About This Talk

(source: TED)

Traditional lab tests for disease diagnosis can be too expensive and cumbersome for the regions most in need. George Whitesides’ ingenious answer, at TEDxBoston, is a foolproof tool that can be manufactured at virtually zero cost.

About George Whitesides

(source: TED)

Someday Harvard chemistry professor George Whitesides will take the time to look back on the 950 scientific articles he’s coauthored, the dozen companies he’s co-founded or the 50-plus patents on which he’s named. (He works in four main areas: biochemistry, materials science, catalysis and physical organic chemistry.) In the meantime, he’s trying to invent a future where medical diagnosis can be done by anyone for little or no cost. He’s co-founded a nonprofit called Diagnostics for All that aims to provide dirt-cheap diagnostic devices, to provide healthcare in a world where cost is everything.

Among his solutions is a low-cost “lab-on-a-chip,” made of paper and carpet tape. The paper wicks bodily fluids — urine, for example — and turns color to provide diagnostic information, such as how much glucose or protein is present. His goal is to distribute these simple paper diagnostic systems to developing countries, where people with basic training can administer tests and send results to distant doctors via cameraphone.

“Most of the world is self-assembly. We are self-assembled systems.”

George Whitesides

By: Ali Al-Rajhi

I have been doing some research into what the important questions researchers must ask about the issue of childhood obesity  There are a number of public health interventions and GRANTS that focus on nutrition, exercise, and stress coping, however if those were the only issues to address, then why are these programs not adopted nationally and locally?

In research design, the question asked and theory/model implemented will guide the research. So it is important to ask the right kinds of questions from the very beginning. I believe that there needs to be an understanding of how parents influence their child’s dietary behaviors if we are to begin asking the right questions.

I want to raise some important questions that have been on my mind recently:

1) What about the possible benefits of being obese? As wild as it may sound, there are published papers that show obese individuals have stronger bones because one way to build strong bones is to participate in weight-bearing exercise…and what better weight then lugging your own body around. However, this does not mean that it is okay to be obese. There are obvious cardiovascular risks that both parent and child must understand.

2) What are natural and inexpensive ways to reduce the chance of becoming obese that even children can understand and apply? I happened to stumble upon THIS ARTICLE that address this question and it involves WATER!

3) Are there approaches to incorporate inexpensive technologies already used by children (e.g., the internet and game counsels) when developing obesity interventions? Well, researchers at the University of South Carolina are using “wireless body networks and interactive multimedia to promote physical activity in children.” Check out the article HERE.

No matter what the issues are, the questions asked are pivotal for proper research design; asking the right questions can distinguish good research from GREAT research.

1) Michelle Obama Launches Combat Childhood Obesity Campaign (source: Medical News Today)

At the White House on Tuesday, US President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum establishing a task force to address the nation’s growing childhood obesity epidemic, turned to his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama and said “it’s done honey”, and she replied “now we work”. The Taking on Childhood Obesity task force is part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign to bring together public and private sectors within a generation to help children become more active in their daily lives and have a healthier diet so that children born today reach adulthood at a healthy weight.

2) Mediterranean Diet May Lower Risk Of Brain Damage That Causes Thinking Problems (source: Medical News Today)

A Mediterranean diet may help people avoid the small areas of brain damage that can lead to problems with thinking and memory, according to a study released that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010. The study found that people who ate a Mediterranean-like diet were less likely to have brain infarcts, or small areas of dead tissue linked to thinking problems.

3) How far do we need to go to avoid processed foods? (source: Nutrition Data Blog)

Q. I am trying to reduce the amount of processed foods in my diet, and I recently learned that soy milk is a processed food; which leads me to wonder whether cow’s milk and other dairy products are also considered “processed”?   Would I be better off taking a supplement to get my vitamin D and calcium?

Click the link for the answer

From the White House Blog

In our current health insurance system, too many Americans are at the whim of private, for-profit insurance companies who are raking in billions in profits each year, while policyholders struggle to make ends meet in this tough economy.  Insurance companies can raise premiums or slash benefits, and there’s not much families can do about it, especially if they have preexisting conditions that would make it hard to get other coverage.

That is exactly what is playing out right now in California, where Anthem Blue Cross recently announced that on March 1, many of its 800,000 policyholders could see a rate increase of up to 39 percent. What’s more, Anthem also declared that it may adjust rates more frequently than once-a-year, making it impossible for families to anticipate and plan for such increases.

