling development of a simulated 6-year-old to test child seats. Commonplace reason behind such delays: Opposition from industry lawyers and expert engineers.
Feds Shrug Off a Life-Saver for Commuter Planes
Safety device will be required...eventually
Again and again, commuter airline flights crashed into the ground for the same reason: Lack of a simple device known as a ground proximity warning system that alerts the pilot when he flies too low. Safety officials repeatedly urged requiring the device, but the FAA declined. Planes kept crashing. (The Plain Dealer)
Cessnas Crash, but Agencies Do Nothing
Part maker's urgent plea fails to move regulators
For three decades, Cessnas choked from a flaw in their carburetors known to the manufacturer, federal aviation officials, and repeatedly highlighted by the National Transportation Safety Board. Yet pilots had never heard of the problem, and the government required no fix. (The Plain Dealer)
Foreign Tests Don't Meet U.S. Criteria
Hype, hope and heartbreak a chronic condition
The cycle of hype, hope and heartbreak surrounding clinical trials has become a chronic condition in the global pharmaceutical industry, which now initially tests two-thirds of all products for Americans overseas. The experiments often involve fraud, concealed side effects, improvised experiments and human rights abuses. (The Plain Dealer)
Research Standards Overseas Vary Greatly
Europeans worry about fraud, sloppy drug experiments
With human lives and huge investments at stake, the global pharmaceutical industry increasingly relies on research from outside the United States, where fraud and the use of unwitting test subjects is commonplace. “It’s our little secret…frightening,” acknowledges an overseer of experiments on four continents. (The Plain Dealer)
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