Let’s face it, if you’re doing a clinical study recruiting research subjects is a bear. To make it easier, Google today introduced Google Health Studies, a tool to match the potential study participants with researchers. Their new (Android) app provides a platform for researchers to reach a large population for recruitment while giving the public the chance to ... Continue Reading about Google Health Studies – Connecting Research with People
AlphaFold and the Future of Physicians
DeepMind’s deep-learning system AlphaFold last week cracked one of biology’s critical challenges: predicting the shape of proteins. As background for the less chemically inclined, a protein is made from a chain of amino acids that folds itself up in a tangled mass. The nooks and crannies of the 3-dimensional structure determines what the protein does and how it ... Continue Reading about AlphaFold and the Future of Physicians
COVID Vaccine – 4 Lessons from Speedy Development
The development of a COVID vaccine is one of the most closely watched human experiments in modern medical history. A defining moment shaped by global coordination, federal and private funding and will. I've been thinking how this has played out. Here are a few thoughts on what we might take from the speedy creation of the COVID vaccine. What has been ... Continue Reading about COVID Vaccine – 4 Lessons from Speedy Development
Joe Biden, Section 230 and the Future of Communication
As the country moves from Joe Biden as the anti-Trump option to Joe Biden as leader of the free world, I’ve been thinking about how things might change in medicine, media and technology under his administration. I want to drill down on this idea of censorship and content moderation which became a thing during the 2020 election. It’s become normalized on some ... Continue Reading about Joe Biden, Section 230 and the Future of Communication
John Snow Memo v. Great Barrington – The Johns Hopkins Debate
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health held a debate on October 30, 2020. Locking Down or Opening Up? A Debate on the Best Path Through the Pandemic - Discussing the John Snow Memo and the Great Barrington Declaration. The debate was part of a series that draws researchers from Johns Hopkins and around the country to learn more about emerging approaches to ... Continue Reading about John Snow Memo v. Great Barrington – The Johns Hopkins Debate
Why We Can’t See COVID as a Wicked Problem
I have been thinking about concept of the wicked problem and how it could explain our debate and deep division over COVID’s public health management. What’s a wicked problem? Proposed by University of California professors W.J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber in a 1973 article in Policy Sciences journal, a wicked problem describes a problem that is difficult ... Continue Reading about Why We Can’t See COVID as a Wicked Problem