Moomin Land

I've been extremely busy preparing for my course that I'll be teaching this summer. It's a graduate course on Information Research in Public Health. I've also been extremely busy trying to plan and prepare my trip to Sweden and Denmark. I'll also be staying at Hotel Royal and Hotel Elite. Very swanky, indeed. Not surprising, I haven't had proper time to post on my blog (which I think only 1.5 persons read). Nevertheless, this is not without thinking about public health and traveling! This article sums up nicely the types of things that I've been questioning before my big trip to Scandinavia. According the WHO report, the US is 37th out of 190 industrialized countries whereas Sweden is 23rd and Denmark is 34th. But some experts disagree and criticize the model for using inconsistent measurements. For example, the OEC's report, which is more rigorous and uses controlled measures, found the US at the bottom of 6 industrialized countries. The OEC also reports that the US spends more on healthcare than any other country (a very well known fact), but that citizens receive far less than other countries (again, another well known fact in health policy). Presumably, much of this will be discussed in Sicko which opens in the US on June 29th. If I weren't going to be in Scandinavia, guess where I'd be on the 29th?