NY State Legislator Pleads Guilty to Selling His Services to Medical Center

We have posted about cases in which hospitals or academic medical centers hired legislators to promote their political agendas. In one case in 2006, a former Rhode Island state legislator <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/06/former-rhode-island-legislator-pleads.html">pleaded guilty </a>to selling his influence to a local medical center, which submitted to a deferred prosecution agreement, and whose CEO was later <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/10/another-one-bites-dust-former-roger.html">convicted</a> of conspiracy and fraud. (This conviction has been appealed.) In another case in 2008, a former New Jersey state legislator was<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/11/politician-medical-school-dean.html"> convicted </a>of fraud for selling his influence to a state health care university and academic medical center, which also had been operating under a deferred prosecution agreement.<br /><br />The latest version of this type of scandal appeared towards the end of last month <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/nyregion/25fraud.html">in the New York Times</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Saying that he knew his 'conduct was illegal and wrong,' a longtime Democratic member of the New York State Assembly, Anthony Seminerio, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to abusing his position by soliciting for himself an amount prosecutors estimated at $500,000.<br /><br />Federal prosecutors said that for the last decade he <em>traded upon his office, receiving 'corrupt payments' from people or organizations that had business before the state</em> and sometimes threatening those who resisted his requests for money.<br /><br />The payments were funneled into a company called Marc Consultants that Mr. Seminerio created to hide the income, prosecutors said.<br /><br />Mr. Seminerio told Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Federal District Court in Manhattan that <em>one of the organizations that paid him for wielding his political influence was Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, in Queens</em>. It was the first public mention of Jamaica Hospital, which before the hearing had been referred to in court papers merely as 'a hospital in New York City.'<br /><br />Appearing before the judge around noon on Wednesday, Mr. Seminerio, unshaven but wearing a blazer and a tie, <em>declared in a firm voice that he was guilty of the charge of honest services fraud. In a brief statement he acknowledged that on July 10, 2008, he 'promoted the interests' of Jamaica Hospital</em> in connection with state business and did not divulge that he had received payments from the hospital.<br /><br /><em>'My conduct had the effect of depriving others of honest services,'</em> he said. Prosecutors stated that the hospital had paid Marc Consultants about $310,000 and that 'a separate, Medicaid-managed health care plan' affiliated with the hospital paid another $80,000. At the request of hospital officers, prosecutors said, Mr. Seminerio acted as an advocate with legislators and lobbied on their behalf with executive branch officials.<br /><br />A criminal complaint states that on numerous occasions Mr. Seminerio<em> 'took action in his capacity as a member of the Assembly to benefit the hospital at the same time that he was receiving payments from the hospital.'<br /></em><br />The complaint also details recorded conversations in which hospital officials asked Mr. Seminerio to intervene in state budget decisions and in which Mr. Seminerio urged a Health Department official to help Jamaica Hospital take over another hospital.<br /></blockquote><br />There once was a time when health care was a calling, and when hospitals were considered charitable organizations which served the sick, and often the poor. Health care professionals and institutions were once held to a higher standard than, say, those who collected the garbage.<br /><br />Jamaica Hospital Medical Center still proclaims its<a href="http://www.jamaicahospital.org/pages/generalinfo/hosprofile.htm"> mission </a>to be:<br /><br /><blockquote>To serve our patients and the community in a way that is second to none </blockquote><br />It is not clear how that squares with "corrupt payments" to a state legislator.<br /><br />In my humble opinion, for health care to resolve its current crises, it will have to again be held to a higher standard. If we do not challenge the pervasive conflicts of interest within and across health care, and the outright corruption that has infected many health care institutions, none of the proposed manipulations of health care financing will make much of a dent in ever rising costs, declining access, or degrading quality.<br /><br />But for this to happen, health care professionals and policy leaders will have to acknowledge how low the current standards are. As long as cases like those noted above are mentioned only in the local news media, but are not subjects for polite conversation in professional and policy venues, many will be able to cling to the illusion that things are not so bad.

NY State Legislator Pleads Guilty to Selling His Services to Medical Center

We have posted about cases in which hospitals or academic medical centers hired legislators to promote their political agendas. In one case ...

