healthy4u

Smarter shopping on smartphones

This weekend my wife and I went shopping for a birthday present for our 5-year-old nephew, and as usual we were looking for a gift at the last minute. We found ourselves in the toy aisle of a local store, unsure what to buy or how much these toys should cost. It could have been a stressful experience, but luckily I was able to reach into my pocket and use Google Product Search on my G1 to quickly see that the price of a building set was reasonable and that the reviews for a DVD were generally positive. I'm happy to announce that as of today, when you type a product query on Google.com in your iPhone or Android browser, you'll get Google Product Search results nicely formatted for your phone. You can see online ratings, reviews, prices, and product details if you're out and about, or just do some mobile web surfing from your couch. Whether you're trying to decide between two digital cameras while you're in a store or checking out prices for a new product that you've just seen on TV, we hope Google Product Search for mobile helps you to make better-informed shopping choices. Below, you can see Rob, one of our engineers, go on a shopping adventure at our Mountain View headquarters.  <object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y20cmESMZWo&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y20cmESMZWo&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> Visit the <a href="http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/04/google-product-search-for-android-and.html">Google Mobile Blog</a> or <a href="http://google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=21638">Help Center</a> to learn more. Or try it out by going to Google.com on your Android or iPhone device, type in a shopping query and then select the 'Shopping results' link. (Note that the experience is enabled for U.S. and U.K. users only.)<div> Posted by Yury Pinsky, Product Manager, Google Mobile team</div>

Smarter shopping on smartphones

This weekend my wife and I went shopping for a birthday present for our 5-year-old nephew, and as usual we were looking for a gift at the la...

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The "Investment Bankers" Strike Back: A Dissident is Thrown Off the Dartmouth Board

