This is disturbing on multiple levels

Siemens Medical Solutions is running a shameless promotion to give away a free MRI machine to the hospital which creates the most popular web video http://www.winanmri.com/. On one level, it is entertaining to watch mostly small town hospital staffs create these videos promoting themselves. But it is a sad commentary on the state of the medical culture in this country that small hospitals can't keep up with the pace of medical equipment and that the culture demands expensive and state-of-the-art medical tests that may not always be necessary. Medical equipment is a lucrative business.

I read about this on the Wall Street Journal's Health blog, which covers a broad range of interesting health and health policy topics http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/10/24/hospitals-beg-for-mri-scanner-via-video/.

(My apologies for the previous error attributing this to the Washington Post.)