Epidemiology16 min
Association or Causation
Austin Bradford Hill gave epidemiology nine viewpoints for judging cause. A lab-leak exposé, and Wakefield before it, clear almost none of them.
September 11, 2026Read →
Notes from the Abstracts
Latest Post
The freshest dispatch, straight from the top of the pile.
Word of the Day
standardization /ˌstan-dər-də-ˈzā-shən/ n. — The statistical adjustment of rates to remove the effect of differing population structures, especially age.
HIM
Records, standards, and the quiet politics of a data field.
HIM12 min
The Folk Version of HIPAA
HIPAA, HIPAA, HIPAA! Everyone invokes it, few have read it — and the gap between the statute and the folk version is hurting patients and families.
April 22, 2026Read →
HIM7 min
The Bill You Can't Read
Hospitals are required by law to publish what they charge. As it turns out, it means absolutely nothing.
April 10, 2026Read →
HIM14 min
The Engine and the Fuel
New AI health tools can now read your medical record, but nobody is making sure the record is worth reading.
March 15, 2026Read →
Epidemiology
Curves, denominators, and the arithmetic of populations.
Epidemiology16 min
Association or Causation
Austin Bradford Hill gave epidemiology nine viewpoints for judging cause. A lab-leak exposé, and Wakefield before it, clear almost none of them.
September 11, 2026Read →
Epidemiology7 min
Pure Blood
Why the safest blood in American history isn't safe enough for some patients.
April 4, 2026Read →
Epidemiology8 min
Goin' Off the Wrong Rulebook
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pointing at a real problem and demanding evidence that cannot exist in a regulatory framework that was never designed to produce it.
March 9, 2026Read →
Healthcare Issues
Misinformation, money, and the fights that spill out of the record.
Healthcare Issues9 min
She’s Not Wrong by Accident
"Food Babe" and the Architecture of Disinformation
March 11, 2026Read →
Healthcare Issues9 min
Being Sick First
On Bruce Campbell, cancer, and the things we feel entitled to know.
March 5, 2026Read →
Medical Coding 101
A fundamentals series on ICD-10-CM, specificity, and how diagnoses become codes.
Medical Coding 10113 min
How Specific Can You Get?
Laterality, episode of care, placeholder X’s, and why the system demands a level of precision that the record often fails to capture.
Medical Coding 10110 min
What’s Wrong With You?
Medical Coding Fundamentals, Lesson 1: What ICD-10-CM is, where it came from, and why every diagnosis needs a code.
12 posts in the archive
New issues appear when there is something worth counting.