We have posted frequently on the governance and leadership of academic medical organizations. While one would think that health care organizations, and especially academic health care organizations ought to be held to a particularly high standard of governance, we have noted how their governance is often unrepresentative of key constituencies, opaque, unaccountable, unsupportive of the academic and health care mission, and not subject to codes of ethics. How the governance of organizations with such exemplary missions and sterling reputations got this way has been unclear. We have often come back to the example of Dartmouth College, of which Dartmouth Medical School is a significant component. We most recently summarized <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/04/hedge-fund-u-version-2.html">here</a> an ongoing dispute about the extent that the institution's board of trustees ought to represent the alumni at large, or instead, ought to be a self-elected body not clearly accountable to anyone else. When we first addressed the dispute, we noted that the self-elected, or "charter" members of the board were mostly leaders in finance, and when they succeeded increasing the proportion of self-elected members, the additions were again, mainly from finance. The latest development at Dartmouth is that the board, whose majority is now self-elected, is going to boot off one of the few members who was elected by the alumni at large after being nominated by petition of alumni. As described in <a href="http://thedartmouth.com/2009/04/17/opinion/zywicki/">an editorial in the college newspaper, The Dartmouth</a>, <blockquote> We were dismayed to learn of the Board of Trustees’ decision not to reelect Trustee Todd Zywicki ‘88 for a second term ('Board votes not to reelect Zywicki ‘88,' April 7). Even in the wake of Zywicki’s open letter to the Dartmouth community on Tuesday ('Zywicki ‘88 criticizes Board in open letter,' April 15), the Board has yet to provide the Dartmouth community with a sufficient explanation for the removal. Since 1990, when the power to reelect alumni trustees was transferred from alumni to the Board itself, reappointment to the Board for a second term has generally been routine; Zywicki is the first trustee in recent history to be denied reelection. Zywicki said in his letter that comments he made during an address at the John William Pope Center in October 2007 'might have been' one of the reasons behind the Board’s decision. In the address, Zywicki made a series of controversial and inflammatory statements, including calling former College President James Freedman 'truly evil.' Assuming that no egregious act remains undisclosed (and there has been no indication that this is the case), Zywicki’s removal disregards the will of the alumni who put him on the Board, and contradicts the democratic manner in which alumni elect trustees. Dissenting opinions are essential to the operation of any governing body. While Zywicki may have behaved unprofessionally, the public reprimand issued by the Board was sufficient punishment. It is one thing to reprimand a trustee for making statements against the College in a public forum, but to remove dissenting opinions from the boardroom is to undermine the will of the alumni who voted in support of those very views. </blockquote> Further <a href="http://thedartmouth.com/2009/04/20/news/haldeman/">news coverage in The Dartmouth </a>suggested a flawed process was used to get rid of Zywicki, <blockquote> Trustee T.J. Rodgers '70, who like Zywicki was nominated to be a candidate for the Board via petition and was successfully reelected at the April meeting, compared the reelection process to a 'witch-hunt trial' and said it was 'an affront to due process' in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. '[Zywicki] was ejected by a secret vote — he was not allowed to know the vote count or even the reasons behind his ejection,' Rodgers said in the e-mail. Rodgers added that he believes the decision not to reelect Zywicki was 'an embarrassment for the Board.' 'The effect of Todd’s ejection has been to warn me and any other trustee likely to speak his or her own mind to watch our step,' he said in the e-mail. </blockquote> Finally, Mr Rogers wrote his own <a href="http://thedartmouth.com/2009/04/22/opinion/rodgers/">commentary in The Dartmouth</a>, <blockquote> 'Hang one, warn a thousand' says the ancient Chinese proverb. In its April meeting, the Dartmouth Board of Trustees hanged Todd Zywicki '88, thus warning the petition trustees — and any others tempted to express independent views — not to cross the party line. The Board’s action was coldly deliberate. The legal machinery by which it was achieved took two years to construct. Every 20 years or so, when a majority of the alumni body decides that the College is ignoring a critical problem, it elects petition trustees to promote change. That tradition, a healthy method of governance that sets Dartmouth apart, goes back to 1891, when alumni were formally granted one-half of Dartmouth’s Board seats in return for financing the College. [After Rogers' election,] Subsequently, the alumni elected three more petition trustees with views similar to mine: Peter Robinson ‘79, Todd Zywicki ‘88 and Stephen Smith ‘88. It was no accident that each of them was a university professor or scholar. The Board Majority, predominantly composed of investment bankers, could have benefitted greatly from the new trustees’ education-first viewpoint, but instead, we were treated as if we were attacking the College. We were actually called a 'radical cabal' trying to 'hijack' the College by the Board member whose seat I had taken. The petition trustees had successfully overcome the penny-ante counterattacks, such as denying us the ability to mail our petitions to alumni to request signatures, and raising the required number of petition signatures, so it came time for the Board Majority to fix the petition trustee 'problem' permanently. First, the Majority Board members simply declared the right to double their number from eight to 16 without adding an equivalent number of alumni trustees, despite an Association of Alumni poll of 4,000 alumni, who responded in favor of alumni trustee parity, 92 percent to eight percent. Then, the Majority threw its weight and College funds into a campaign to remove the Association leaders who had sued the College for breaking the 1891 Agreement. In the boardroom, the Majority rewrote the 50 year-old Trustee Oath into an oath of loyalty, which was designed, in part, to limit trustees’ ability to express dissenting viewpoints without the direct threat of being ejected from the Board. And finally — fatally for Todd Zywicki — the Majority installed a formal review process that judged trustees against the new oath on a line-by-line basis. On the day of his trial, Zywicki was asked if he wanted to make a statement. He apologized again for his Pope Center speech and exited. In order to maintain the confidentiality of board proceedings, I cannot give details. However, I can say from personal knowledge that many of the statements made in that meeting about Todd Zywicki were factually incorrect, but Todd was not there to respond. In my opinion, all of the issues, including his speech, did not rise to the level of negating the votes of the alumni who elected Todd. Despite my objection, the vote — for the only time in my five years on the Board — was secret. Todd Zywicki’s greatest achievement as a Dartmouth trustee may well be having the personal courage to force the Board Majority to take responsibility for a political lynching. </blockquote> Since I started writing about the governance of health care organizations, I used <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/09/oceania-in-new-hampshire.html">the example of Dartmouth</a> (again, really a university with a medical school as a major component) as an example of governance that was more representative and accountable than that of many other health care organizations. Most universities that contain medical schools, for example, do not allow alumni to vote on the membership of more than a few board seats, and most only allow them to vote for alumni candidates hand-picked by the administration, not nominated by alumni petitions. However, since I started writing about Dartmouth, it seems that the self-elected majority of its board has done its best to make the board less representative and less accountable. Furthermore, it seems that some of the board's self-elected members regard anyone who disagrees with them as an enemy of the institution. Thus, their attitude seems to be: "l'universite c'est moi." However, the duties of boards of trustees include the duty to uphold the institution's mission, not the board members' personal whims. When I first started writing about these issues, I was surprised to find that the majority of the Dartmouth's boards self-elected, that is, "charter" trustees were from the finance sector. Now, having seen poor, sometimes arrogant, greedy, or even corrupt leadership of that sector bring down the world economy, I ask again whether people brought up in that culture ought to be dominant among the leadership of higher education?

The "Investment Bankers" Strike Back: A Dissident is Thrown Off the Dartmouth Board

We have posted frequently on the governance and leadership of academic medical organizations. While one would think that health care organiz...