Đọc thêm »

Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)

We're often asked why so many Google applications seem to be perpetually in beta. For example, Gmail has worn the beta tag more than five years. We realize this situation puzzles some people, particularly those who subscribe to the <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBeta_version%23Beta&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFrqEzdhKpXBJCu-_h5oW0nnYDXlr-oCGQ">traditional definition</a> of "beta" software as not being yet ready for prime time.<br /><br />Ever since we launched the <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_medium=blog&utm_source=us-en-ogb-oob0707&utm_campaign=oob">Google Apps</a> suite for businesses two years ago, it's had a service level agreement, 24/7 support, and has met or exceeded all the other standards of non-beta software. More than 1.75 million companies around the world run their business on Google Apps, including Google. We've come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn't fit for large enterprises that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase. So we've focused our efforts on reaching our high bar for taking products out of beta, and all the applications in the Apps suite have now met that mark.<br /><br />Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk — both enterprise and consumer versions — are now out of beta. "Beta" will be removed from the product logos today, but we'll continue to innovate and improve upon the applications whether or not there's a small "beta" beneath the logo. Indeed, today we're also <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/07/paving-road-to-apps-adoption-in-large.html">announcing</a> some other Google Apps features that we think will appeal to large enterprises: mail delegation, mail retention and ongoing enhancements to Apps reliability.<br /><br />We have much more in store, and IT managers can read more about how to make the switch to Apps in our <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/switch_exchange.html#utm_medium=blog&utm_source=us-en-ogb-oob0707&utm_campaign=oob">Microsoft Exchange</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/notes.html#utm_medium=blog&utm_source=us-en-ogb-oob0707&utm_campaign=oob">Lotus Notes</a> resource centers. One more thing — for those who still like the look of "beta", we've made it easy to re-enable the beta label for Gmail from the Labs tab under Settings.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dj1PkGFK20urrVq5C932uPUubzgn8eb0XH6UFhW6wr37LJh9qcb4ilJZ375g23eZp9tKnSVuGJ59p8JbB2J3oHZKGEvEe_UngAQXKMqOb4z1J9te9NVlZ09DAMEG0y3l622EGRZ13Sn3/s1600-h/Gmail+out+of+beta(2).png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355734772738780002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dj1PkGFK20urrVq5C932uPUubzgn8eb0XH6UFhW6wr37LJh9qcb4ilJZ375g23eZp9tKnSVuGJ59p8JbB2J3oHZKGEvEe_UngAQXKMqOb4z1J9te9NVlZ09DAMEG0y3l622EGRZ13Sn3/s320/Gmail+out+of+beta(2).png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 168px;" /></a><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Director, Product Management, Google Enterprise</span>

Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)

We're often asked why so many Google applications seem to be perpetually in beta. For example, Gmail has worn the beta tag more than fiv...

Đọc thêm »

