Donald Trump has nominated Scott Gottlieb to be the next FDA Commissioner. To his credit, Gottlieb is not certifiably crazy like several of the other candidates who were reported to be under consideration for the job. But he is is a deeply conservative ideologue who is determined to reduce the government’s role in healthcare. On two occasions in…
Why Bad Doctors Are Like Bad Writers: The Curse Of Knowledge
September 27, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Steven Pinker, the Harvard psychologist and best-selling author, has a wonderful essay in the Wall Street Journal about why smart people are so often bad writers. Although the essay doesn’t touch on the subject of doctor-patient communication, every single word applies to doctors and the way they communicate (or fail to communicate) with their patients. Here’s the core…
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed On Sham Surgery Gets It Wrong
February 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA official under George W. Bush, argues that the FDA should stop requiring medical device companies to use sham procedures when they test certain new products. To support his argument he uses the example of renal denervation, a once highly promising new technology for lowering…
Two FDA Officials Quarrel Over Safety Of Angiotensin Receptor Blockers
May 31, 2013 by 1 Comment
Two FDA officials are quarreling in public about their different views about the safety of angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs), according to a story by Thomas Burton in Friday’s Wall Street Journal. One official, Thomas Marciniak, contends that ARBs may increase the risk of cancer. Marciniak has been a vocal critic of FDA’s efforts to assess drug safety. In…
WSJ Article Fails To Raise Key Questions About Cardiovascular Risk In Children
April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
There’s probably no greater public health issue than the long-term consequences of the childhood obesity epidemic. So the Wall Street Journal should be commended for digging into some of the important science behind this problem in a feature article in today’s paper. The author, Ron Winslow, is widely regarded as the best working journalist who…
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