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Michael L. Barnett

@mlbarnett.bsky.social
2.4K followers 1K following 270 posts

health policy researcher, primary care physician, dad

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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 23m
Another grant not discussed 🙇‍♂️😓🤷‍♂️👎 Just have to roll with the punches and try again. I sure wish the NIH cycle was faster though.
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Brown University School of Public Health @brownpublichealth.bsky.social · 4h
Professor @mlbarnett.bsky.social has found that amid the explosion in training programs for our expanding #nursepractitioner workforce, nearly 1 in 3 new NPs is being educated by a for-profit program. Dr. Barnett's reasons for concern: www.brown.edu/news/2026-10-08/profi…
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Jennifer Szalai @jenszalai.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It was a short call, Carlberg said: All the poet would say was she
was "in Iceland," where she was
"listening to the wind."
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Finally a proper working paper for this study that produced one of the most astounding figures I've ever seen. Basically economics is different from every other field, empirically. This paper looks at the concentration of university affiliations for award winners. www.nber.org/papers/w35875
Figure 2 from the paper: institutional concentration of university affiliation at time of award correlated with institutional concentration of phd granting university. Economics is the most concentrated of any field. 
Figure 2 from the paper: institutional concentration of university affiliation at time of award correlated with institutional concentration of lifetime employment. Economics is the most concentrated of any field.
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crumb @crumb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4998...
ihoggan 
 I was a graph theory junkie long ago and even moved to Budapest for awhile to study among the greats. While I was there I started working on Barnette's Conjecture which came to occupy my thoughts over the next 24 years of my life, on and off as I worked in many different fields. Last summer I even thought for a few days that I had actually solved it. But it's supposedly proven here - problem 180. I don't know what to think exactly. I spent thousands of hours on that problem. I really enjoyed it. Hearing that it is solved somehow makes me sad in a far-off way, like hearing an ex-girlfriend died suddenly in a car crash. I don't know, there's probably a lot of people feeling odd emotions tonight. There's no Lean proof for this one so I'm digesting the paper. On the surface it looks like an approach I considered 24 years ago and abandoned. 
I revisited the problem this summer, along with my partial solutions, when the previous round of stunning proofs came out. Several hours of work with Fable simply convinced me it wasn't yet solvable and reinforced how hard of a problem it was. 
 WheelsAtLarge
I have very little understanding of higher math, so I ask you: Was the proof due to a type of brute-force solution that could be solved had you gained enough information from reading others' work, or was it more like a proof that was sparked by an insight that came once a clue on how to solve it was put forward? I guess my question is: Was the problem proven by using a collection of everyone's work, or was it due to a brand-new insight? 
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jboggan
 Hi I'm still digesting the proof and translating a bit from the dual case back to the primal in which I most commonly thought about it. I don't think it was a brute force proof in the sense that it combined every possible paper and commentary. It's rather odd because I feel like most of the work on the conjecture was focused on an induction proof based around graph reductions, and this proof avoided those issues entirely by offering a concrete constructive proof of finding a Hamiltonian cycle. Rather, it explicitly selected the edges not in the Hamiltonian cycle, which is in line with previous attempts via the dual. 
The "oho" insight for this is actually f**ing wild, it involves a complex valued exponential sum on the edges. I've seen a lot of clever counting arguments before in graph theory but this is the first time I've seen complex roots and annihilating terms like this, the symbolic manipulation tricks in this look like things out of quantum physics. I don't understand where this trick originated, I need to really digest this. 



