The expansion of risk-management tools is an imprecise solution to the wrong problem.

Of the many factors that make improving the health system difficult, few challenges are greater than the misty-eyed recollection – often from genuinely distinguished practitioners – of how great things used to be.  Doctors were highly regarded authority figures, pure and beloved, while patients were meek and grateful in the presence of such brilliance and expertise.

While it may be harmful and disingenuous to insist upon a single algorithm or best approach to practicing medicine, it could be helpful to at least provide clear guidance so that physicians would know to avoid certain therapeutic approaches.

By next year, about two-thirds of American physicians will be working as salaried employees of large groups and hospitals. This movement has been underway for years. Over the last decade, the number of independent physicians was falling by about 2% a year. But these trends are now accelerating. 

Last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration abruptly revoked the narcotics license held by the distributor Cardinal Health, preventing that firm from shipping prescription pain drugs to thousands of Florida pharmacies and hospitals. It's the latest tactic in the DEA's struggle to stem the illicit use of prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin.

Think the contraception decision was bad? Wait until bureaucrats start telling your insurer which cancer screenings to cover.

Scott Gottlieb reviews Eric Topol's book on how medical innovation will coalesce to change clinical practice and what the coming changes mean for today's policy debates.

The past two weeks of turmoil and drama in Sino-American affairs may well be the new normal, not an exception to an otherwise placid bilateral relationship. While Friday brought news of a possible deal allowing dissident Chen Guangcheng to leave China to study in America, that deal is no more certain than the earlier, failed deal, announced just days before