![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Two Good Ideas
Nov. 23rd, 2009 04:21 pmTwo good ideas, both brought to mind by the Sunday paper:
Tele-medicine
This is basically the idea of using high-resolution cameras and other remote sensory devices so that specialist doctors can see and treat patients at remote facilities. Besides allowing better treatment, AKA "not as many deaths," this idea can reduce costs. For example: unnecessary transfers were practically eliminated and medical errors were reduced by 75% using telemedicine, compared with similar cases where advice was given only over the telephone. Several states, including California and Maine, are implementing state-wide prgrams. Gee, using government initiatives to save costs and improve treatment! What a country! /sarcasm/
Fighting Terrorism With Schools
I've blogged before about the Central Asia Institute. This group, founded by mountain climber Greg Mortenson, works to build non-sectarian schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. One of the program's success stories is Aziza Hussain. A graduate of a rural school, she went back to her valley in 2000 as a midwife. Since her arrival, deaths of mothers from childbirth declined from twenty a year to zero.
This effort has received a lot of attention, including from the US military. Graduates of these schools are not signing up to be Taliban, and the communities in which the schools are based are not looking to attack America. Don't get me wrong - you can't win a war just by education, but making friends is cheaper than killing enemies.
Tele-medicine
This is basically the idea of using high-resolution cameras and other remote sensory devices so that specialist doctors can see and treat patients at remote facilities. Besides allowing better treatment, AKA "not as many deaths," this idea can reduce costs. For example: unnecessary transfers were practically eliminated and medical errors were reduced by 75% using telemedicine, compared with similar cases where advice was given only over the telephone. Several states, including California and Maine, are implementing state-wide prgrams. Gee, using government initiatives to save costs and improve treatment! What a country! /sarcasm/
Fighting Terrorism With Schools
I've blogged before about the Central Asia Institute. This group, founded by mountain climber Greg Mortenson, works to build non-sectarian schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. One of the program's success stories is Aziza Hussain. A graduate of a rural school, she went back to her valley in 2000 as a midwife. Since her arrival, deaths of mothers from childbirth declined from twenty a year to zero.
This effort has received a lot of attention, including from the US military. Graduates of these schools are not signing up to be Taliban, and the communities in which the schools are based are not looking to attack America. Don't get me wrong - you can't win a war just by education, but making friends is cheaper than killing enemies.
