Media and citizens meet in the YouTube Reporters' Center

<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This is the first of a series of posts from YouTube's news and politics blog, <a href="http://www.citizentube.com/">Citizentube</a>.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> -Ed.</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a> is the biggest video news site on the Internet, and at no time in our site's history was that more apparent than in these last two weeks of the crisis unfolding in Iran. As hundreds of thousands of Iranian citizens took to the streets of Tehran to protest the national elections, the government kicked out foreign journalists, leaving citizens themselves as the only documentarians to the events unfolding there. We've been highlighting many of these videos and keeping track of the latest developments on our YouTube news and politics blog, <a href="http://www.citizentube.com/">Citizentube</a>.<br /><br />Though the circumstances in Iran are unique, this isn't the first time that citizens have played a crucial role in reporting on events around the world. Burmese citizens uploaded exclusive video footage to YouTube during the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=i_r4JhbhmgU">protests in Myanmar</a> back in 2007; people in China's Sichuan province documented the devastating and historic <a href="http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=pB40GKtrVQY">7.8-magnitude earthquake</a> of 2008 in real-time; and eyewitnesses to the shooting of young <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tmh9B8LVxM">Oscar Grant</a> by Oakland police forces captured the event on their cell phone cameras and uploaded videos to YouTube for the world to see. Citizens are no longer merely bystanders to world events. Today, anyone can chronicle what they see and participate in the news-gathering process.<br /><br />Though it's the phenomenon of citizen reporting that YouTube is probably best known for, we also have hundreds of news partners who upload thousands of videos straight to YouTube every day. You can see lots of these on our news page at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/news">youtube.com/news</a>. Many of these organizations have used YouTube in unique ways, like asking the community to <a href="http://www.citizentube.com/2009/01/washington-post-asks-your-government.html">submit questions for government officials</a>, providing a <a href="http://www.citizentube.com/2009/04/view-from-press-corp.html">behind-the-scenes look</a> at traveling with the Obama press corps and accepting video applications for a <a href="http://www.citizentube.com/2009/02/last-chance-to-win-trip-with-nick.html">reporting assignment in West Africa</a>. We believe the power of this new media landscape lies in the collaborative possibilities of amateurs and professionals working together.<br /><br />And so today, we're launching a new resource on YouTube to help citizens learn more about how to report the news, straight from the experts. It's called the <a href="http://youtube.com/reporterscenter">YouTube Reporters' Center</a>, and it features some of the nation's top journalists sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting. Learn how to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eOynrI2eTM">prepare for an interview</a>; or how to be an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVKGUctuoXE">investigative reporter</a> from the legendary Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward; or how to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVVdH8n5470">report on a global humanitarian</a> crisis from Nick Kristof of the New York Times. All of the videos are available on the<a href="http://youtube.com/reporterscenter"> </a>YouTube Reporters' Center channel.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Olivia Ma, YouTube News and Politics</span>

Media and citizens meet in the YouTube Reporters' Center

This is the first of a series of posts from YouTube's news and politics blog, Citizentube . -Ed. YouTube is the biggest video news sit...

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UK's National Programme for IT in the NHS Known Doomed at Outset?

