Author: C.J. Lion

“If you want to invest in Europe, invest in museums.” –Hans Rosling Known for his dynamic TED talks, Hans Rosling is an extremely well known figure in the world of global health. Dr. Rosling is a physician and public health expert by training and is currently a professor of public health sciences at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. I was recently able to see Hans Rosling give a lecture to public health students at Karolinska Institutet. He shared his insights and viewpoints on various global health issues and also introduced his “Trendalyzer” application, Gapminder World. Much of what Hans Rosling explained with respect to global health trends and changes was illustrated using his Gapminder World application. What is Gapminder World exactly? Think of it as a visually appealing way to present statistical information for every country of the world. With this software, it is possible to make comparisons between countries based on such measures as GDP per capita, population size, and life expectancy, as well as various economic, education, energy, health, infrastructure, and population parameters. It is then possible to visually observe how these statistics have changed over time among the various countries. My explanations will not do justice to […]

With the recent United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, healthcare reform has become a prominent subject of both discussion and derision in the media and the political world. The topic of healthcare reform has engendered passionate debates and divisiveness across America. The Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, will continue to dominate the political discourse in the run-up to the United States presidential election this November. For more insight into American healthcare policy, MedCrunch was able to sit down and interview former California State Assemblyman Jim Cunneen to discuss the Affordable Care Act and healthcare reform in the United States. Mr. Cunneen represented the Silicon Valley in the California legislature from 1994 to 2000, serving on the Insurance, Budget, Education, and Public Safety Legislative Committees. He subsequently served as the President and CEO of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and is presently a Principal of California Strategies, LLC, a bipartisan, public affairs consulting firm.   MedCrunch: What do you think the long-term impact of the Affordable Care Act will be on the US health care system? Jim Cunneen: I’m not completely qualified to say, but from […]

Alejandro and I sat down for an interview with Seth Cooper, the Creative Director of the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington. Dr. Cooper spoke during TEDMED about the power of play and the role that games can play in dealing with scientific challenges. Seth is a co-creator and a primary developer of Foldit, a protein folding game that allows users to help predict protein structure and design new proteins, both of which allow for the better understanding of disease and also for the development of new ways to combat disease.   CJ: In your speech today you talked about Foldit and generating the best protein shape. How is that best shaped protein determined exactly?     Seth: Within the game, everything is based on a score function obtained from biochemists. The game is based on a computational function, so if you give it a protein structure, it will give you back a number that tells you how well folded that particular protein is. It‘s based on the fundamental properties of proteins. It’s an estimate of how well folded that particular protein structure is. The way that the game works is that we post a protein structure […]

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