jboggan
 I went back to that Fable chat and showed it this new preprint. It coded up the new constructive algorithm and ran it against the existing test suite, that looks good at least. 
It has been super helpful in delineating where the crucial concept came from. The proof is rather simple as graph theory proofs go, but it does seem to use some constructions that would only seem obvious if you had serious physics experience with partition function and calculating energy states that cancel out. It's not a wholly alien bolt from the heavens, but I can also see how there hasn't been a human being with the broad theoretical physics knowledge combined with the deep graph theory experience in planar graphs to come up with this idea. I don't know, I'm looking for precedents of this formulation and some old papers of Penrose counting the number of edge colorings of this same graph type are coming up, the line of argument at least rhymes. But I agree with the thought that this sort of progress should not be siloed inside those companies. I propose a tax so that every slop cannon Al video pays for another hour of compute time for advancing mathematics. 
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
new research with @hneprash.bsky.social and others in @annalsofim.bsky.social Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are an exploding workforce. For-profit companies are starting to get in on the training boom. What's been happening nationally? Buckle up! www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
acpjournals.org
Growth in the Share of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses Educated at For-Profit Programs in Four U.S. States | Annals of Internal Medicine
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
We decided to look deeper into what is happening. My team pulled nursing rosters from CA, FL, IA, and TX and classified the schools training NPs as for-profit or non-profit. We found something shocking - nearly 1 in 3 newly licensed NPs in 2024 was trained at a for-profit school! That's massive.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Thanks to my wonderful team including two amazing nursing researchers Hilary Barnes and Elizabeth White, also Brianna Hardy and Ellen Latsko. Send questions or thoughts my way.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Our piece just describes this growth, so we can't say anything about quality. But there are concerns and little transparency in how for profit education + clinical outcomes compare to other schools. The story didn't turn out well for RN education. www.journalofnursingregulation.com/article/S215...
journalofnursingregulation.com
The Growth and Performance of Nursing Programs by Ownership Status
Since 2002, there has been dramatic growth in the number of registered nurse (RN) graduates from nursing programs in all types of institutional settings, with the largest increases in the for-profit s...
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The growth varies a lot by state too - in California, the number by 2024 is over 40% of NPs trained in for profit programs. This boom is driven strongly by a small number of for-profit schools like Walden and Chamberlain, owned by the same corporate parent formerly known as DeVry.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
We decided to look deeper into what is happening. My team pulled nursing rosters from CA, FL, IA, and TX and classified the schools training NPs as for-profit or non-profit. We found something shocking - nearly 1 in 3 newly licensed NPs in 2024 was trained at a for-profit school! That's massive.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The APRN workforce is growing very rapidly and they all need graduate degrees. For-profit companies have noticed. The concern is that for-profit schools cut a lot of corners - distance education, students find their own clinical training, and more. www.milbank.org/publications...
milbank.org
Rapid Growth, Uncertain Impact: Nurse Practitioners and the Future of Primary Care Access  | Milbank Memorial Fund
This analysis considers the impact of the profession’s rapid growth on access to high-quality primary care, particularly in safety net settings, where NPs already play an outsized role in care deliver...
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
new research with @hneprash.bsky.social and others in @annalsofim.bsky.social Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are an exploding workforce. For-profit companies are starting to get in on the training boom. What's been happening nationally? Buckle up! www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
acpjournals.org
Growth in the Share of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses Educated at For-Profit Programs in Four U.S. States | Annals of Internal Medicine
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Chalkbeat @chalkbeat.org · 06/10/2026
For decades, some Boston students have traveled to suburban schools through Metco. New research finds strikingly large benefits years later.
bit.ly
How a school integration program transformed students’ odds of graduating college
For decades, some Boston students have traveled to suburban schools through Metco. New research finds strikingly large benefits years later.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
PS they let the butterfly out in the playground at the end of the science section
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
this is ABSOLUTE INSANITY. next up, investigating 3rd grade teachers for imprisonment of caterpillars in science education. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/h...
nytimes.com
Texas Pediatricians Face Paxton Investigations for Vaccinating Children
Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and Republican Senate candidate, has alleged a sprawling profit-driven conspiracy. Pediatricians say the accusations are an attempt at intimidation.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
New MAHA priorities: - bring back full dose aspirin - HRT for CV prevention - tonsillectomy for all - stent all coronary arteries - required annual PSA test - make benzos and opioids great again
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
reductions in crime happened before greening! interesting Hawthorne like effect with interest implications for neighborhood effects. can't wait to see more @atheendar.bsky.social
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
!!!!!
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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The fiscal year is over. The dying Social, Behavioral, and Economic division of NSF ended up awarding 90 total grants this year, as opposed to ~700-800 in recent past years. Source: grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses...
The graph shows the cumulative number of awards made by month across this fiscal year, as compared to the last 6 fiscal years. The line for this year is total flat until June, but then finally gets up to 91 by October. In prior years the increase starts building earlier and ends on average in the 700-800 range (with variability, last year was only between 400-500).
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
👎
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
if they are playing LCD soundsystem at the supermarket does that mean I'm old?
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
yay.
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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I'm not sure who saw this coming, but so far nearly all the jobs created during the second Trump administration have gone to women.
Line chart titled "So far during Trump's second term, just 8% of all job growth has gone to men" showing change in employment by gender since January 2025. Total nonfarm employment grew by 776,000 jobs through September 2026, with women gaining 711,000 positions (92% of growth) while men added only 65,000 jobs (8% of growth). Women's employment gains accelerated sharply through 2026, reaching 711,000 by September, while men's employment growth remained flat with brief periods of decline, including a drop of 96,000 jobs in February 2026.
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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Phantom of Heilbronn, also referred to as the Woman Without a Face, was a presumed female serial killer whose existence was inferred from DNA evidence found at 40 crime scenes across Austria, France and Germany from 1993 to 2009.