A Blogger That Dares Not Speak His University's Name

Dr Douglas <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner</span> is a Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology at Emory University, and <a href="http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jdbremn/index.html">Director of the University's Clinical <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Neuroscience</span> Research Unit.</a> He has also written a book critical of the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">pharmaceutical</span> industry (<a href="http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/index.html"><em>Before You Take That Pill</em></a>), and writes a blog (also called <a href="http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/">Before You Take That Pill</a>) that is also skeptical about certain aspects of current psychiatric dogma. Inside Higher Education <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/07/01/emory">reported</a> that Emory University can apparently no longer bear to have its name mentioned in Dr <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner's</span> blog:<br /><br /><blockquote><br />Emory University has been accused repeatedly over the last year of looking the other way while one of its prominent physicians built extremely close ties to the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">pharmaceutical</span> industry and -- critics charge -- failed to adequately report those ties as required by university and federal regulations.<br /><br />But what if you are an Emory professor who happens to differ with the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">pharmaceutical</span> industry? Then, it appears, Emory watches you closely -- and if you are a blogger, <em>the university can tell you that you must remove the Emory name from your Web site</em>. That's why a recent post on the J. Douglas <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner's</span> blog Before You Take That Pill is called 'I Am Removing the Name of My University From This Blog.'<br /><br />In the post, he notes that he was recently ordered to remove the Emory name both by the interim chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and by the medical school's executive associate dean for faculty affairs. In the letters, which he provided to Inside Higher Ed, they tell <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner</span> to remove Emory's name, logo and letterhead from his blog because none of them can be used for 'non-Emory business.' He was also told to report on when he had removed Emory from his blog.<br /><br />The letters cite complaints that the university received about a blog post <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner</span> made in January in which he criticized the eviction of a man with bipolar disorder who was being forced out of his apartment for smoking. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner</span> made his point in the form of a mock letter 'To Whom It May Concern' giving his blessing for the man to continue to smoke. According to <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner's</span> Emory superiors, complaints they received suggested that he was making 'clinical <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" class="blsp-spelling-error">recommendations</span> for a patient you do not know and have never examined,' and these postings made them feel the need to tell him to stop using the Emory name. </blockquote><br />And even more concerning:<br /><br /><blockquote><br /><a href="http://whsc.emory.edu/home/news/media-team/bio-sarah-goodwin.html">Sarah E. Goodwin</a>, director of media relations for Emory Health Sciences, said that Emory's objection to the use of its name in non-official places was 'across the board' and not related to the content of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner's</span> blog. When told about other blogs or Web sites where Emory professors' university affiliation was noted on non-Emory business, she said she didn't know why that was the case but insisted that the ban was 'across the board.'<br /><br />She noted that <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner</span> has been 'blogging for some period of time,' and that<em><strong> 'if you read it over a long period of time, you can see comments he makes that may be of concern.'</strong></em> She declined to identify those comments.<br /></blockquote><br />So there you have it. It appears that faculty members, even senior faculty at Emory who make comments "<em>that may be of concern</em>" to an <a href="http://whsc.emory.edu/home/news/media-team/bio-sarah-goodwin.html">Assistant Vice President for Health Sciences, and Director, Media Relations</a>, are not supposed to identify themselves as Emory faculty. This is the sort of policy one might expect from certain <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">corporations</span>. But Emory is a university. It <a href="http://www.emory.edu/home/about/index.html">proclaims</a> it<br /><br /><blockquote><br />is an <em>inquiry-driven, ethically engaged</em> and diverse community whose members work <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_15" class="blsp-spelling-error">collaboratively</span> for positive <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_16" class="blsp-spelling-error">transformation</span> in the world through <em>courageous leadership in teaching, research, scholarship, health care and social action</em>.<br /></blockquote><br />It proclaims its strategic plan is entitled:<br /><br /><blockquote><br /><em><strong>Where Courageous Inquiry Leads</strong></em><br /></blockquote><br /><br />We can see where courageous inquiry leads at Emory. It leads to University executives attempting to censor faculty blogs when they included "concerning" remarks. As Inside Higher Education noted, Emory executives have not attempted to have other faculty <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_17" class="blsp-spelling-error">bloggers</span> remove references to the University, or to the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_18" class="blsp-spelling-error">bloggers</span>' faculty status from their writing. Presumably, those <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_19" class="blsp-spelling-error">bloggers</span> were more politically correct.<br /><br />We have often written about the <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/suppression%20of%20medical%20research">suppression of medical research </a>that is now a plague upon medicine, and the most dire threat to the evidence-based medicine approach. The research most likely to be suppressed is that which offends vested interests, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_20" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">particularly</span> vested interests in selling particular health care goods or services. On the other hand, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (<a href="http://www.thefire.org/">FIRE</a>) for years has been fighting to uphold free speech and academic freedom on campus, but has mostly dealt with threats to politically or socially unpopular speech.<br /><br />This case seems to blend these these different kinds of threats to free speech and academic freedom. It once again shows how elite <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_21" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">universities</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_22" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">increasingly</span> are run like for-profit <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_23" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">corporations</span>, putting the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_24" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">prerogatives</span> of managers ahead of the individual rights of faculty and students, and putting the mission of the university, to discover and disseminate the truth in the spirit of free enquiry, in the trash.<br /><br />Dr <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_25" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bremner's</span> own comments in his blog are <a href="http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/index.php/2009/07/01/is-there-such-a-thing-as-academic-freedom/">here</a>. He concluded that Emory managers were "thinking more like a corporation than a university, where the free exchange of ideas, regardless of the perceived value or political correctness of those ideas, is held to the highest standard."<br /><br />See also <a href="http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=14475">comments</a> by Prof Margaret <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_26" class="blsp-spelling-error">Soltan</span> in the University Diaries.<br /><br />ADDENDUM (15 July, 2009) - Emory has backed down, and will once again allow Dr Bremner to identify himself as a faculty member. See <a href="http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/index.php/2009/07/13/we-won-university-backtracks-on-ban-of-use-of-name-on-this-blog/">this post </a>by Dr Bremner, and <a href="http://www.thefire.org/article/10859.html">this post </a>on The Torch (the FIRE blog).

A Blogger That Dares Not Speak His University's Name

Dr Douglas Bremner is a Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology at Emory University, and Director of the University's Clinical Neuroscien...

