Inaugural Reflections

Listening to President Obama speak this morning, I was struck by the tone of his inaugural address, more somber and subdued than the rhetori...

Healthcare Reform: Lessons from Abroad

In a remarkably thoughtful and lucid essay, Atul Gwande, a Boston cancer surgeon, surveys national health systems in other industrialized de...

Obama and the Trial Lawyers -- What to Expect

At first glance, the election of Barack Obama, an attorney who was president of the Harvard Law Review and who taught constitutional law at ...

Patents and Drugs: Is the Present System Working?

The pharmaceutical industry is frequently singled out as the prime example of a successful U.S. patent system. But Benjamin Roin, a junior f...

Life Sciences in the Obama Administration: A Perspective on Harold Varmus

On December 26, President-elect Obama announced his team of science and technology advisors, including MIT geneticist Eric Lander and Harold...

CBO’s Magnum Opus: Healthcare and Insurance Reform

Just before Christmas, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued two volumes that focus on healthcare: Key Issues in Analyzing Major Heal...

Big Question 2009: What Will Change Everything

Beginning several years ago, John Brockman, the digital impresario and creator of the website www.edge.org , has started off each New Year b...

Marcia Angell Zeros in on Conflicts of Interest

Marcia Angell, author of The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It (2004), has just published her lat...