Author Archives: Jason

About Jason

Jason R. Koepke is Founder and Data Strategist at GNT LLC, a risk-analysis and data strategy firm that provides analytical and technical services to the public and private sectors. His work and research has been featured in the academic, financial, and technical industries.

Besmirching Medical Professionals, Part 1

I plan to write a massive critique of the medical profession, but for now I want to quickly criticize their interaction with patients. They treat patients as idiots unable to understand numbers, basic scientific research, and entities incapable of doing cost/benefit analysis. And while many people may suffer from one or more of these conditions, the opportunity for others to have their doctors geek out on them should be available (and bad decisions by the patients tolerated and chalked up to free will).

For example, in my initial wave of research on liver transplantation, no Web site provides numbers, references to research studies, detailed analysis of the situation, and/or in-depth discussion of post-op survival rates. Instead, each and every one of the many sites I visited–this included reputable university medical centers, renown private medical centers, and organizations dedicated to the situation–take a superficial and ultra-basic approach. While this is nice for an introduction or for people who do not care, it is unsatisfactory for those who want, or need, to know more.

While this is an extreme example, Web sites like liverdisease.com, which was recommended by USC’s Liver Transplant Program not only should have been banned from the Internet in 2000, but are criminal. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone familiar with 419 is involved.

Inequality in the United States and Its Implications

The United Nations released its 2008 State of the World’s Cities report, which in past years has been an excellent source about demographic shifts around the world. Unfortunately, the United Nations decides to charge people a ridiculous amount ($44) for the report rather than making it available at an affordable (or even free) rate.

Based on an FT article on the World’s Cities report, the United States was ranked disturbingly high in the degree of inequality in its cities, most notably New York, Washington DC, and Miami. It is all interesting, so go read it.

Also of note is that there is a significant amount of research on inequality and its role in fomenting revolution. And while I do not want to take the rather selfish, short-sighted, and disturbing position of the UN Human Settlements Program executive director (“Inequality is not good for the economy”), I do think inequality is a make-or-break situation for the United States in the near and middle term. Perhaps the crown jester in all this are multi-millionaire politicians boasting about who is a better defender of the middle class (with the cherry on top being no one ever mentions the lower class).

Now where’s my cake?