Đọc thêm »

New Blog Search tools: Feeds, Hot Queries and Latest Posts

Ever since the new <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/">Google Blog Search</a> homepage <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/browse-what-world-is-saying-on-blog.html">launched</a>, we've been fielding requests for a myriad of different features. Today we're happy to announce the launch of our most requested feature: <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch/feeds?bc_lang=en&hl=en&output=rss">RSS</a> and <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch/feeds?bc_lang=en&hl=en&output=atom">Atom</a> feeds. Simply click on the links under "Subscribe" in the left-hand column of the Blog Search front page to subscribe to any topic or story in any feed reader, like <a href="http://www.google.com/reader">Google Reader</a>.<br /><br />If you don't use a feed reader, we're also offering an <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?hl=en&moduleurl=blogbrowse.xml&source=gb">iGoogle gadget</a> that lets you embed the Blog Search front page right inside of your <a href="http://www.google.com/ig">iGoogle page</a> or any other page where iGoogle gadgets are accepted. You can browse topics and drill into stories from within the widget, and you can customize the gadget to choose which topics you want to follow.<br /><br />With these new ways to read Blog Search stories, you might think our homepage was going unloved, but not to worry. We've also added two new features to the Blog Search homepage to better help you discover what people are talking about right now on the web: Hot Queries and Latest Posts.<br /><br />Hot Queries lists searches currently popular in Blog Search — it's an easy way to quickly dive into the trending points of conversation on the web. Latest Posts, on the other hand, shows new posts from popular blogs. While Hot Queries highlights what people are looking for, Latest Posts lets you find out about stories even before people start searching for them. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blogsearch.google.com/"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353934434534613922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi31WII09x0wb6cZA3f4wlI-PhJfPI2KEs5-yPZaqIprOkMAS-dUbKIeHYjyB4q33bK2hy8uUXDTZJyNFCBIdeYkq02SOD5tVi4kQt3q4Od-lBiLtNtpuJbKSurIMB-SmjgZvZcqd_8tZ6L/s400/Screenshot-Google+Blog+Search.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 289px;" /></a><br />There's a lot of great, fresh content being published in blogs every day. We hope these new features help you discover more of it, faster.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Akshay Patil, Software Engineer, & Dylan Casey, Product Manager</span>

New Blog Search tools: Feeds, Hot Queries and Latest Posts

Ever since the new Google Blog Search homepage launched , we've been fielding requests for a myriad of different features. Today we...

Đọc thêm »