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Happy Earth Day, Earthlings

Googlers around the world are celebrating <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day">Earth Day</a> today by participating in events from green-themed film screenings in Singapore and Hyderabad, to a local food event in Kirkland, WA and Bike to Work Day in London. At our Mountain View campus, we're holding an environmental fair and hosting talks all week long as part of our Green@Google speaker series. We're also giving employees in most of our offices around the world next-generation, super-efficient <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode">LED</a> light bulbs to encourage energy efficiency. (LEDs use up to 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs and 50% less energy than a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp">CFL</a>.) In the average U.S. home, lighting accounts for about 20% of the electricity bill. If every Googler changes out one incandescent light bulb for one of these LEDs, the combined impact would be the equivalent of taking over 4,000 cars off the road for one year! Of course, installing efficient light bulbs is just one way to cut down on energy consumption and costs. Just in time for Earth Day, the <a href="http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/">Climate Savers Computing Initiative</a>'s <a href="http://www.powerdownfortheplanet.org/">Power Down for the Planet</a> pledge campaign aimed at colleges and universities wrapped up last week. More than 17,000 students took <a href="http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/individual-join/">the pledge</a> to support more efficient computing. The <a href="http://www.umf.maine.edu/">University of Maine at Farmington</a> won the challenge, beating out 18 other schools with more than 24% of their campus community taking the pledge. You too can help save energy by enabling <a href="http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/learn/saving-energy-at-home/">power management</a> on your computer and buying <a href="http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/tools/smarter-computing-catalog/">more efficient computers</a>. As you take a moment today to think about how you can make our lovely patch of blue and green a little more healthy, we encourage you to explore a <a href="http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=earth&preview=on&cat=featured">special gallery</a> of Google Earth layers we compiled to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. With the power of Google Earth, we have the ability to visualize geo-spatial information and help us better understand the true impact humankind has on the planet. For example, you can visualize the <a href="http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=earth&preview=on&cat=featured&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmapplets.googlepages.com%2Fnsidc_glaciers_ocean.xml">changes in glaciers over the years</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=earth&preview=on&cat=featured&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fmapfiles%2Fmapplets%2Fearthgallery%2FVancouver_Sea_Level_Rising.xml">rising sea levels</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=earth&preview=on&cat=featured&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmapplets.googlepages.com%2Fmohc_defra_layer_ocean.xml">climatic change and rising temperature</a> from the feature KMLs in our Gallery. Like <a href="http://www.google.com/musics?lid=czFiCbCKRfL&aid=y_c5CseS6gP&sid=3DKfG6zozZP">others have said</a> before us, we like to think that every day is Earth Day. But on this 39th anniversary of the official Earth Day, we're showing Mother Earth a little extra love and care, and hope that you'll be doing the same. Posted by Lacy Caruthers, Green Business and Operations Strategy

Happy Earth Day, Earthlings

Googlers around the world are celebrating Earth Day today by participating in events from green-themed film screenings in Singapore and Hyd...

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Search for "me" on Google

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihvlAV8SM59qDf_fmmafIgm-cN4eKbewJJxvWiDRwGj8gdjGzwZce9sYdu-ivHZWdHQoPen1_y2X2eoIvdGUNaEDkDgNaZANTq9q8jBRv0MOl3c7Z0FpRCz9voI8Aoi9TyV_eyQuvbM0ol/s1600-h/googleMeCard.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327232917417742562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihvlAV8SM59qDf_fmmafIgm-cN4eKbewJJxvWiDRwGj8gdjGzwZce9sYdu-ivHZWdHQoPen1_y2X2eoIvdGUNaEDkDgNaZANTq9q8jBRv0MOl3c7Z0FpRCz9voI8Aoi9TyV_eyQuvbM0ol/s320/googleMeCard.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 212px;" /></a> It's no secret that from time to time many of us have searched on Google for our name or someone else's. When searching for yourself to see what others would find, results can be varied and aren't always what you want people to see — whether it's someone else with your name, or the finishing time from that 5K you ran back in 2002. We want to make that better and give you more of a voice. To give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name, we've begun to show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. These results offer abbreviated information from user-created Google profiles and a link to the full profiles. We've also added links so it's easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht99ErNKcaP4tPtD5CLHLeWs0kry-MVQq8OYKM2K5FtkQV06tl4ZDZno91yOHxYqpYEzNqHd-U8o1uog_A3ipVyEwpxVJxQYx_iR_uHhdr74BF9iPkdZAHfTiN0qgJfy9zQ0JbsjBlTWj3/s1600-h/landing2updated.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327231584513541634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht99ErNKcaP4tPtD5CLHLeWs0kry-MVQq8OYKM2K5FtkQV06tl4ZDZno91yOHxYqpYEzNqHd-U8o1uog_A3ipVyEwpxVJxQYx_iR_uHhdr74BF9iPkdZAHfTiN0qgJfy9zQ0JbsjBlTWj3/s400/landing2updated.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 143px;" /></a> Don't have a Google profile? Just search for [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=me">me</a>] and follow the instructions at the top of the page to create one. In just a few minutes, you can create a public profile that represents you and that appears when people search for your name on Google. Check out <a href="http://www.google.com/profiles">www.google.com/profiles</a> to learn more. Posted by Brian Stoler, Software Engineer