It would seem likely.<br /><br />In May 2009 at "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/05/machinery-behind-healthcare-reform-how.html">The Machinery Behind Healthcare Reform: How the HIT Lobby is Pushing Experimental and Unsafe Technology on Unconsented Patients and Clinicians</a>" I wrote:<div><br /><div><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"></p><blockquote>... I can add that if this initiative <i>[the U.S. multibillion dollar ARRA push towards national healthcare IT by 2014]</i> <b>blows up as it has in the UK</b>, then the only triumph will be the financial triumph of the trade group and its apparatchiks. The losers will be the administration, patients, clinicians, and everyone else in the healthcare system.</blockquote><o:p></o:p><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> <div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size:100%;">The UK situation is much worse than I thought. The UK's NPfIT in the NHS was suspected to have been doomed from the start, but proceeded anyway; see "<a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/tony_collins/2009/06/16-key-points-in-gateway-revie.html">16 key points in Gateway Reviews on NHS IT scheme</a>" and the secretive Gateway Reviews <a href="http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/about/foi">themselves</a> upon which the preceding article was based, released under UK Freedom Of Information laws. </span>From ComputerWeekly.com author Tony Collins on <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/06/22/236526/government-ordered-to-publish-reviews-of-risky-it-projects.htm">Gateway Reviews</a>:<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><p></p><blockquote><p>... Gateway reviews are mini-audits at critical stages in projects. The reports in question gave a red, amber or green status at each stage to help the project’s senior responsible owner decide whether to move to the next phase. </p> <p>The government’s policy on Gateway reviews is to keep them confidential. <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/tony_collins/2007/06/shredding-of-gateway-reviews-d.html">All copies of a review are shredded</a>, with the supporting material, to ensure only two reports remain – one for the Treasury’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and the other for the project’s senior responsible owner.</p></blockquote><p></p><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Highlights of the secretive health IT program reviews, now made public:<br /><br /></span><ul><li>the NPfIT was probably doomed from the start, in Spring 2002. As one Gateway Review put it, many dedicated people were working hard on building the components for a car that hadn't been designed. To some extent that's still true today.</li></ul><ul><li>people didn't really know what they were doing in the first critical months in 2002</li></ul><ul><li>the initial plan was for new IT - not for changes to the way people work. So the preoccupation was with IT and not patients. It was hoped that new IT would drive change. But that rarely if ever succeeds.</li></ul><ul><li>that the costs and complexity were initially underestimated - by about £7bn - because nobody had an understanding of what was needed.</li></ul><ul><li>that speed was unduly important. One gateway review suggested that key staff didn't have time to take action on recommendations or learn lessons.</li></ul><ul><li>the programme as a whole, according to one Gateway Review, was not assessed against a list of <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/06/22/236526/government-ordered-to-publish-reviews-of-risky-it-projects.htm">Common Causes of Failure</a>, as published by the National Audit Office. Only individual projects were assessed against the list.</li></ul><br />How many of these findings apply in the U.S. Health IT program in 2009?<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span>Finally, about the aforementioned May 2009 post, Matthew Holt of the Healthcare Blog wrote that I had "gone loopy", i.e., crazy (see footnote to the above-linked May 2009 post). The Chairman of CCHIT Mark Leavitt wrote that concerns about health IT are expressed by "fearmongers" and should be <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/06/mark-leavitt-head-of-cchit-behind-times.html">"laughed off</a>."<br /><br />These cavalier attitudes are a major part of what has gone wrong in HIT, as well as our society more generally.<br /></div><!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--> <div><br /></div><div>Not to draw a specific comparison with these individuals, but our society is crumbling, and it's in no small part due to clowns in leadership roles, rather than as performers in <a href="http://www.ringling.com/">Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth</a>.<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ua1_lRABJ68f47sbMisvEhaS__tAHh3ZNSvzy98-RFP2_gIfx6DJC_tmBU9D_7vo3af1R0ba8GOM3gzS3Sz3P-udpjon_jKL-_S6-gDyltS70zdHl9zEeX2LdmsLxeWZAAQx5fbn08aX/s1600-h/bozo.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352759728388489490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ua1_lRABJ68f47sbMisvEhaS__tAHh3ZNSvzy98-RFP2_gIfx6DJC_tmBU9D_7vo3af1R0ba8GOM3gzS3Sz3P-udpjon_jKL-_S6-gDyltS70zdHl9zEeX2LdmsLxeWZAAQx5fbn08aX/s320/bozo.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 114px;" /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;">According to Matthew Holt and Mark Leavitt, Health IT concerns are a laughing matter, expressed by crazy people.</span><br /></div><br /></div><div><br />I (and many <a href="http://www.jamia.org/cgi/content/full/16/3/291">like minded colleagues</a>) don't find healthcare information technology issues a laughing matter, however.<br /><br />-- SS</div><div><br />July 1 <span style="font-weight: bold;">Addendum:</span><br /><br />More analysis is at E-Health Insider at <a href="http://www.e-health-insider.com/comment_and_analysis/476/it%27s_history_%28repeating_itself">this link</a>.<br /></div></div></div></div>

UK's National Programme for IT in the NHS Known Doomed at Outset?

It would seem likely. In May 2009 at " The Machinery Behind Healthcare Reform: How the HIT Lobby is Pushing Experimental and Unsafe Tec...

