The state health exchanges where many people may purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have been open for a couple of weeks. Although the online process for finding and securing health insurance has been fraught with problems both technological and political, “Obamacare” is here to stay, and for a lot of people….
Continue ReadingArchives for October 2013
How Big Pharma Peddles Influence in FDA Panel Meetings
When the federal government wants to set medical policy and testing standards, it assembles a panel of experts to analyze the state of that particular medical art and make recommendations to the FDA. You would hope-and expect-that the process would be strictly analytical and scientific, uncontaminated by outside commercial interests. In at least one recent….
Continue ReadingFine-Tuning Our Knowledge About Hormone Replacement Therapy
Some menopausal women experience uncomfortable symptoms, such as hot flashes and mood swings, and some are at risk of bone fractures because producing less estrogen impairs the body’s ability to rebuild bone. For a long time, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to address these concerns has been the subject of scientific study and commentary. We blogged….
Continue ReadingCancer Care Needs Are Falling Short of Demand
Approximately 14 million Americans – about 4 in 100 — have had cancer. As explained on MedPage Today.com, that number is expected to grow to 18 million by 2030 with 2.3 million new cases each year. But the number of several health-care professions specializing in cancer care is expected to fall short of the increasing….
Continue ReadingQuestioning the Frequency of Bone Density Testing
As we age, bones lose minerals and protein. That makes them more fragile and susceptible to fracture. When the condition becomes debilitating, it’s called osteoporosis, and in its most severe expression can make bones so brittle that they can break when you sneeze. Because there’s a direct connection between the lower hormone levels of menopause….
Continue ReadingHow the Profit Motive Feeds the Risks of Coronary Stents
As retold in a story last month on Bloomberg.com, what happened to Bruce Peterson is characteristic of the troubling overuse in U.S. health care of cardiac stents. These tubular devices are surgically implanted to prop open arteries, and in the last 10 years, about 7 million Americans received one at a cost of more than….
Continue ReadingCongress Steps Up to Regulate Compounding Pharmacies
Congress is finally getting around to reducing the risk of contaminated drugs that too often, lately, have been manufactured by compounding pharmacies. You’ll recall the deadly outbreak of meningitis and the series of infections stemming from these semi-rogue operations that so far, aren’t subject to the same regulatory scrutiny as other manufacturers of pharmaceuticals. Compounding….
Continue ReadingTV Drug Ads Are Misleading. Anyone Surprised?
Unless you’re the sort of person who would buy ice in a blizzard, you probably don’t need to be warned about the out-sized claims of TV ads for drugs. But if you’re the kind of person who likes proof of what you know is right, a new study confirms that pharmaceutical companies make promises about….
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