Uncle Sam more than ever wants it to happen, and patient advocates are pushing hard, too. So, why, when technology can make it easier than ever to do so, must patients struggle still to get easy, convenient, low- or no-cost access to invaluable electronic records about their own health care? Judith Graham, a columnist focusing….
Continue ReadingArchives for October 2018
The downside of crowd-funding medical treatments for desperate patients
Although the sky-high cost of providing medical care to sick or injured friends and loved ones might seem good reason to encourage community altruism to the nth degree, new technologies that have made it easy, fast, and convenient to “crowd source” online donations also may be sending well-intentioned gifts to dubious and dangerous types of….
Continue ReadingReally? Trump embraces Europe’s price controls to fight high U.S. drug costs
Days before politicians will face voters who tell pollsters they’re angry and upset about health care issues, President Trump made his first visit to the nation’s giant Health and Human Services Department to roll out a much-promoted proposal to attack soaring prescription drug prices. The plan was plenty wonky, replete with data about how much less….
Continue ReadingHealth care advocacy group to expand ratings to include surgery centers
A familiar health care advocacy group will expand its grading of 2,000 or so hospitals across the country to also provide new safety and quality information on 5,600 stand-alone surgical centers that perform millions of procedures annually. It may seem like a small step, and the devil will be in the details of the new….
Continue Reading31 heart studies retracted in latest failure for much-hyped stem-cell therapies
Treatments with “stem cells,” therapies that already were sliding into disrepute due to hyped claims and inappropriate use, took another big hit to their scientific credibility when two respected institutions announced they were retracting 31 published studies claiming stem cells could help patients with damaged hearts. Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in….
Continue ReadingUSC bids $215 million to settle gynecologist scandal, with up to 17,000 claims
Yet another big university is learning a costly lesson about the perils of ignoring rogue doctors and their harming of vulnerable young people: The University of Southern California has offered to pay $215 million to settle federal lawsuits by hundreds of coeds who say they were sexually harassed and abused by the head gynecologist at….
Continue ReadingWill counter-factual claims and Big Pharma cash sway critical midterm votes?
At a time when Americans experience high anxiety and financial insecurity due to medical costs — with more than 20 percent of those with health insurance experiencing trouble paying for necessities, more than a quarter of them saying they had bills in collection, and 13 percent forced to borrowed money as a result of illness….
Continue ReadingOfficials around the globe take steps to battle public health menace of suicide
They may seem small and may be symbolic, but Britain and Japan both are taking steps to deal with suicide, a public health menace by which 45,000 Americans age 10 or older took their lives by their own hand in 2016 alone. In Britain, the New York Times reported that Prime Minister Theresa May appointed….
Continue ReadingHurricane Michael shows extreme planning may be key to protect medical care
As Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas struggle with Hurricane Michael’s devastation and slow-rising death toll, hospitals, nursing homes, and other caregiving facilities across the country may need to reexamine their disaster planning, paying heightened attention to extreme and worst-case scenarios. Although doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel deserve great credit, as always, for their courage and….
Continue ReadingHundreds of supplements for diet, muscle, and sex are tainted with risky drugs
Same story, new data, and a message that needs repeating: Over-the-counter supplements — sold as safe alternatives to prescription drugs for weight loss, muscle building, and sexual enhancement — may be risky and not beneficial to your health. Indeed, many of them are adulterated with strong prescription drugs. As the Washington Post reported of a….
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