The TRANS-MORTIFIED Data

The syndicates have a surfeit of information but absent any wisdom they flail away at whatever comes to their collective imagination. The asymmetry is causing a burgeoning society of leverage-seeking middling managers that is left to its own limited devices for the managers to come up with shady concepts by touting their "expertise" to continue the facade. They live and breathe and advocate the virtues of Big Data, which they don’t themselves understand and yet here they are in their robust glory, effectuating “outcomes.”

What exactly has gone wrong with our soul-searching algorithm that previously never failed to tell us where the rock in a runaway stream-bed was loose, covered with a hint of moss and therefore a dangerous place to step upon? I haven’t the foggiest! But nevertheless here we are justifying what cannot be justified, rectifying what cannot be rectified and advocating what should never be.

There are philosophical differences for sure between the speakers and the spoken to. One side begins and ends with a monolog and does not take any questions while the other hides behind fears and potential for personal holocaust at the hands of power hungry, self-enrichment motivated power brokers.

The case of a CEO run amuck to destroy the professional life and career of a physician whistleblower, whose complaints had to do with poor hospital working conditions and cause for alarm for his patients’ care is a sign of the times. A recent court however,overturned the verdict and granted the physician his rightful reimbursement for lost wages and reputation, gives credence to the voice of a lone minority going head to head against a Hedge Fund sponsored CEO. Let us try to follow his lead for a bit in our lives. 

Equally we are beset with problems that seem on face value, the greatest thing since slice bread, yet as we delve deeper into the heart of the matter there is no existent electrical pulse of reality:

Affordable Care Act seems to have enjoyed a lot of press coverage and millions of people have signed up for coverage. Yet as we look below the thin iced skating surface the fractures are real. Many signers have limited access to doctors as coverage does not translate to care. To protect the turf a slew of laws in about 20 states nationwide have agreed to allow Nurse Practitioners to carry out the full obligations of a physician without the requisite knowledge or experience. There will be “Doctoring without Doctors” and no one is concerned just yet, especially in the urban blues where the patients still enjoy contact with their physicians. In one state, however, which is encouraging the NPs to function without supervision, is Minnesota and here Physician Burnout is lighting up the press recently! The reckoning will soon be upon us. Is the decision making in the hands of a confederacy of fools?

To explain how the Affordable Care Act is saving money there are many an economic-minded-word-contortionist who will use his or her own version of selective bias to create a study that any reasonable journal will scoff at, and yet the journal, hungry for "impact-value" continues to publish such nonsense as “peer review journalism.”  Now, they are counting on Hospitals saving the money for the ACA! Well let me tell you a little about that deceit. Physician Office based care is 1/6^th – 1/10^th the cost of similar care in the hospital. Yet given the onerous mandates imposed on medical practices medical students are seeking hospital employment in droves (83% to be sure). What that will do, is create a monopoly for the hospital to “control costs” by providing the least amount of care to the patient. Think, I don’t know what I am talking about? Ask around.  If you are a physician and if you don’t do the CEO’s bidding then your annual contract will not be renewed! So there! 

We live in a dichotomous society; those that have the force to enforce a will and those that live in fear of that enforcement. What was Yin is now Yang and neither comfortable in their present place.

Another example of this debauchery is in Medical journalism. Medical and Scientific articles continue to outpace the paper journals available, so new journals are created. Most of the studies appear bogus or notverifiable, but no matter!  Life is still “publish or perish” even if it is nothing more than utter nonsense. The scientific medical publishing world is in the hands of a few that determine who pats their back and how much does that translate to in real dollars! but if it makes the news story under the watchful eye of their benefactor on the 11-o’clock News then so, be it. Scientists too have turned to looking for the fast fame,,, The 15 minute fame is all some seek nowadays anyway. Crush the concept later! Doesn’t matter! "I got me in the papers dude!"

Oh and if the “trans-mortified” data appears too difficult to be realistic, hey what the heck, print it anyway, there will be sycophants to carry the written words through and make it a legend.

We have become a society of Grubernauts and Krugmanites. Nothing fits, so make it fit, because the majority of the hard-working people are “Stupid,” the former says, while the latter having proven wrong doubles down in his economic models that has laid bare the fine threads of the tattered economic fabric of some countries with his Keynesian meme.

Where will this end?

I don’t know. But we will find out sooner than later.

It is time to open our eyes and see that reality is not a fictionalized event via a heart-rending anecdote, but what you encounter in your daily life.

‘Nuff said!