Showing posts with label ten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ten. Show all posts

Friday, April 18, 2014

Top Ten Links of the Week 9 10 10 9 16 10

1) Food Politics: This Is Good News? UN Says 925 million People Are Chronically Hungry
2) NY Times: Ranks of Hungry Shrink, but Remain Large
Ten years after the world’s wealthiest nations promised to reduce hunger by half in 15 years, there has been .5% decrease in the number of hungry people around the globe. But experts say the situation is not hopeless. “While all the movement in terms of aid is in the right direction, [Jacques Diouf, the director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization] said, the pace needs to be accelerated.”

3) Food Politics: Corn Refiners Ask FDA to Replace “HFCS” with “Corn Sugar”
Big Corn wants a little rebranding for HFCS, I see. Be sure to check out Marion Nestle’s reader updates on the etymology of corn syrup’s moniker. It shows how susceptible we are and always have been to marketing.

4) Lifehacker: Budweiser, Balsamic Vinegar and How Expectations Affect Our Views
Hold up! We fall for marketing because of brain science. Behavioral economics professor, Dan Ariely, explains how our brains use information to make decisions and form opinions with a fascinating experiment with Boston students as his lab monkeys. My guess is the balsamic was a improvement on a classic.

5) The Minimalist: The Food Processor: A Virtuoso One-Man Band
Mark Bittman dedicates a love song to his food processor. Tonight, I’m going sprinkle some rose petals around the kitchen, turn down the lights, and put on some soft music while my Cuisinart and I make sweet, sweet poblano hummus.

6)Chow: How Do You Get Rid of Fruit Flies?
7)Lifehacker: Capture Fruit Flies with a Cup and Apple Cider Vinegar
Dueling fruit fly remedies: which one works best? You be the decider.

8) Science Daily: Only 5% of Americans Engage in Vigorous Physical Activity on Any Given Day
The report also states, “The most frequently reported moderate activity was food and drink preparation.” If we’re not exercising, at least we’re cooking.

9) The Kitchn: Best Way to Keep Greens Fresh? The Bath Towel Method
I can’t wait to try this. My tried-and true-salad spinner just bit the dust, and I’ve been enjoying the space it vacated.

10) Chow: Hazmat Investigates Exploding Sauerkraut
High school science class gets explosivo and requires a visit from HazMat. What was the most fun you ever had in science class?

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Food Politics: Department of Talmudic Investigation: Define Candy
For the love of taxes, someone has to draw the line between candy and cookies. The differential ingredient is flour, but as you might guess, it’s not that simple.

Jezebel: The World’s Smallest Cow
Jezebel: Worlds Tallest Dog Meets Smallest Dog
A banner week for cute and extremely sized animals!

NY Times Diner’s Journal: The Baker’s Apprentice: Peach or Apple Pie
Food writer Emily Weinstein gets a pie-making lesson from Sarabeth Levine of New York’s Sarabeth’s Kitchen. Luckily for us, she shares what she learned.

NYTimes The Curious Cook: For Old Fashioned Flavor: Bake the Baking Soda
Mmm...apparently lye makes good pretzels as well as soap and drain cleaner. Or just use toasted baking soda.

Unplugged: 3 Tips for Efficiently Stocking the Fridge
via The Kitchn
Save money on food and electricity with these oh-duh reminders.

There I Fixed It: So Is this Food Full of Iron?
Brilliant! Where was this hack during No Stove Month?

AND ALSO

National Maritime Museum: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2010


Lets feel small together.


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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Ten Rules for Health System Boards of Directors to Follow to Reduce the Risk of Fraudulent Outcomes Reporting and Scientific Misconduct

Enjoying a good spin
Are you on the Board of Directors for a large health service provider, population health vendor, integrated delivery system, managed care organization or other care corporation? 

If so, your company is likely collecting, analyzing and publicly reporting quality and cost data. Not only do superior results in journals, meetings, splashy web sites and glossy marketing materials present a competitive advantage, achieving superior outcomes is part and parcel of your organizations mission.

The Disease Management Care Blog reminds Board members that intentionally or unintentionally misrepresenting outcomes is an existential threat to health care organizations.  Having to retract a publication, correct a white paper, meet with grumpy regulators, confront claw backs, deal with a whistle-blower, respond to allegations of interpretation spin, uncover suppression of bad results or defend the integrity of your brand is something no Board wants to deal with.

To the DMCBs knowledge, this hasnt happened to any ACOs, risk contracting systems, managed care organizations or population health or wellness vendors.

Yet. 

Its just a matter of time.

While the risk of allegations of scientific misconduct can never be reduced to zero, the DMCB offers up ten best practices for Boards to follow:

Reduce opportunities by:

1. Exhibiting healthy skepticism regarding all outcomes reported by your management team, especially if the results seem to be too good to be true.

2. Insist that your management team has two persons with access to any data base, and that they have separate reporting relationships.

3. Insist that your management team has two persons independently involved in any data analysis, and that they have separate reporting relationships.

4. Be familiar with and insist that the rules on research on human subjects be followed.

5. Maintain a low threshold for conducting internal or external audits of any databases and any interpretations of those data.

Combat any rationalizations that fudging outcomes is OK by:

6. Recruiting Board members with research expertise.

7. Explicitly engage the Audit Committee and any other Board member or committee with oversight of risk to view "outcomes" with the same level of scrutiny as your companys financials.

8. Maintain an ethical "tone at the top" when it comes to research.

9. Have a disaster plan ready to go.  For starters, train your Board on how to deal with hostile media inquiries.

Reduce incentives by:

10.  Asking your CEO if any compensation plans including bonuses or unwittingly promoting unethical or fraudulent behavior.