Insights

<p>Against the backdrop of today's televised health care summit in Washington, D.C., a Los Angeles gathering is discussing health in their communities from a decidedly different angle.<br /><br />"When people think of health, they frequently think of medicine," said Michelle Levander, director of The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, which convened the event. "But we encourage you think of health&nbsp; from a different standpoint, from the perspective of broader community well being."</p>

<p>A new <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_1801-1850/ab_1802_bill_… bill</a> allowing school employees to provide insulin injections to schoolchildren with diabetes is worth watching as it makes its way through the California legislature. AB1802 was introduced Feb. 10 by Assemblyman Isadore Hall (D—Compton). Advocates for children with diabetes <a href="http://www.diabetesincaschools.com/hall-introduces-ab1802.html">are rallying behind it</a>.</p>

<p>The doctors responsible for the safe delivery of millions of babies over the past two and a half centuries may have been serial killers.</p> <p>Some of the more cynical followers of Doctors Behaving Badly may not find this hard to believe, but it has caused quite a stir in Britain, where William Hunter and William Smellie created the science underlying modern day obstetrics. As Denis Campbell in the <em>London Observer</em> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/07/british-obstetrics-founders-mu…;

<p><em>Originally posted on <a href="http://www.docgurley.com/2010/02/20/haiti-traveling/">Doc Gurley: Tales from an Insane Healthcare System</a>.</em></p>

<p>Join Dr. Robert Smith with the American Cancer Society and Dr. Chris Flowers with UCSF to discuss the science behind the new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. Log on at www.contracostatimes.com.</p&gt;

<p>At ReportingonHealth, we aim to provide useful resources to members from a variety of sources. In that spirit, here are three fellowship opportunities that might interest you. Attend a conference, or become a fellow-in-residence at a university. Either way, if you are interested in these programs, apply soon.</p>

<p>About halfway through my October trip to Grand Junction, Colorado to see if the community's unusual health-care model could or should be replicated, I got so enthused about the possibilities that I had to keep close tabs on my objectivity.</p><p>I settled for a package that presents the Grand Junction model as an intriguing possibility, while including skeptics and naysayers.</p>

<p>As Congress slugs it out over health-care reform this week, hopeful eyes are on Grand Junction, CO., where low-cost, high-quality near-universal health care is the norm.</p> <p>You can find my new five-part series on Grand Junction’s health care system <a href="http://www.kbdi.org/news/">here</a&gt;. &nbsp;</p> <p>The doctors in Grand Junction, a western Colorado city of 53,000, say their system can become a national model, and there are doctors in dozens of communities ready to replicate the system that uses a non-profit insurance provider but allows doctors to work for profit.</p>

<p>Even the predawn day began a little differently. The shrill distant stadium cheers of hundreds of Haitian roosters sounded oddly synchronized, as though perhaps they were doing the wave. There were more dogs keeping the beat with incessant, rhythmic barking.<br />

<p>It was bad enough for Dr. Conrad Murray to be giving Michael Jackson propofol when <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/michael-jackson%E2%80%99s-doctor%E2%80%99s-mistakes-part-2-lack-training-gives-prosecutors-ammo-criminal-case">he had no training</a> administering anesthetics. His second mistake was using a dangerous drug in an improper setting: a bedroom.</p> <p>Here was Murray’s surgical suite, according to <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0208101jackson3.html">t… Los Angeles County Coroner’s report</a>:</p>