Month: October 2011
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Faces vs. Data: Protecting Ourselves to Death
I just saw an an excellent talk by Juan Enriquez at the TEDMED meeting I just attended, on the subject of “What is the missing measure in medicine?”. Specifically, his central point was that we focus on the risk of harm from treatments: the baby victims of thalidomide are etched on our collective memories, with a…
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The Trajectory of Cancer Care Economics: What’s the Opposite of Moore’s Law? (West’s Law)
Many people know Moore’s Law, that the number of transisitors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years, or the concept that the cost of computer technology decreases steadily as the capabilities increase. For the technology world, the economic model is planned obsolescence: I’m lucky if I can go two years…
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Telemedicine’s Tipping Point
Though telemedicine hasn’t really become mainstream yet, I think we’re on the cusp of this approach reaching a tipping point. Though the grumbling has been that there has been smoldering interest in telemedicine for a long time, it continues to fly under the radar, with its devoted following, but only the leading edge. That said,…