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Extending Google services in Africa

At Google we seek to serve a broad base of people — not only those who can afford to access the Internet from the convenience of their workplace or with a computer at home. It's important to reach users wherever they are, with the information they need, in areas with the greatest information poverty. In many places around the world, people look to their phones, rather than their computers, to find information they need in their daily lives. This is especially true in Africa, which has <a href="http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2009/index.html">the world’s highest mobile growth rate</a> and where mobile phone penetration is six times Internet penetration. One-third of the population owns a mobile phone and many more have access to one.<br /><br />Most mobile devices in Africa only have voice and SMS capabilities, and so we are focusing our technological efforts in that continent on SMS. Today, we are announcing <a href="http://www.google.co.ug/sms">Google SMS</a>, a suite of mobile applications which will allow people to access information, via SMS, on a diverse number of topics including health and agriculture tips, news, local weather, sports, and more. The suite also includes <a href="http://www.google.co.ug/mobile/sms/#6007">Google Trader</a>, a SMS-based “marketplace” application that helps buyers and sellers find each other. People can find, "sell" or "buy" any type of product or service, from used cars and mobile phones to crops, livestock and jobs.<br /><br />We are particularly excited about <a href="http://www.google.co.ug/mobile/sms/#6001">Google SMS Tips</a>, an SMS-based query-and-answer service that enables a mobile phone user to have a web search-like experience. You enter a free form text query, and Google's algorithms restructure the query to identify keywords, search a database to identify relevant answers, and return the most relevant answer. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisXAtDTNauvYKD2NPQw2zsRqRa7ylO2hiW6FXpJ8mDAsvBmoCyQdIXOk4Df2cMpLh5AuK_jF4Yfl9NgzYA9B7sqcA-nVf67jBc9G1B7MnL6jUxRC_e3lP4hgzeg3QQsTkZEiflp2hyLMMp/s1600-h/Africa_AgScreenShot.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisXAtDTNauvYKD2NPQw2zsRqRa7ylO2hiW6FXpJ8mDAsvBmoCyQdIXOk4Df2cMpLh5AuK_jF4Yfl9NgzYA9B7sqcA-nVf67jBc9G1B7MnL6jUxRC_e3lP4hgzeg3QQsTkZEiflp2hyLMMp/s200/Africa_AgScreenShot.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1xolUBtez6ezLk64SsD4FDmbGZHagbXmdULQZF4Tp2MLaseFLjJR768B9OnHHFMYhJta9eBEdG7Uzh14Dm07ir_HwyDyZFC6NjfTZWpaLEzgbOiy0f-UNifMQsnwnggANcG1akWrbazk/s1600-h/Africa_HealthScreenShot2+(2).gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1xolUBtez6ezLk64SsD4FDmbGZHagbXmdULQZF4Tp2MLaseFLjJR768B9OnHHFMYhJta9eBEdG7Uzh14Dm07ir_HwyDyZFC6NjfTZWpaLEzgbOiy0f-UNifMQsnwnggANcG1akWrbazk/s200/Africa_HealthScreenShot2+(2).gif" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Both Google SMS Tips and Google Trader represent the fruits of unique partnerships among Google, the <a href="http://www.grameenfoundation.org/">Grameen Foundation</a>, <a href="http://www.mtn.co.ug/" title="MTN Uganda">MTN Uganda</a> and local organizations*. We worked closely together as part of Grameen Foundation's <a href="http://www.applab.org/" title="Applications Laboratory">Application Laboratory</a> to understand information needs and gaps, develop locally relevant and actionable content, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP7T-o9bGl8">rapidly test prototypes</a>, and conduct multi-month pilots with the people who will eventually use the applications have truly been a global effort, and created with Ugandans, for Ugandans.<br /><br />We're just beginning. We can do a lot more to improve search quality and the breadth — and depth — of content on Google SMS, especially on Tips and Trader. Google SMS is by no means a finished product, but that's what's both exciting and challenging about this endeavor.<br /><br />Meanwhile, if you're curious about what Google is doing in Africa, learn more at the <a href="http://google-africa.blogspot.com/">Google Africa Blog</a>.<br /><br /><b><i>Update:</i></b> Corrected link to YouTube video for "rapidly test prototypes".<br />____<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">*</span><a href="http://brosdi.or.ug/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1" title="BROSDI"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">BROSDI</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, (Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative), </span><a href="http://www.straight-talk.or.ug/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Straight Talk Foundation</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, </span><a href="http://www.mariestopes.org.uk/ShowContent.aspx?id=40" title="Marie Stopes Uganda"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Marie Stopes Uganda</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span><br /><br />Posted by Joe Mucheru, Head of Google Sub-Saharan Africa, & Fiona Lee, Africa Project Manager

Extending Google services in Africa

At Google we seek to serve a broad base of people — not only those who can afford to access the Internet from the convenience of their workp...

