Far Enough from Heaven

A bridge far enough?

T he publication in this issue of Circulation of the Evaluation of the HeartWare Left Ventricular Assist Device for the Treatment of Advanced Heart Failure (ADVANCE) trial by Aaronson, Slaughter, and colleagues 1 tracks continuing advance in the rapidly expanding field of mechanical circulatory support. As implantable device technology and the clinical learning curve have supported better outco...

From pigsties to hog heaven?

In the continuing transformation of U.S. agriculture, North Carolina finds itself on the front edge of change. Between 1989 and 1998, the number of hogs in the state's pork industry quintupled---and so has the amount of hog waste that must be disposed of. Now the state has engaged private and public resources in a rapid search for better ways for handling hog waste. A technology review panel ha...

The future of health economic modeling: have we gone too far or not far enough?

This is a summary of the presentation given by A. Mark Fendrick at the ISPOR 10th Annual International Meeting Second Plenary Session, May 17, 2005, Washington, DC, USA. Dr Fendrick is Professor at the Department of Internal Medicine and Health Management & Policy, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. This presentation immediately followed the presentation, Bringing Health...

The Paris Declaration Does Not Go Far Enough

Sex in heaven

In a previous commentary, I offered my personal view as to the recipient-as-reproductive-being issue. I quote: “The fact that the gonads belong to the body donor is actually a facilitator for the whole enterprise. Imagine the parents of the brain dead body donor – racked by sorrow and despair for their loss – who are told that, once the new being will start reproducing, his or her offspring wil...