Online trolls who have wreaked havoc on traditional news sources also are bedeviling scientific and medical publications. Although experts have benefited from much greater access to information about studies and key developments in their field, they’re also struggling to ensure the articles they get on the Internet are accurate, fair, and responsible. This battle over….
Continue ReadingArchives for March 2017
This March Madness story could get guys talking in right ways about sex
In a health fad that has spread to include sports radio in Washington, D.C., some sports fans apparently have decided that March is the perfect time to undergo a vasectomy. The relatively simple surgical procedure, which urologists can perform in their offices, can result in minor discomfort. But advocates say men can offset this by….
Continue ReadingGAO, states jump into battles to rein in Big Pharma’s sky-high prices
Big Pharma’s skyrocketing prices are finally in for some real scrutiny by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), as well as new initiatives in the Maryland and New York statehouses. The GAO—the independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress and often is called the “congressional watchdog”—has announced that it soon will undertake an investigation requested….
Continue ReadingWill the Trumpcare fiasco mean that health care is finally accepted as a right?
A GOP assault on American health care has been turned aside, for now. But major questions have been exposed that will need answering if we as a country are ever to come together over health care. Do we recognize that health care—comprising 17.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and trillions of dollars in spending….
Continue ReadingNursery products send thousands of toddlers to ERs each year, study finds
Despite years of public and regulatory pressure, manufacturers continue to dump risky nursery products into the market, sending tens of thousands of children each year to emergency rooms for treatment. These injuries also increased markedly during the last years of a newly published study. In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from the….
Continue ReadingPublic spotlight keeps falling on costly drugs, dubious ‘stem cell’ treatments
With all the public attention now focused on soaring drug costs, Big Pharma just can’t seem to stay out of the spotlight. Drug makers are keeping up their eyebrow-raising actions, as are purveyors of so-called “stem cell” treatments, and it’s worth noting some of what’s happening with these: Will insurers, MDs, patients pay for $14,000-a-year….
Continue ReadingIf patient safety matters, why are residents returning to long, sleepless shifts?
Must doctors be absolutely impervious to common sense improvements in the way they train their own? Their bullheadedness has reemerged with the revisited decision by a major academic credentialing group to allow medical residents yet again to work 24-hour shifts. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education clearly was on the defensive when it issued….
Continue ReadingPresident’s budget ax takes a big whack at medical, scientific funding
The Trump budget for the federal government would be a huge step back from investment in medical research with consequences for many years in progress on promoting health and fighting disease. The budget announcement, tilted so far toward guns over butter, proved so challenging to even members of Trump’s own controlling party that lawmakers hastened to….
Continue ReadingTrumpcare’s numbers don’t add up (except for the wealthy)
After seven years, many dozens of repeal votes in Congress, and with the health of hundreds of millions of Americans at stake, can it be that the GOP’s plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act will come down to numbers? The headlines about Obamacare’s potential replacement, the American Health Care Act, aka Trumpcare, may be….
Continue ReadingCan the boss see your genetic tests? GOP bill would fine you for not sharing
Call it creepy or maybe a too-early April Fool’s joke. What else can be said about a Republican-backed measure, advancing in the House of Representatives, that puts Big Brother in charge— big time —in many workplaces via so-called wellness programs? It’s called the “Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act.” This Orwell-inspired bill, pushed by North Carolina Republican….
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