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Outpouring of searches for the late Michael Jackson

At Google, we are moved by the life and untimely passing of Michael Jackson. As word spread of his death, millions and millions of people from all over the world began searching for information about the pop icon. The following chart shows the meteoric rise in related searches around 3:00pm PDT:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzBF-o4B7h2rqOChTOC8w5JlpuNiXaruYwAYA6klFTKWQdp1AKpPoutjrnCIi4uLWmdlv2b3gD4v0AFmuJOJvvwuQo_35f96wOjJjLArGytsntQlU5IflDfPpt-GNDcghYcjGWaDDDpVn7/s1600-h/michael-jackson-searches.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351752595146333282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzBF-o4B7h2rqOChTOC8w5JlpuNiXaruYwAYA6klFTKWQdp1AKpPoutjrnCIi4uLWmdlv2b3gD4v0AFmuJOJvvwuQo_35f96wOjJjLArGytsntQlU5IflDfPpt-GNDcghYcjGWaDDDpVn7/s400/michael-jackson-searches.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 240px;" /></a><br />Search volume began to increase around 2:00pm, skyrocketed by 3:00pm, and stabilized by about 8:00pm. As you can see in <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?date=2009-6-25&sa=X">Google Hot Trends</a>, many of the <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=michael+jackson+died&date=2009-6-25&sa=X">fastest rising search queries</a> from yesterday and today have been about Michael Jackson's passing (others pertained to the death of another cultural icon, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrah_Fawcett">Farrah Fawcett</a>). People who weren't near a computer yesterday turned to their mobile phones to check on breaking news. We saw one of the largest mobile search spikes we've ever seen, with 5 of the top 20 searches about the Moonwalker.<br /><br />The spike in searches related to Michael Jackson was so big that <a href="http://news.google.com/">Google News</a> initially mistook it for an automated attack. As a result, for about 25 minutes yesterday, when some people searched Google News they saw a "<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ffh95I6Kep4/SkUg5wOKkRI/AAAAAAAACU8/l0ayIfDo-fs/s912/3660499057_f36b4b59a3_o.png">We're sorry</a>" page before finding the articles they were looking for.<br /><br />Michael Jackson led an amazing and controversial life in the public eye. Many of us have a "Michael Jackson story." Mine is that he actually taught me how to moonwalk — thanks to many an hour I spent in front of the television trying to mimic his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/michaeljackson">performances</a>. Regardless of your story or personal opinions about this astounding performer, global interest in the King of Pop is undeniable.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by R.J. Pittman, Director, Product Management</span>

Outpouring of searches for the late Michael Jackson

At Google, we are moved by the life and untimely passing of Michael Jackson. As word spread of his death, millions and millions of people fr...

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Why Did US Physicians Give Up Their Ability to Enforce Their Own Professional Standards?

