Since people were interested in my last post about grants and economic stimulus, NIH has posted the RFP for their "Challenge Grants" that are also part of the stimulus. Little ecological work falls under the auspices of NIH, but I still like seeing this stuff.

One part of it is an aspect of President Obama's healthcare reform that I find very exciting as both a scientist and a patient: comparative effectiveness research. Basically, these are studies that compare a range of options for care (new drug, old drug, combinations, other things like exercise and diet) in a rigorous clinical setting, so we can get some actual data on which treatments work best.

Right now the vast majority of drug research is focused on whether or not the newest (most expensive) drug is safe and better than a placebo, which is what it takes to get FDA approval. But what patients really want to know is if the newest drug is better than what we're currently on. Right now this is largely left to the professional judgment of individual doctors, who frequently have little more to go on than patient anecdotes.

Some people are worried that this will lead to rationing of care--if a cheaper treatment works better than a more expensive treatment, insurance companies (or whoever is paying for our healthcare in the future) will require doctors to prescribe the cheaper treatment. The flip side of this, is if the expensive treatment works better than the cheaper one, we'll have good scientific data to support getting the drugs that really work, even if they're more expensive. _
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05:11:24 PM, Wednesday 4 March 2009

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It turns out all of the weird hangs and freezes on my Mac were due to the virus software the Department requires me to have on my computer malfunctioning. It was auto-set to scan each file as I opened it and to continuously check with McAfee for virus updates, but the "virus engine failed". I reinstalled it and changed the settings to a more rational approach. I appreciate security, but one reason I use a Mac is to avoid things like having to scan each file as I open it and continuously check for virus updates. _
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10:59:52 AM, Tuesday 3 March 2009

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Spring and Fall, to a Young Child -- Gerard Manley Hopkins

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for. _
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