Understanding Government

A long time ago we wrote about why President Obama needed strong and capable partners at the top level of government who could add to the President’s public voice. It looks like Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is one of those people, and her recent “White House White Board” presentation explaining HHS’s plans for “rate review” on the state level shows how straight talk from top agency officials can help citizens understand what’s really going on in Washington — unfiltered. (more…)

By Marci Greenstein

National Institutes of Health chief, Dr. Frances Collins was talking up his agency’s partnership with the Food and Drug Administration on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show last week.  The move is intended to speed up the process for getting drugs from laboratories to the marketplace.  What’s surprising is that this collaboration hasn’t happened sooner.  How often have we heard about patients desperate to get drugs that are successful in clinical trials but are moving at a snail’s pace through the FDA’s regulatory maze? (more…)