In March 2009, investigators concluded that the supposed serial killer did not exist, and the DNA belonged to a woman who worked at a factory that made the cotton swabs used for collecting DNA samples
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...
healthaffairs.org
Health Affairs Journal
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
published a few months ago
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
say more? in nursing outlook itself?
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
update, the paper is riddled with factual and hallucinated problems. i don't have time for this but ill have to send a letter insisting on retraction.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
what I mean is that Nursing Outlook is not an obscure open access journal where AI slop is to be expected
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
no it's just a random paper I found published in Nursing Outlook
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
so, what do you do when you find a paper that should be legit that has a ton of AI hallucinated references?
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Shot: "We asked 37 top academics and researchers who study education to rate a range of ideas for both effectiveness and cost, on a scale of 1 to 7." Chaser: "The panel included: Dominique Baker..." LOL y'all I read so many papers to complete this survey on k12 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/u...
nytimes.com
30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts
Math and reading scores are in a decade-long slump. We asked three dozen experts: What could turn things around?
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
we do need the rain though!!
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
SCOOP: Top researchers at Columbia, Stanford, and others thought they were elected to elite scientific societies alongside Nobel laureates. The catch? The organizations are a sham. I spent the last month diving deep into a massive academic scam spanning continents, for @nature.com
nature.com
Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers
A Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
why do they use the word "casualties" in the abstract? does that not mean someone died??
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I cannot ignore this now, as I have never been able to ignore it before, because getting the science wrong leads to the wrong policy frame: if you believe that you can prevent every outbreak simply by living in harmony with nature, there is no reason to invest in preparedness or health systems.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
3. Our new study further complicates this narrative, showing that in this and many systems, records of outbreak geography primarily tell us where we have surveillance infrastructure - and, when you take those signals out, the land use *change* story often drops out. bsky.app/profile/coli...
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
TIL bears killed 232 people in Japan in 2025 (!!!!) as far as i can tell, the same number for the US is <3 in 2025
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
it's missing Bluey iykyk
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Atheendar Venkataramani @atheendar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Roland Fryer's take is the most thoughtful and useful one I've seen. His column in WSJ has been excellent in general. www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...
wsj.com
Opinion | The Education of Nikole Hannah-Jones
School choice is necessary for all children to reach their full potential. But it isn’t sufficient.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
cc @adrianna.bsky.social
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/09/2026
Never been to the opera before? Now’s your chance. We’re giving away 70,000 free tickets to the @metopera at the iconic Lincoln Center. Go to on.nyc.gov/opera to enter the lottery. There’s not a bad seat in the house.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The problem is that it's still just as wrong as someone who is pretty inexperienced in the field. Like a smart but still unexperienced student. So, this thread is just a reminder to myself that I have to be very cautious. Without true expertise, these models are still very dangerous.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the big danger. When I'm using AI slightly adjacent to my field, like asking for some legal analysis of a health policy, I've left my comfort zone but AI has no clue it could be wrong. And neither do I. But it's still REALLY close to accurate and it does know what it's talking about.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Something I am VERY knowledgeable about is writing grants and papers in my research field. When I ask AI for its analysis of my work, I spot tons of errors and exaggerations. Rarely egregious or frank hallucinations, but also just not correct. These would be very hard for a non-expert to recognize.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Gell-Mann amnesia effect is summarized like this, aka "Knoll's law of media accuracy": "Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge." Using AI as a knowledge partner seems to be the same.
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Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I've been working with AI much more the past few weeks to help with refining and improving grant writing. I've been really impressed, honestly. But also it involves a ton of iteration to get things right. It reminds me of the "Gell-Mann amnesia effect" (thread) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael...
"Gell-Mann amnesia effect"
In a speech in 2002, Crichton coined the term "Gell-Mann amnesia effect" to describe the phenomenon of experts reading newspaper articles within their fields of expertise and finding them to be error-ridden and full of misunderstanding, but seemingly forgetting those experiences when reading articles in the same publications written on topics outside of their fields of expertise, which they believe to be credible. He explained that he had chosen the name ironically, because he had once discussed the effect with physicist Murray Gell-Mann, "and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have".[153][154]

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.[153]

The Gell-Mann amnesia effect is similar to Erwin Knoll's law of media accuracy, which states: "Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge."[155]
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anil oza @aniloza.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Confirming the White House’s planned EO to exert more political control on NIH seems to be “dead” www.statnews.com/2026/09/23/n...
statnews.com
White House plan to increase control of NIH grants appears 'dead'
A planned EO that would have greatly enhanced White House influence over grants at the NIH is “looking dead,” a source said.
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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The decline in nursing home beds in the US is an incredibly concerning trend, because recent research suggests that the supply of possible informal caregivers is declining as the share of older adults (65+) is increasing
kffhealthnews.org
Nursing Home Beds Are Becoming More Scarce - KFF Health News
As the oldest baby boomers turn 80, researchers worry there won’t be enough room in nursing facilities for a rapidly graying nation.
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