whew

So it's been awhile since I last posted, and the main reason for that has been that I have been swept up in the process of looking for and moving in to a new apartment. My roommates and I, after nearly eight months of a never-quite-gone bed bug problem, left our old place after the lease was up. We moved from Washington Heights to Hamilton Heights, a neighborhood in northwest Harlem. So far, no bugs. :)

Bed bugs have been a huge problem in NYC of late: there have been articles in the New York Times, The Economist, and by the BBC covering the epidemic. NYC's governing bodies have formed committees to address the situation. However, the problem seems to be worsened because despite such committees, the bed bug problem has no real home in city government. The obvious candidate, the Department of Health, makes the point that the bugs are not disease carriers, and hence are not a public health threat. One might argue that bugs that bite you while you sleep, producing large, itchy, reddened wheals on the face, neck, arms, legs, and torso, don't need to carry disease to be a public health threat. But really, who's to say?

Anyway, now that the bed bug/moving situation has been sorted out, my next stop is a camp in upstate New York. The camp is designed for kids that have medical needs greater than those most camps are willing to accomodate. I'll be working as a nuse/nurse practitioner student.

Back to something that is an agreed-upon public health issue in New York: it seems the ban on trans fats is working. A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine has found that the ban has reduced the number of restaurants in NYC using artificial trans fats from 50% rto 2%, resulting in foods with a significantly improved fatty acid profile. The total amount of saturdated and trans fat in French fries, for example, has decreased by 50%. Also, it seems others are following NYC's lead: thriteen other jurisdictions in the USA, including California, have adopted similar bans.

atul gawande on health care costs

Great article from the New Yorker (usually not my favorite publication) about controlling health care costs. Its author, MacAurthur Fellow Atul Gawande, investigated the out of control health care costs of McAllen, Texas, in an effort to understand why health care in America costs so much. I think it's an especially important read for clinicians.