In 2002, the SARS virus broke out in China.  As author Clay Shirkey tells the story in his book Here Comes Everybody about open source solutions to 21st Century challenges, China undertook to find the genetic sequence to SARS as the first step to prevention and cure.  However despite considerable expertise and infrastructure brought to bear in China on the project, it was a small genetics lab in Canada that discovered the sequence.  The reason?   The Canadian lab used an “open source” network in which information about the project was shared collaboratively among a wide variety of stakeholders.  In contrast, China centralized and consolidated the flow of information to the detriment of a solution.

With this in mind, you’ll find in yesterday’s newsletter two statements in bold within our citations to the GAO Supplement Report and H.B. 875.  Take another look at those statements.  read more

As we mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, healthcare regulation typically addresses safety and efficacy of products and practices.  We tend to overlook that information is also regulated.  In fact, that’s the most fundamental purpose of healthcare regulations.  The way in which information is structured shapes how questions of safety and efficacy get asked and answered.  The flow of information, like hormones in the body, has an awful lot to do with the growth, development and energy of the Body Politic.

By way of example, let’s look at two pending developments in healthcare reform. Recall our recent discussion about January’s GAO report on dietary supplements, and the recent news about H. Bill 875 that aims to create a new Food Safety Administration.  As we dig into these two developments, keep in mind these questions:

1.    What’s the source of healthcare information; and

2.    How is that information structured?

read more

The symptoms of illness in the Body Politic these days seem almost too numerous to address. It's a challenge to stay on task and keep our discussion to healthcare.  The urge is to respond to everything that's going on. But we are Citizens For Health.  And healthcare is a fundamental element of the Body Politic and a model for other issues.



To prove our point, we offer here the first of a five part series about an important topic that often gets lost in the shuffle when we talk about healthcare reform.  It's a topic that could apply to any of the symptoms afflicting us.  It's especially acute in healthcare. That topic is information.

 read more