For many Californians, including two individuals profiled by the LA Times, this is devastating news. Keith Knueven, a graphic designer in California, is about to see his health insurance rates climb by 37%, from $297 per month to $393.  Mark Weiss, a podiatrist, and his wife will see their annual policy rise from $20,184 to $27,336 — a 35% increase. And if that weren’t enough, as these Americans are facing dramatic rate increases, Anthem’s parent company WellPoint reported $2,740,000,000 in profits during the last quarter of 2009.

What’s happening in California can happen in any state. It’s clear that we need health insurance reform that will give American families the secure, affordable coverage they need and put a stop to insurance company abuses and control out-of-pocket costs. We’re closer than ever to reforming our health insurance system.  Now is the time to finish the job.

In the meantime, I think Californians and the American people deserve an explanation, so yesterday, I sent a letter to the President of Anthem Blue Cross. While Anthem has made some comments to the press, they haven’t given us the full answer we deserve. I am eagerly awaiting their reply.

The letter I sent to Anthem Blue Cross is below.

February 8, 2010

Leslie Margolin

President, Anthem Blue Cross

Delivered Via Fax

Dear Ms. Margolin,

One of the biggest pressures facing families, businesses and governments at every level are skyrocketing health insurance costs.  With so many families already affected by rising costs, I was very disturbed to learn through media accounts that Anthem Blue Cross plans to raise premiums for its California customers by as much as 39 percent. These extraordinary increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation and threaten to make health care unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy.

Your company’s strong financial position makes these rate increases even more difficult to understand. As you know, your parent company, WellPoint Incorporated, has seen its profits soar, earning $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone.

Readers,

Mathew Kukla, a PhD candidate in the field of Health Care Economics, is my guest blogger this week. With an interest in  health economics in the U.S. and developing nations (particularly India), Matt provides an overview of how national and international health care systems function.

An Introduction to Health Care Reform

Author: Mathew Kukla

Understanding the workings of health care systems can be overwhelming and complex.  In a world of ideological debates and partisan politics, it’s difficult to sift through the garbage and comprehend what works and what doesn’t.  As a guest columnist at Public Health Bugle, my goal is to help you become more knowledgeable and think critically about health care, both economically and through international experience.  This means using your own ethical framework to determine how equitable, efficient and effective a health system should be and ultimately use this foundation as a guide to health care reform.

A terrific book published by several leading health experts at Harvard University (Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide to Improving Performance and Equity, Roberts et al. (2008)) discusses critical factors that may shape the direction of health care reform.  It breaks down the inner workings of health policy into five control knobs, all of which can be turned independently or simultaneously to change a health care system.  These include financing, payments, organization, regulation and social behavior.

Financing health systems throughout the developed and developing world often breaks down into four categories: general revenue, self-pay, private insurance and social insurance.  Each mechanism shares three primary functions: How will revenue be collected? How should contributions be pooled so as to minimize risk? How are contributions used to purchase health services?

The V.A. hospital system is a sound example of general revenue, such that health care is paid for by the government through general tax revenues, tossed around the pot and spit back out to pay for health care services.  As with the U.K. and Canada, there generally exists greater accountability and controlled spending within this system; however, funding fluctuates according to the economy and no specific organization exists to set aside taxes for health care.  Administrative costs are also considerably lower, equity is greater, though efficiency is often weaker.

Alternative forms of financing include private health insurance & self-pay and represent the majority of health care financing for Americans.  As will be discussed in later posts, economists promote the free market as an arena for efficiency, though strong evidence indicates that markets often fail in the health care sector.  In brief, private insurance companies experience excruciatingly high administrative costs (25-35% in the U.S.) due to price negotiations among providers and hospitals.  It is generally less equitable for the population, because without regulation insurers can “risk select” by choosing who they do and don’t want to cover.  Nations that opt for private insurance must find ways to regulate and manage these markets and plan for high costs.  Similarly, roughly 15-25% of all health care spending in developed nations is due to self-pay (cost-sharing) in the form of co-pays, co-insurance or deductibles.  Evidence shows that cost-sharing limits a form of market failure called moral hazard; if insurance companies cover all health care costs, patients will over utilize unnecessary health care services.