The evolution of Gmail labels

I love <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=118708">labels</a> in Gmail. Most email programs use folders, which only let me put mail in one place at a time. With labels, I can organize mail in multiple ways. Combined with <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=12853">filters</a> to automatically label incoming messages, Gmail offers powerful ways to organize email.<br /><br />When I joined the Gmail team, I was surprised to learn that only 29% of Gmail users had created <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">any</span> labels. At first, I thought perhaps conversation threading and search made the need to organize our mail less important. But when we talked to people who use Gmail, we got a different story. People often asked us to add folders to Gmail, assuming no system of organization existed. As one person said in a usability study, "What are labels... and where are my folders?"<br /><br />We realized that if you didn't know about labels, it would be easy to assume Gmail had no way to organize your mail. Not only were "labels" unfamiliar, they were kind of hidden. So, we set out to make labels more accessible, as well as more powerful. Most of the changes have been in Gmail for a while, but we're adding some <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/labels-drag-and-drop-hiding-and-more.html">new features today</a>. We thought you'd enjoy a peek at the method to our madness.<br /><br />The first thing we did was make labels look more like the sticky notes you use in real life. Making the interface mimic things you interact with outside the computer can sometimes improve ease of use.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw72X-0RKEKGbW-A655kQBvL6gEs2TuPN-IDjSjvYp9cVIgkSF7BVuU04j78UG8wgLzkrQxnm_GfeQo_5OQRC1vjr-XFXUcgvfYEnxjzBxn-IvTYFaszMFbK9BYBrcjHARcFyhtQhG2yvT/s1600-h/colored_labels-short.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528671185666642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw72X-0RKEKGbW-A655kQBvL6gEs2TuPN-IDjSjvYp9cVIgkSF7BVuU04j78UG8wgLzkrQxnm_GfeQo_5OQRC1vjr-XFXUcgvfYEnxjzBxn-IvTYFaszMFbK9BYBrcjHARcFyhtQhG2yvT/s400/colored_labels-short.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 66px;" /></a><br />We also made it easier to remove a label from an open conversation:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbONJBb_XxrUTRAadmd6naYfmtwAsgXPeitaNVPQMDSoH39HaFDyS-xxwo4YN8eXj94ZB4ClCvK_wnhmsRjq2x-ysqwTbvly9t-lIOGV-9dlwWyPjbTudkPeg__xnCL1FURzBv84LebiW1/s1600-h/remove_label.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528679205882418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbONJBb_XxrUTRAadmd6naYfmtwAsgXPeitaNVPQMDSoH39HaFDyS-xxwo4YN8eXj94ZB4ClCvK_wnhmsRjq2x-ysqwTbvly9t-lIOGV-9dlwWyPjbTudkPeg__xnCL1FURzBv84LebiW1/s400/remove_label.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 111px;" /></a><br />Then we worked on the actions you take to apply and remove labels. Before, to put a label on a message, you had to look under "More actions> Apply label." Not only was this option hidden in a generic menu, but the language wasn't what people are familiar with when it comes to organizing mail. We explored several alternatives:<div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5Qlk2Il5QbcHaqccA2MBup-xt_Q1DeD3W_ABx1GFyVvHbA6Dyzj3cwuHZKglAW9NUgYNbz9LvIc2BcnG4hsqG-Y0rdpsrBMfsNapey5DMOeSsh372vjgyY_39HxISIy4X-2EgJfpkWSK/s1600-h/move_to.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528677914360114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5Qlk2Il5QbcHaqccA2MBup-xt_Q1DeD3W_ABx1GFyVvHbA6Dyzj3cwuHZKglAW9NUgYNbz9LvIc2BcnG4hsqG-Y0rdpsrBMfsNapey5DMOeSsh372vjgyY_39HxISIy4X-2EgJfpkWSK/s400/move_to.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 292px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />We also learned that if we made labels sound too much like folders, people got confused. For instance, while "Copy to" and "Add to" were easy to use, these terms made people think they were creating multiple copies of a message. "Move to" was familiar but didn't lead people to think they were creating copies. And people seem to have picked it up fast! Since the launch of the <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-ways-to-label-with-move-to-and-auto.html">new menu buttons</a> in March, we're seeing a 50% increase in new Gmail users trying labels in their first 2 weeks. And overall usage of the "Move to" menu surpassed that of the "Labels" menu within 7 weeks of launching:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmz9RKTAmBIHPdmN8R5dO_0YpBimdi45oTJZ5maotNdSXvAb41NsaWvr89tr3uwqKbKzxlC7PDeFBYKF5FiVjmgX3F_wngjjrYZ6LyRDCt262Yd2fpDVv-DNMioWphU6WrjaKRMYQRJLca/s1600-h/label_vs_moveto.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528684682428098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmz9RKTAmBIHPdmN8R5dO_0YpBimdi45oTJZ5maotNdSXvAb41NsaWvr89tr3uwqKbKzxlC7PDeFBYKF5FiVjmgX3F_wngjjrYZ6LyRDCt262Yd2fpDVv-DNMioWphU6WrjaKRMYQRJLca/s400/label_vs_moveto.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 324px;" /></a><br />For our latest set of changes, we looked at how you access labels on the left side. In other email applications, folders get the royal treatment and are given a seat at the top near your inbox. But in Gmail, labels were stuck in a box below Chat — almost like we were telling people, "you don't want to use these." In testing, we discovered that it worked best to remove the terminology altogether and just place custom labels right under the system labels (e.g. "Inbox"):<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHcdeq0XmfND3fzYE9BJjMDUXw7GkaUr9jEawVQzkZtc_L49C9qyK5baatOVMp4cCGt-I7iCPxGU7IwihG0WcKk_f1Eg-DLMqOM1VQTd3pP6krisVV8ePM1_y6VJ9dk5ELV989ZZPtC1G/s1600-h/left_nav_compare.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353529498975279442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHcdeq0XmfND3fzYE9BJjMDUXw7GkaUr9jEawVQzkZtc_L49C9qyK5baatOVMp4cCGt-I7iCPxGU7IwihG0WcKk_f1Eg-DLMqOM1VQTd3pP6krisVV8ePM1_y6VJ9dk5ELV989ZZPtC1G/s400/left_nav_compare.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 272px;" /></a>The last step was to add drag-and-drop. Now, you can drag mail into a label, or even drag a label directly onto a message:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bAAX3oramrsBAnPiMF31vB0_6A34bqXOVDUeY-KfzOEAPrCwhcAdM2S31QQCJE1eYsaqgthudfVgJvSRL0QG4gM6DxcchLpt5pRj7buqCNf9_pj-qronv8dbdgJXmxblrFPHKOVLftv9/s1600-h/drag.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528677554646418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bAAX3oramrsBAnPiMF31vB0_6A34bqXOVDUeY-KfzOEAPrCwhcAdM2S31QQCJE1eYsaqgthudfVgJvSRL0QG4gM6DxcchLpt5pRj7buqCNf9_pj-qronv8dbdgJXmxblrFPHKOVLftv9/s400/drag.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 72px;" /></a><br />Making it easier to process and organize your mail requires more than just labels, but we hope these changes start to improve the process. We have much more in store, so stay tuned and keep the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/label?lid=613f70d9ff743405">feedback</a> coming.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Michael Leggett, Gmail User Experience Designer</span></div>

