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Some Still Won’t Sell It: Do You Know If Plan B Is Available In Your Area?

December 21st, 2011 by BarbaraFederOstrov in News, Opinion
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Now that the latest controversial decision over federal “morning after” pill restrictions has faded from the headlines, it’s worth following up on this question: how available is emergency contraception right now in your own community?

To recap: last week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled her own science advisors in a decision preventing the “morning after” contraceptive pill Plan B from being sold over the counter at drugstores and to girls under 17 without a prescription. The election-season decision, largely regarded as highly political, could be reviewed by a federal judge after a legal challenge by a pro-choice group.

Of course, Plan B has been controversial ever since it was first approved by the FDA in 1999 (you can see Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Reporting on Health - Barbara Feder Ostrov's Health Journalism Blog*

The Surprising Life Saving Advantage Of Facebook

July 26th, 2011 by DavedeBronkart in Opinion
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“Health is social,” says SPM member Phil Baumann, RN (@PhilBaumann) at HealthIsSocial.com.

Slate has a dramatic story of how a mother’s Facebook network helped spot – rapidly – Kawasaki Disease, a rare auto-immune disease that the family’s doctors had initially missed.

Her social network contains some medically knowledgeable people. (Do you have any docs, nurses, etc in your Facebook circle?) Note that friends’ availability is sometimes far greater than a doctor’s office.

Read how the diagnosis unfolded. And read what her family physician said, when she called from the E.R.:

“You know what?” he said, “I was actually just thinking it could be Kawasaki disease. Makes total sense. Bravo, Facebook.”

Then this, as the crisis wound down: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*