Pamela Hartzband and Jerome Groopman are physicians on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. Wednesday’s Op-Ed, from The New York Times (Nov. 19), discusses the corruption in medical practice, largely conducted behind the scenes, at a cost to all of us. “When we are patients, we want our doctors to make recommendations that are in our best interests as individuals....

As election results came in late last night, it became clear that the Republicans would indeed take control of the Senate, but the night was not without many surprises in the governor’s races around the country. Among them: Republican governors will become chief executives in three states, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Illinois long held by Democrats. Now, that the results clearly...

There are two ways some people have reacted to the Ebola crisis: the Chicken Little approach, or the complacent approach. Neither is helpful or effective. “Think of this America, please think of this,” Glenn Beck told listeners. “Every time somebody new gets the Ebola virus, it mutates. It’s going to go aerosol.” “Fears of contagion spiked,” writes The New York...

In 2009, The New York Times ran a story which renewed the debate some parents have over whether or not to allow doctors to vaccinate their children against the flu and childhood diseases. This particular story concerned a vaccination for the H1N1 flu. “Barbara Loe Fisher,” The Times writes (Oct. 16, 2009, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, an...

How do you make sense of the senseless? As soon as I logged-on to The Washington Post Saturday morning, I stared in disbelief at a headline reporting that the latest school shooting had occurred just twenty minutes from where I live. From late Friday night to Monday morning, our small community continues to be shaken by the fact that we have joined...

Over the ricky ticky tinkle of a honky-tonk piano banging out “Buffalo Gals,” Georgia Governor Nathan “what-a” Deal sits down at his desk to sign a new piece of legislation into law. Watching the proceedings, a tall man with a steely-eyed gaze, dressed in black with matching hat quietly watches. “Well, boys,” Deal says, handing out souvenir pens, “Here she is, the Safe...

What happens to a whistleblower after they blow the whistle? Are they considered heroes or villains? Do their actions inspire others, or are the personal risks too great? Those are some of the questions that are explored in a podcast(Mar. 11), by Julia Taylor Kennedy for the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Taylor Kennedy begins her conversation by talking to...

When it comes to privacy and your personal information, the NSA is not the organization we need to worry about the most, data brokers are. As I discussed on Monday, data brokers are busy compiling detailed profiles not only of your likes and dislikes, but considerably more personal information than the NSA, including but not limited to, any diseases you...

Think the National Security Agency (NSA) is the greatest threat to American’s privacy? Think again. The number of data brokers – companies that collect, categorize and sell information about each of us – is mindboggling. The following story by CBS News 60 Minutes (Mar. 9) got my attention when I noticed that two of the sample sites they were browsing – The...

Three stories appearing in last Friday’s (Mar. 7) New York Times grabbed my attention. “An Army judge on Thursday accepted guilty pleas from Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair to misconduct charges, including possession of pornography and inappropriate relationships with female soldiers. But the general, a former deputy commander of American forces in southern Afghanistan, still faces court-martial on charges that...