In October, we reported that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force was recommending that routine screening for prostate cancer be suspended for most men. Last week, after six months of reviewing nearly 3,000 public comments, the task force confirmed its initial finding. The discussion of prostate screening for cancer, as well as that of routine….
Continue ReadingArchives for May 2012
Can Baby Boomers Pass the Hepatitis C Test?
In their youth, baby boomers were perceived as the luckiest generation yet of Americans. But thanks to their unprecedented freedom and the boundary-pushing nature of post-World War II America, boomers disproportionately suffer from something nobody wants: hepatitis C. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending that all baby boomers….
Continue ReadingLack of Coordinated Care Costs Time, Money and Sometimes a Good Outcome
The concept of coordinated care is considered a best practice, but in light of a recent survey and story by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health, it’s hardly a widespread one. A few years ago, we wrote about what happens to hospital patients when the facility’s right hand doesn’t….
Continue ReadingVirtual Colonoscopy—Good Results Without the Bad Preparation
The list of medical procedures no one welcomes is long and varied, but pretty much everyone would opt never to have a colonoscopy if it weren’t necessary. It’s not so much the procedure that’s a problem, it’s the preparation-a diet restricted to clear liquids for 24 hours, and the ingestion of a nasty bowel-clearing drink….
Continue ReadingA Possible Defense Against Kidney Stones
For approximately 1 million Americans every year, kidney stones easily outrank childbirth, migraine headaches and other kinds of hurt for the booby prize of “most pain I’ve ever had.” Now those victims have some good news-new research by scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has yielded information to explain why….
Continue ReadingConflict of Interest Kills Pain Control Advocacy Group
Here’s another tale of Big Pharma insinuating itself into places it doesn’t belong, to the detriment of quality care and patient safety. Established to support patients with chronic pain, their families and the health-care professionals who serve them, the American Pain Foundation claimed to be the pain community’s largest advocacy group. Early this month, it….
Continue ReadingCosmetics Can Help You Look Good But Feel Bad
Beauty’s only skin deep, they say, but ugly cuts to the bone. And by “ugly” we’re talking about the potential for cosmetics to have unattractive consequences. At least that’s the thinking behind the push for more accurate product labeling on makeup, sunscreen, bath and other personal products. As explained in a story by the Detroit….
Continue ReadingPsychiatric Patients Get the Short End of the ER Stick
The hospital’s emergency room is filled with patients representing a range of urgent problems. The kid with a broken ankle, courtesy a bumpy slide at second base. The woman wearing dark sunglasses and cradling her migrained head. The guy pressing a towel into the web of his hand to stanch the blood from a knife….
Continue ReadingGlitches on the Path Toward a High Quality Electronic Medical Record System
Early in 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Commonly known as the Stimulus, or Recovery Act, it was intended to juice the sluggish economy, and it reached into all corners of our culture. One of its effects on health care was the establishment of a national electronic medical record (EMR)…..
Continue ReadingSunshine Dims with Delay on Big Pharma Payment Reports to Docs
Here’s another arrow for the quiver of people exasperated with government. As part of its health-care reform, the Obama Administration proposed that drug companies be made to disclose payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment. The rationale, as reported by The New York Times, was evidence that such payments can….
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