Associate Editor’s Commentary: Government Detailing

Abstract

“Newspeak,” as Orwellian cognoscenti know, is the official language of Oceania—the land ruled by Big Brother. Newspeak was designed “not to extend but to diminish the range of thought.” Its goal was to “make all other modes of thought impossible.” All of which brings us from the nightmare fantasy of 1984 Newspeak to the health care debate of 2012, the concept of “academic detailing,” and a new term we must all become familiar with— cost-think (which defines everything that reduces short-term costs as a benefit to the patient).