January 1st, 2012 by BarbaraFederOstrov in Health Policy, News
Tags: California, Congress, Doc Fix, Health News, Health Reform, Medical Marijuana, Medicare Fraud, Payments, Scam, Shell Games, Supreme Court
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Medical Marijuana: Advocates are pushing forward a California ballot initiative that would create a Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement to oversee the state’s burgeoning industry, Lisa Leff reports for the Associated Press. We’re imagining the snacks at board meetings.
Health Reform: California Healthline’s Dan Diamond highlights five health reform issuesfor reporters and policymakers to watch closely in 2012. First among them: the Supreme Court review of health reform’s constitutionality.
Medicare: Scammers create intricate webs of Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Reporting on Health - The Reporting on Health Daily Briefing*
January 1st, 2012 by Lloyd Resnick in News
Tags: AAP, Adolescents, American Academy of Pediatrics, annual blood tests, Atherosclerosis, Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, Children, Children's Health, Cholesterol, Guidelines, Heart Health, LDL, Recommendations
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Why would a pediatrician draw blood from your 9-, 10-, or 11-year-old at his or her next annual wellness visit? Because the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently endorsed updated guidelines that call for checking LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in all kids between the ages of 9 and 11.
The cholesterol-test recommendation created quite a stir. But wait, there’s more. The guidelines also call for annual blood pressure checks beginning at age 3, and periodic blood sugar measurements starting between ages 9 to 11. There’s also a strong recommendation for kids and adolescents to limit sedentary screen time to two hours or less per day, and to get at least an hour a day of moderate physical activity.
The biological basis for these guidelines is that atherosclerosis (the fatty gunk in arteries that causes heart attacks, strokes, and other serious problems) starts during youth. In many cases, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Harvard Health Blog*
January 1st, 2012 by Medgadget in News
Tags: Airline Industry, Armstrong Institute, Aviation, healthcare, Johns Hopkins, Lockheed Martin, Medical Errors, Safety, The Checklist Manifesto, Why Hospitals Should Fly
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The airline industry has long been a paradigm example of safety, but it was not always that way. The transition occurred over the second half of the 20th century and was marked by rigorous equipment testing and procedures, such as the strict incorporation of checklists. Healthcare is an industry that recently has become quite interested in the possibility of implementing airline industry standards to improve patient safety and care delivery (read the books The Checklist Manifesto and Why Hospitals Should Fly if you’d like a solid overview of this phenomenon)
This month Lockheed Martin and Johns Hopkins, two institutional leaders in the fields of aviation and healthcare, respectively, announced a partnership to bring cutting-edge systems integration to the intensive care unit (ICU). According to the press release: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
December 31st, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in News, Opinion
Tags: Direct-To-Consumer Drug Advertising, Disease Mongering, Drug Marketing, Excessive Sleepiness, Night Shifts, Nuvigil, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Shift Work Disorder, Sleepy, Tired
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…And all through the town not a creature was stirring except for some struggling to stay awake throughout the night shift….
So reads a newspaper ad for a federally-controlled substance in prescription drug form that is marketed for ES caused by SWD or OSA.
Don’t know what that means?
Come on. Where have you been?
Like ED for erectile dysfunction, PE for premature ejaculation, and GERD for gastrointestinal reflux disorder, these are the new marketing names for conditions that drug companies want to sell you drugs for.
ES = excessive sleepiness
SWD = shift work disorder
OSA = obstructive sleep apnea
The drug company’s online ads feature a fireman, a police officer, a construction worker. I am very sensitive to Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health News Review*
December 31st, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in News
Tags: ACOG, Babies, Brooklyn, Celebrities, Death, Doctors, Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway, High Risk Pregnancy, Infertility, Labor And Delivery, Maternal Death, Mothers, New York City, OB-GYN, Patient Safety, Pregnant Women, United States, Women
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It’s an obstetrician’s worst nightmare and it continues to happen on a daily basis. The story of Michal Lura Friedman brings tears to my eyes. After 7 years of trying, the 44 year old songwriter finally became pregnant –with twins. Her husband, Jay Snyder, a free-lance voice-over artist, describes the 9 months of Friedman’s pregnancy as pure bliss. However towards the end, her blood pressure became elevated so she was scheduled to have a C. Section the day after Thanksgiving.
Snyder accompanied his wife to the hospital and witnessed the birth of his babies. Then Friedman began to bleed. And bleed. And bleed. At 9:30 p.m., she became yet another U.S. maternal mortality statistic.
At least 2 women die from complications of childbirth in the US daily. Some celebrities such as Christy Turlington Burns have become a Maternal Health Advocate as a result of first-hand experience. She Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
