“We're doing to medicine what we've done to low-paid service jobs,” said Shannon Brownlee, acting director of health policy at the New America Foundation. “We're filling the lowest paid physician jobs – primary care docs – with foreign doctors who ...

Then, last week, the Brookline-based Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation went further, partnering with the New America Foundation on the first major conference to dedicated to “Avoiding Avoidable Care.” The 100 or so doctors in attendance addressed ...

"It's harder to get doctors to quit doing certain things" than to embrace new procedures, says Shannon Brownlee, a health policy expert at the New America Foundation who wrote a book about overtreatment in America. Part of the problem, she says, is that the primary way doctors learn about new science is through continuing medical education, which they have to do to keep up their medical licenses. Most continuing medical education is funded by drug and medical device companies.

Mergers and a focus on loyalty programs for business passengers on high-volume routes have bypassed major cities, including St. Louis, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, forcing companies to relocate because of deteriorating air service, said Phillip Longman of the New America Foundation, a nonprofit Washington think tank. His recent article in Washington Monthly spurred Tuesday's discussion on whether it is time to "re-regulate" the airlines.