New site: Care and Cost

I'm passing along this announcement.

Today, David Kibbe and Brian Klepper are launching a new forum for health care professionals, Care & Cost (C&C), that we hope you’ll consider adding to your regular diet of health care information and thought.

We’ve tried hard to design C&C to appeal to health care practitioners from every part of the industry, from imaging, benefits and medical management to law, physicians and palliative care. Every day we’ll run one or two think pieces, as well as interesting charts and images. Our goal is to provide a marketplace of practical ideas that provokes questions and comments. Under the heading “Urgent Science,” we’ll publish refereed review articles that lay out the scientific arguments, with citations, for implementing new approaches into clinical practice. And, from time to time, we may also re-publish articles run elsewhere in the past, simply because they are still relevant.

The articles on C&C will broadly explore two overarching themes. One is the health care cost crisis, which remains very much with us and threatens the stability of both the industry and the US economy. The other is the countervailing trend, the explosion in innovative solutions - tools, programs and designs - aimed at making health care better, cheaper and more available.

We’ve already recruited a couple dozen well established health care writers. At the same time, we’d be delighted to entertain articles from anyone with an insight or something to say to the health care community.

In the interest of keeping the discussion most engaging, we’ve decided to do three things.

· First, we’ll require commenters to use their names. If it’s worth saying, it’s worth owning up to saying it.

· Next, we’ll demand courtesy and professionalism. Insulting or abusive language won’t be published.

· Third, comments should be on point. Entries that simply show up to, say, make a political diatribe, won’t make it either.

We hope you’ll visit early and often and join in the fray.

Please pass this announcement along to colleagues you think might also be interested.

Best regards.

David C. Kibbe and Brian Klepper