Boosting Health Care in Siberia

It's amazing to realize one can fly three time zones east of Moscow and still be only half way across Russia. That's where I found myself this week on assignment for Scientific American. My destination was Tomsk Oblast, a state as large as Texas with only a million people. Tomsk is three-quarters swamp, chock full of oil and gas, and suffering from the Russian scourges of rampant alcoholism, unemployment and a tuberculosis epidemic.

While reporting the tuberculosis story, I discovered an interesting health care program put in place by the Putin administration. I couldn't help but think that it could be used by any country interested in delivering low-cost health care services to under-served communities. You can read about it in this story on the Scientific American website.