Sunday, August 16, 2020

I support affirmative action. I support holistic review. I do not support holistic review used to achieve affirmative action.

The world of medicine has been roiled recently by an article published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.  The author, Dr. Norman Wang, MD (since fired from his job as an cardiac electrophysiology fellowship program director) argued against affirmative action in medicine, believing that individuals with "weaker" academic credentials shouldn't be accepted into medicine programs.  It was subsequently condemned as racist and retracted.

Friday, May 29, 2020

President Trump is Ignoring America’s Trump Card in the Conflict with China

President Trump recently announced a series of harsh measures against China, including the suspension of entry of all graduate and post-graduate students into the United States.  I can understand the desire to protect American intellectual property by preventing students from learning skills and intellectual property and then returning to China and making use of them without royalties.  But a blanket ban on the entry of Chinese students ignores how the fields of medicine, science, and engineering really work and is likely to backfire spectacularly.