In his recent review of Dr Ezekiel Emanuel's book, (<em>Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America</em>,) Dr Arnold Relman, Editor-Emeritus of the New England Journal of Medicine, <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22798">discussed </a>the history of the deprofessionalization of American physicians.<br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote><br />The behavior of US physicians has been changed by the commercialization of medical care, and this too has increased costs. US medical practice has traditionally relied on fee-for-service, which has always given it some of the attributes and incentives of a business. However, <em>the American Medical Association (AMA) maintained for many years that medical practice was a profession, not a business. The AMA's ethical guidelines therefore advised physicians to limit their income to reasonable earnings from the care of patients, and to refrain from advertising and from entering financial arrangements with drug and device manufacturers</em>. <em>Those restrictions were lifted after the US Supreme Court decided in 1975 that lawyers, and by extension members of other professions, including physicians, are engaged in interstate commerce and therefore must be subject to antitrust law</em> (from which they had largely been exempt).(1)<br /><br /><em>This decision had an enormous effect on the medical profession, but its consequences have received relatively little public attention</em>. Although the courts did not initiate the commercialization of medicine, they certainly accelerated it and gave it legal justification. <em>In 1980, after medical organizations lost some costly antitrust trials, in which they were accused of such offenses as limiting doctor fees or denying staff privileges, the AMA changed its ethical guidelines, declaring medicine to be both a business and a profession. This lowered the AMA's barriers to the commercialization of medical practice</em>, allowing physicians to participate in any legal profit-making business arrangement that did not harm patients.<br /><br />Nearly a half-century ago, Stanford economics professor Kenneth Arrow, later a Nobel laureate, convincingly argued that medical care cannot conform to market laws because patients are not ordinary consumers and doctors are not ordinary vendors. He said that sick or injured patients must rely on physicians in ways fundamentally different from the price-driven relation between buyers and sellers in an ordinary market. This argument implied that, <em>contrary to the assumptions of antitrust law, market competition among physicians cannot be expected to lower medical prices. And since physicians influence decisions to use medical services far more than patients do, the volume and types of services provided to patients—and hence total health costs—need to be controlled by forces other than the market, such as professional standards and government regulation. But Arrow's argument was largely ignored</em> in the rush to exploit health care for commercial purposes that ensued after the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.(2)<br /></blockquote><br /><br />Writing about the decline of physicians' professionalism in 2007 [ Relman AS. Medical professionalism in a commercialized health care market. JAMA 2007; 298: 2668-2670. [link <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/298/22/2668">here</a>) ], Dr Relman had briefly alluded to the effect of the 1975 Supreme Court decision, (see our post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/12/relman-in-jama-on-threats-to-physicians.html">here</a>):<br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote>The law also has played a major role in the decline of medical professionalism. The 1975 Supreme Court ruling that the professions were not protected from anti-trust law undermined the traditional restraint that medical professional societies had always placed on the commercial behavior of physicians, such as advertising and investing in the products they prescribe or facilities they recommend. Having lost some initial legal battles and fearing the financial costs of losing more, organized medicine now hesitates to require physicians to behave differently from business people. It asks only that physicians' business activities should be legal, disclosed to patients, and not inconsistent with patients' interests. <em>Until forced by anti-trust concerns to change its ethical code in 1980, the American Medical Association had held that <strong>'in the practice of medicine a physician should limit the source of his professional income to medical services actually rendered by him, or under his supervision, to his patients'</strong> and that <strong>'the practice of medicine should not be commercialized, nor treated as a commodity in trade.'</strong> These sentiments reflecting the spirit of professionalism are now gone.<br /></em></blockquote><br /><br />It seems to me that Dr Relman has elucidated one of the "missing links" that help explain the current sorry state of physicians' core values, and the broader continuing health care crisis. I am amazed that this bit of history seems to have been so thoroughly forgotten. Dr Relman did write about it before 2007, but in publications that few physicians and other health care professionals were likely to see. Other than Dr Relman, almost no one writing in the medical and health care literature seems to have interest in this issue. (It has been discussed in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, and the Stanford Law Review by M. Gregg Bloche, but these unfortunately also could have easily been missed by nearly all physicians and health care professionals.) So we have another example of the anechoic effect.<br /><br />Yet in my humble opinion, every physician and health care professional ought to know that the profession once foreswore the commercialization of medical practice, but gave up on its ability to police its own conflicts of interest after the US Supreme Court decided that professionals are subject to anti-trust law.<br /><br />But knowing this important bit of history raises more questions than it answers:<br /><br /><br /><ul><li>The Supreme Court decision apparently involved interpretation of law, not the constitution. Therefore, why didn't organized medicine pursue a change in the law that would allow physicians to continue to enforce their traditional professional values? </li><li>The Supreme Court decision was primarily directed at lawyers, not physicians. Since the decision, to my knowledge, the law profession has maintained strict rules about conflicts of interest. (For example, no legal CME is sponsored by corporations whose products they seek to have the attendees favor.) Why did the decision wreck physicians' but not lawyers' abilities to regulate their own conflicts of interest? </li><li>The Supreme Court decision only affects US law. Why have physicians in other countries also abandoned their traditional values about commercial entanglements? </li><li>Why did this application of US antitrust law have such significant effects during an era when antitrust enforcement in health care was generally declining? (Insurance companies and hospitals that dominate local markets have not feared antitrust enforcement.)</li><li>Why did only Dr Relman and Prof Bloche seem to care about this up to now?</li></ul><br /><br />Inquiring minds want to know.... And answering these questions might bring us back on the path of true medical professionalism.<br /><br />Hat tip to Merrill Goozner <a href="http://www.gooznews.com/node/2971">in the GoozNews blog</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">References (from Relman)<br /><br />1. Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, 421 U.S. 773 (1975).<br /><br />2. Kenneth J. Arrow, "Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care," The American Economic Review, Vol. 53, No. 5 (December 1963). </span><br /><p></p>

Why Did US Physicians Give Up Their Ability to Enforce Their Own Professional Standards?

