Insights

At a time when there are so many vital questions to ask, and research budgets everywhere are under attack, I wonder why well-meaning researchers pick obvious questions to ask. Is it easier to get funding? Are they cheaper to execute? Is the bar lower?

It just got even easier to see whether your hospital has a significant infection problem. If state and federal agencies were racing to provide the most useful information in the simplest to understand format, Hospital Compare just took the lead.

Two California gun buyback programs try crowdsourcing to fund their operations. Does getting firearms off the street in this manner really reduce gun violence?

Online maps make cool tools, but do they foster cleaner, safer health care? The public knowledge and peer pressure they create can be powerful forces to get hospitals addressing their infection problems.

The Medill Justice Project has published a thin slice of its data on shaken baby cases, in conjunction with its analysis of how cases are distributed across the country. The view into the database is very narrow, but the county-by-county searches can be fascinating.

What is a wellness trust and can it address the vast health disparities in Los Angeles?

The Nurse Family Partnership, an early intervention program which features home-visits for at risk children, has a track record of better health outcomes and reducing problems among poorer moms and kids. But it isn't a cure-all for the problems darkening the prospects of these children.

The early bird deadline for the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism from the AHCJ is December 20th.

Wish you had a place to compare hospital post-op infection rates before you consider where to have your procedure? In California you can with the state's map of central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), MRSA and VRE.

The “Give A Scan” program is the first to ask lung cancer patients, as well as those at risk, to donate their CT scans and other medical information to an anonymous data base. A pilot program is going national this week.