Big Pharma stayed in an unpleasant spotlight last week, with developments including: How OxyContin reformulation may have hiked heroin-related deaths A new study has helped to explain the nationwide surge in heroin-related deaths, and how these likely are the unintended consequence of reformulations of OxyContin, a powerful, addictive painkiller. The study by the University of….
Continue ReadingArchives for January 2017
In Cleveland and in DC, a new outbreak of ridiculousness on vaccinations
In 1798, Edward Jenner, an English physician, published a small pamphlet that forever changed the course of medicine. The pamphlet described how vaccinations could prevent infectious diseases. But more than two centuries after his lifesaving breakthrough, which has sidelined some of the planet’s worst scourges, how is it that a leading physician at one of the….
Continue ReadingAs GOP tries to repeal Obamacare, will Price be architect of its replacement?
The Republican-controlled Senate has launched itself in a late-night session on the path to its long-pledged repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The GOP-controlled House on Friday the 13th followed close behind. Lawmakers have chosen a complex parliamentary path. GOP members are expressing confusion about their way forward, even as doubts….
Continue ReadingU.S. cracks down on abuse of valuable antibiotics to promote livestock growth
What happens on farms in Georgia and Oregon or ranches in Texas and Wyoming has a direct and significant effect on how healthy hospitalized patients stay in Buffalo, Baltimore, or Los Angeles. And now federal regulators have put in full effect a big change to help protect humans’ well-being by ensuring medically important antibiotics don’t….
Continue ReadingSeven questions for Congress on Obamacare
Two health care experts just put out a list of seven questions that Congress needs to answer about its replacement for the Affordable Care Act. The list is simple and useful for all of us in any contacts we have with lawmakers. Here it is: 1. How many millions of Americans will lose coverage? 2. Will….
Continue ReadingMD’s tips on retail-clinic care offer a reminder of medical records’ importance
In the best of all worlds, none of us will need any time soon to race to a nearby urgent care center or to pop by the retail, walk-in clinics that have sprouted in neighborhood drug stores across the country. But if you do find yourself at one of these “doc-in-a-box” clinics, here is some….
Continue ReadingWhat do we know about best baby care? Peanuts, salve, pills raise questions
Although many of us would like nothing better than to dote on a favorite baby all day long, medical experts have offered some surprising turnarounds and concessions for the new year about what they do and don’t know about infant care-giving. They have made a 180-degree reversal on their advice to parents on dealing with….
Continue ReadingResearchers see ways Obamacare helped to cut costs, improve patient care
As the already known complications to its demise have increased by the minute, there may be some detectable pauses in the partisan zeal to give the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, the bum’s rush. That’s because the legislation’s repeal-and-replace proponents — despite seven years and several dozen U.S. House votes to roll back the ACA….
Continue ReadingFDA warns hospitals, doctors about fire hazards with medical cart batteries
They’re likely jammed into many of the toys and electronic gadgets that overflowed the house during the holidays. But they’ve also been linked to sufficient fires that products have been recalled because of them, and some devices with them have even been banned in the nation’s skies. Now federal regulators are warning hospitals and doctors’….
Continue ReadingAre dire circumstances helping to renew focus on stigmatized mental health?
Although advocates ended 2016 cheered by new legislation that increased funding and raised the priority of mental health in the nation’s health policy, the year also closed with stark reminders of how far the United States has lagged in this vital area. Two separate news investigations have painted dire portraits of how the lack of….
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