In his recent review of Dr Ezekiel Emanuel's book, ( Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America ,) Dr Arnold Relman, ...

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We have a winner for the Google Photography Prize

Huge congratulations to <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/photographyprize/vote.html#theme15">Daniel Halasz</a> from Hungary, who was awarded the <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/photographyprize/">Google Photography Prize</a> this week. This was a global student competition to create themes for <a href="http://www.google.com/ig">iGoogle</a>. More than 3,600 students from across the world entered, and a couple of weeks ago we asked you to <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/voting-for-igoogle-photo-themes-now.html">vote on the shortlist</a>. The six finalists who got the most public votes were <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/photographyprize/vote.html#theme2">Amelia Ortúzar</a> (Chile), <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/photographyprize/vote.html#theme13">Fahad AlDaajani</a> (Saudi Arabia), <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/photographyprize/vote.html#theme24">Matjaz Tancic</a> (U.K.), <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/photographyprize/vote.html#theme26">Mikhail Simin</a> (U.S.) and <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/photographyprize/vote.html#theme33">Vesna Stojakovic</a> (Serbia) — congratulations to all of them! From that group, a jury of respected art critics and artists chose Daniel as the winner. They also gave a special commendation prize to <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/photographyprize/vote.html#theme17">Aliyah Hussain</a> from the U.K.<br /><br />You can see the work Daniel and the other finalists submitted at the Saatchi Gallery in London until Sunday, June 28th. Come by if you're in town, or have a look at their photographs on <a href="http://www.google.com/photographyprize">google.com/photographyprize</a>, where you can also add them to your <a href="http://www.google.com/ig">iGoogle homepage</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Posted by Louise Rigby, Consumer Marketing Team</span>

We have a winner for the Google Photography Prize

Huge congratulations to Daniel Halasz from Hungary, who was awarded the Google Photography Prize this week. This was a global student comp...

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Google Voice invites on their way

A couple of months ago we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/here-comes-google-voice.html">announced Google Voice</a>, a service that gives you one phone number to link all your phones and makes voicemail as easy as email. We are happy to share that Google Voice is beginning to open up beyond former GrandCentral users. If you <a href="https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/">requested an invitation</a> on the Google Voice site or previously on GrandCentral, keep your eye out for an invite email.<br /><br />Once you receive your invitation, just click on the link and follow the instructions to setup your new Voice account. To help you find a Google number that is personalized to you, we've added a number picker that lets you search by area code and text. See if you can find a number that contains your name, a specific word or a number combination.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNodkQUmj8oVrQNU5Ez6zFoBFyG2iGg65BlV92dKSG6Cl8KeHeZMTdPDTZRBc9f6TACwJWeAP-3jOxMUNimp2bXrJXKqplLpAa8g3YdVCtI7agj_bAPrfvA-vo0IsEIGjKPnbTmss-9Ejf/s1600-h/picker+-+awesome.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351303399178489650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNodkQUmj8oVrQNU5Ez6zFoBFyG2iGg65BlV92dKSG6Cl8KeHeZMTdPDTZRBc9f6TACwJWeAP-3jOxMUNimp2bXrJXKqplLpAa8g3YdVCtI7agj_bAPrfvA-vo0IsEIGjKPnbTmss-9Ejf/s400/picker+-+awesome.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 288px;" /></a><br />To learn more about Google Voice, check out the video below. If you haven't signed up for a Google Voice invite, make sure to get on the list by leaving us your email address at <a href="http://www.google.com/voiceinvite">www.google.com/voiceinvite</a>.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/m4Q9MJdT5Ds&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/m4Q9MJdT5Ds&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, Product Managers, Google Voice</span>

Google Voice invites on their way

A couple of months ago we announced Google Voice , a service that gives you one phone number to link all your phones and makes voicemail as ...

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