But if globalisation is the most important change in the exercise of power in our age, then our increasing interdependence on each other is the key condition that governs our existence as individuals.

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This is a new feature, available on some defibrillator-like devices that are now on the market, which is aimed at people with a form of heart condition that causes their two ventricles to beat slightly out of phase with each other.

ECONOMIST: Case history

This is a potentially deadly condition in which the individual chambers of a heart beat out of phase with each other.

ECONOMIST: Model behaviour

Cabinet ministers were reduced to asking each other, and even in some cases the media, for information about her condition.

ECONOMIST: How Sonia Gandhi exercises power

Instead, medicine should be standardized like other business processes, so each patient will receive the best known care for their particular condition, rather than be subject to the whims and caprices of the treating physician.

FORBES: Three Tensions In Medical Innovation To Watch For In 2013

It kills 94, 000 people in the UK each year, more than any other disease, and 2.6 million people live with the condition.

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