Search for "me" on Google

It's no secret that from time to time many of us have searched on Google for our name or someone else's. When searching for yourself...

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GSA contest results are in

Back in February we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/search-is-on-for-google-search.html">announced</a> a contest to discover how "findable" the <a href="http://www.google.com/enterprise/search/gsa.html">Google Search Appliance (GSA)</a> is in offices across the U.S. The GSA gives businesses of all shapes and sizes the power of universal search. In order to discover exactly how the GSA is helping businesses, we asked our customers to submit photos of their shiny yellow box with an explanation of how enterprise search has made their job easier. The results are in and we have chosen two grand prize winners who will attend an all-expenses paid trip to the <a href="http://code.google.com/events/io/">Google IO Conference</a> in May. Check out one of the winning photos below from <a href="http://wellstar.org/">WellStar Health Systems</a>, one of the largest not-for-profit health care systems in the Southeast, based in the Atlanta area. You can read their story and more on the <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/04/we-have-winner-news-on-wheres-your.html">Enterprise Blog</a>. <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj32fwYiAzD8d9NGeenU61kZ_IBvWjHih3JSvCfMY7JQ0vMkTmR4yhqQylq96vOm_DjFSNLMD2pNUsmN-g-wOsI0-wqrPBRayF3tw1Ha3cNfLlBG3FQbj6Zn5PwRlPuPCq0lrlPKh9AGkcd/s1600-h/WellStar_GSA_Entry.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327199927309467586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj32fwYiAzD8d9NGeenU61kZ_IBvWjHih3JSvCfMY7JQ0vMkTmR4yhqQylq96vOm_DjFSNLMD2pNUsmN-g-wOsI0-wqrPBRayF3tw1Ha3cNfLlBG3FQbj6Zn5PwRlPuPCq0lrlPKh9AGkcd/s400/WellStar_GSA_Entry.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px;" /></a>Keeping "operations" running smoothly </div> Posted by Dave Kim, Associate Product Marketing Manager

GSA contest results are in

Back in February we announced a contest to discover how "findable" the Google Search Appliance (GSA) is in offices across the U....

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New Jersey Legislator Found Guilty of Fraudulantly Advocating on Hospital's Behalf

Here is the latest story of health care corruption, this one involving a state legislator and a big hospital, as <a href="http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1240028142161100.xml&coll=1">reported by the Newark Star-Ledger</a>, <blockquote> Former state senator Joseph Coniglio, who funneled more than $1 million in public funding to Hackensack University Medical Center after it gave him a high-paying consulting job, was convicted yesterday on six counts of fraud and extortion. The jury of seven men and five women, who issued a split decision and were deadlocked on one of the nine counts, found Coniglio guilty on nearly all the charges involving the exchange of money. The verdict, coming after four days of deliberations, found Coniglio guilty on five counts of defrauding the public and one count of extortion. He was acquitted on two mail fraud counts; the jury said it was unable to reach a verdict on a third mail fraud charge. Coniglio, a retired union plumber elected to the Senate in 2001, first met in early 2004 with Hackensack University Medical Center's chief executive, John P. Ferguson -- about the time he was appointed to a seat on the influential Budget and Appropriations Committee -- and began negotiating for a $5,000-a-month consulting contract to do work that was never clearly defined. The consulting agreement was signed in May 2004 and Coniglio subsequently began lobbying to help secure a series of grants for the medical center's programs for abused children, its cancer center and children's hospital. Prosecutors argued the consulting work was simply a guise to pay off Coniglio in exchange for his support for funding millions in special earmarks. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig, who agreed the case was circumstantial, told jurors corruption is secret and there is never a roadmap to detail it. 'People don't get paid to do nothing,' she said. No hospital officials were charged, but one medical center executive had negotiated a non-prosecution agreement in exchange for testimony. </blockquote> Note that this case is very similar to one in my state of Rhode Island. In that case, both a state legislator and a hospital CEO have been found guilty. (The CEO was just sentenced, as reported here <a href="http://www.projo.com/news/content/URCIUOLI_SENTENCING.1_04-11-09_K3E0KTS_v12.36a99c2.html">in the Providence Journal</a>.) These cases are a reminder of the prevalence of out and out corruption in US health care. Indeed, <a href="http://www.transparency.org./publications/gcr/gcr_2006">Transparency International's 2006 Global Corruption Report </a>argued that health care corruption is common throughout the world, in nearly all countries, regardless of their wealth, or the organization of their health care systems. Corruption misdirects health care resources, raising costs for all, and indirectly leads to restricted access to care. I submit that the corruption of people with decision making power in health care likely taints all their decisions, often to the detriment of patients and health care professionals. Although not all health care corruption is discovered and successfully prosecuted, even those cases that result in convictions are often <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/08/bling-bling-poltical-correctness-and.html">anechoic</a>. If we cannot even talk about health care corruption, how are we ever going to do anything about it? But if we are not resolved to at least confront corruption, should we be whining about increasing costs, and declining access and quality?

