Economist

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Economist, Why so Pessimistic about Open Source Medical Devices Software?

medicaldeviceslegal | Erik Vollebregt | June 11, 2012

I read an interesting article in the Economist’s Technology Quarterly of June 2nd-8th of 2012, p. 17-18, on open source medical devices software. Let me summarise for you: the article starts by showing all the benefits of medical devices software that is developed using open source models, and there are many...The article concludes however that open source has no place in the current regulatory environment and points only to FDA regulation for that conclusion. Read More »

Open Access Will Change The World, If Scientists Want It To

Terry Sunderland | The Conversation | October 4, 2012

While the Australian Research Council considers its policy on open-access publication and others within the scientific community call for the increased sharing of scientific data, the British are already a step ahead. Read More »

Our Parents Left Africa – Now We Are Coming Home

Afua Hirsch | The Guardian | August 25, 2012

...There is a symmetry to the journey that returnees are making, which speaks volumes about the state of Africa today. Our parents left – exactly 50 years ago in my case – fleeing deteriorating economic conditions and limited opportunities at home. Now their children are forming an exodus from the crisis-ridden eurozone, four years of recession and the dogged perception of inequality and discrimination in the west.
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What Economists Don’t Know About the Health Care Industry

Andy Oram | EMR & EHR | October 7, 2015

Recently, I resorted to a rare economic argument in a health IT article, pointing out that it’s unfair to put the burden of high health care costs on the patients. Now 101 economists have come out publicly recommending that very injustice. Their analysis shows the deep reluctance of those who are supposed to guide our health care policy to admit how distorted the current system is, and how entrenched are the powerful forces that keep it from reforming...But in this case, the average patient has knowledge that these economists lack. The problems are also well known to anyone in the health care industry who has the courage and clarity of vision to acknowledge what’s going on. If we want the system to change, let’s put public pressure on the people who are actually responsible for the problems–not the hapless patient.

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