America’s drug overdose crisis keeps worsening, with federal officials reporting that emergency room treatment of opioid overdoses spiked by 30 percent across the nation in 2017. Abuse of opioids, including the synthetic painkiller fentanyl and heroin, also is triggering significant outbreaks of diseases, including hepatitis C, which is costly to treat, and deadly major bacterial….
Continue ReadingArchives for March 2018
Diabetics caught up in medical experts’ dispute over key blood sugar metric
What are patients supposed to do when medical experts feud over key disease metrics like the optimal blood sugar level for diabetics? Here we go again, figuring out medical figures: That’s because the American College of Physicians and the American Diabetes Association are tussling over the much-watched blood sugar test — the hemoglobin A1c. It’s also….
Continue ReadingWhy are doctors operating, needlessly and so often, on frail seniors?
Although patient advocates long have pressed Big Medicine to eliminate unnecessary care — waste in the health care system that some experts estimate adds as much as $765 billion annually in needless costs — it may be past due for a public condemnation of a notably extreme example of this practice: The all too frequent,….
Continue ReadingRx to save patients money: Lift Big Pharma ‘gag orders’ on pharmacists
Big Pharma’s notorious middle-men, aka prescription benefit managers or PBMs, are coming under yet more fire — this time over so-called gag orders that they impose on pharmacists they work with, preventing these front-line health care providers from telling patients about cheaper options for drugs. The New York Times reported that states are leading the….
Continue ReadingBig hospital ‘obsolescence’ may be nigh, but new care centers have woes, too
Although big, rich hospitals and their sprawling campuses jammed with shiny new buildings may be reaching a point where they’re unsustainable for competitive cost, safety, and efficiency reasons, a rising health care alternative already may be hitting its own major woes that can’t be ignored. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times have put up….
Continue ReadingWhat happens to MDs in trouble? Hundreds just move on to another state
When doctors get in trouble for repeatedly malpracticing on patients, what do they do? Many mosey down the road and practice elsewhere. That’s because the professional licensing system is a state-by-state patchwork, with a lax and unworkable national reporting system. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and MedPage Today deserve credit for digging into medical boards across the country….
Continue ReadingAs think tank steps into gun-research void, a study finds safety when NRA members attend trade shows
There may be one surprising and modestly research-supported way to cut accidental firearm injuries: Get members of the National Rifle Association to go to more meetings instead of the firing range. As Scientific American reported, “Anupam Jena, a health care policy researcher at Harvard Medical School, and Andrew Olenski, a Columbia University graduate student in….
Continue ReadingIs it carbs, fats, calories, or genes in dieting? Try quality food in moderation
Rigorous, reliable research on diet and nutrition is not common, so it’s worth paying close attention to the results of an $8-million, year-long study conducted at Stanford University with more than 600 test subjects. Its recommendations are filled — in a good way — with common sense and moderation. The New York Times reported of the….
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