The evolution of Gmail labels

I love labels in Gmail. Most email programs use folders, which only let me put mail in one place at a time. With labels, I can organize mai...

Đọc thêm »

What we've learned about spam

Blended threats. Payload viruses. Spam. If you're one of the more than 15 million people whose work email is protected by <a href="http://www.google.com/postini/">Postini</a>'s email security products, we hope you don't spend a lot of time thinking about these things. And if we're doing our job right, they certainly shouldn't be showing up in your inboxes. But we process more than 3 billion business emails per day for our customers, culling the spam, viruses, and other threats out, so we do think about this stuff. A lot.<br /><br />On <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/look-back-at-spam-in-2008.html">occasion</a>, we like to share some of what we've learned, so that those of you who are interested can see what spammers are up to. If you're one of those people, head over to our <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/07/q2-2009-spam-trends.html">Enterprise Blog</a> for an update on spam trends over the past few months.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Ellen Leanse, Google Enterprise team</span>

What we've learned about spam

Blended threats. Payload viruses. Spam. If you're one of the more than 15 million people whose work email is protected by Postini 's...

Đọc thêm »

Human Subjects as Political Pawns

<div>When it comes to “alternative medicine” trials, it seems that the NIH is willing to experiment on people in ways that would be unthinkable for real biomedical research. The federal Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) has posted a preliminary <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/detrm_letrs/YR09/may09b.pdf">determination letter</a>, dated May 27, 2009, addressing some of the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18596934?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum">charges we had made</a> against the politics-driven NIH Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT).</div><div><br /></div><div>It is a remarkably damning statement, particularly regarding an NIH study. That is, it found—or the recipients admitted—that each of several charges was valid. Among these are misleading statements and unstated risks in the consent form, and the embarrassing backgrounds of TACT investigators. According to the determination letter,</div><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div>…investigations revealed multiple instances of substandard practices, insurance fraud, and felony activity on the part of investigators.”</div><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, the OHRP appears willing to let the TACT continue if it will ‘take corrective actions’. Regarding investigators who are felons, for example:</div><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div>While concerning, these things do not automatically preclude an investigator from participating in research…</div><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div>We recommend that the IRBs that reviewed this research re-examine the processes for evaluating study investigators to determine they are obtaining sufficient site and investigator information that is adequate to comply with HHS regulations…”</div><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>As disturbing as that recommendation sounds, the OHRP can only regulate what it has statutory authority to regulate. It regulates institutions, not investigators and not IRBs.</div><div><br /></div><div>We, however, remain concerned that the TACT protocols and investigators did not provide accurate statements to the relevant IRBs in the first place. Wouldn’t such information have been important, not only for IRB deliberations, but for informed discussions with potential experimental subjects? From the determination letter, it sounds as though the OHRP cannot insist that the TACT address such inconvenient questions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of our most important charges are either not mentioned (e.g., a tainted NIH scientific review committee, investigators promoting ‘chelation therapy’ during the study in violation of federal code, a tainted Data Safety and Monitoring Board, and <a href="http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=132">evidence</a> that incompetent investigators have contributed to at least two deaths in the trial) or were deferred to the FDA. Presumably, there is more to come.</div><div><br /></div><div>We contended that if the TACT had been accurately represented in 2001-2003, no competent IRB or scientific review committee would have approved it. The OHRP determination letter implicitly raises this question: how could any IRB, after discovering the multitude of misrepresentations that were the basis for the study’s original approval, now allow it to continue?</div><div> </div>

Human Subjects as Political Pawns

When it comes to “alternative medicine” trials, it seems that the NIH is willing to experiment on people in ways that would be unthinkable f...

Đọc thêm »