New Jersey Legislator Found Guilty of Fraudulantly Advocating on Hospital's Behalf

Here is the latest story of health care corruption, this one involving a state legislator and a big hospital, as reported by the Newark Star...

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Quest Diagnostics Settles

The latest big settlement, as <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aE6x.6gl4G70">reported by Bloomberg</a>: <blockquote> Quest Diagnostics Inc. the world’s largest provider of medical diagnostic tests, agreed to pay $302 million to resolve allegations that its Nichols Institute Diagnostics unit manufactured, marketed and sold misbranded diagnostic test kits, the U.S. government said. The accord, which the U.S. said is one of the largest recoveries ever in a case involving a medical device, settles federal civil and criminal probes by prosecutors in the office of Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell. Nichols pleaded guilty to a felony misbranding charge today before U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson in Brooklyn and agreed to a fine of $40 million, Campbell said. The kits that were misbranded involved a test used by labs called the Advantage Intact PTH Assay test, which is used to measure parathyroid hormone levels in patients, Campbell’s office said. Quest also agreed to pay $262 million plus interest to settle federal False Claims Act allegations relating to the test and four others made by Nichols that allegedly provided inaccurate and unreliable results, the U.S. said. Madison, New Jersey-based Quest also agreed to pay various state Medicaid programs about $6.2 million to resolve similar civil claims. Quest closed the Nicholas unit in 2006 and hasn’t sold the parathyroid test kits since 2005, Samuels said. The U.S. began its probe after a whistleblower suit was filed that alleged that the Advantage Intact and another test, the Bio-Intact PTH Assay, produced elevated results, Campbell’s office said. The tests were used by doctors to determine if patients suffering from conditions such as end-state renal disease were also suffering from hyperparathyroidism, a condition which involves overactivity of the parathyroid glands. Contrary to Nichols’s claims on inserts and marketing materials, the firm was aware in or about May 2000 that the test wasn’t providing consistent result, Campbell’s office said. </blockquote> A settlement here, a settlement there, soon it may add up to some real money. We have posted again and again about legal settlements, sometimes huge, made by prominent health care organizations (see some of them <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/legal%20settlements">here</a>). In the current case, the US Attorney stated that a prominent corporate provider of diagnostic services failed to reveal that its "test wasn't providing consistent results," and the company itself, or rather, one of its subsidiaries that is now closed down, pleaded guilty to "misbranding." Despite the outrage that ought to ensue after a diagnostics company admitted it concealed the fact that it knew its tests were inconsistent, and still provided and billed for test results, I suspect that this settlement, like others before, will sink without too many ripples. Yet this inexorable train of settlements suggests something fundamentally wrong with our health care system. Organizations that provide vital services to patients too often do so dishonestly, putting patient safety at risk. Although physician errors provoke endless headlines and much physician agony, organizational errors of apparently equal import vanish without a trace. I will note also that in this case, like many others before, only the corporation paid a penalty. The effects of this penalty, paid with fungible money, may be dispersed among shareholders, employees, clients, and/or patients. Yet it is not clear whether anyone directly responsible for the inconsistent test results, and the hiding thereof will pay anything additional. As long as poor organizational practices, and the cover-up of same, result in no negative consequences for those who are responsible for them, and as long as even discussion of such issues is <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/08/bling-bling-poltical-correctness-and.html">anechoic</a>, why should such practices and cover-ups stop?

Quest Diagnostics Settles

The latest big settlement, as reported by Bloomberg : Quest Diagnostics Inc. the world’s largest provider of medical diagnostic tests, agree...

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