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Life Insurance Companies And Cancer Survivors

I have always heard that Northwestern Mutual Life (“The Quiet Company”) was a grade-A company. And for years I have been happy to have a disability insurance policy and a term life one with them. I got those policies back in the early 1990s, and it was a good thing I did.

In 1996 my health changed. I was diagnosed with leukemia. I knew I was very lucky to have insurance in place because, as many told me: “You’ll never get insurance now.”

Now fast-forward 14 years, and 10 years after receiving treatment in a phase II clinical trial. I have no evidence of disease and have not had any evidence for nine years. The drug therapy I received in a trial has now been approved by the FDA and in Europe as the standard of care. People are living well with this leukemia and it is extending life — some people may even be cured.

So I asked the insurance company to consider giving me the ability to change my policy, to take advantage of lower rates and optimize my coverage for a longer life. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*

The Problem With The Newly-Launched “Healthcare.gov”

If a website touted misleading healthcare information, you’d hope the government would do something about it. But what do you do when the government is the one feeding the public bad information?

Last week the Obama administration launched the new Healthcare.gov. It’s mostly an online insurance shopping website. It’s very much a federal government version of sites like eHealthInsurance.com or Massachsetts’ HealthConnector site, which have been around for years.

So when HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in announcing the new site, claims it gives consumers “unprecedented transparency” into the healthcare marketplace, you should wonder what she means. But that’s not the big problem with this site. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*

For Patients, Does The FDA Play Fair?

They have a tough job, those government doctors, scientists, and bureaucrats who are charged with assessing the safety and effectiveness of proposed new medical products. As you know, they rely largely on studies presented by the applicants.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the power to not approve a new drug or product or even pull it off the market. Right now it is considering limiting or pulling GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) diabetes drug, Avandia, because of newly discovered data that it may have caused heart attack in some patients –- data mysteriously not shown in GSK’s own studies. If the drug is pulled it will cost GSK billions of dollars in lost revenue but, from the FDA’s point-of-view, it will be protecting the public. And, after all, there are safer diabetes drugs on the market as alternatives. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*

How ePatients Can Help Heal Healthcare

ePatient Dave, who shared his story (video below) with my students in the “Internet in Medicine” course this semester, is about to publish his own book: “Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig: How an Empowered Patient Beat Stage IV Cancer.”

Now three of his friends have written essays about this important issue:

We who’ve worked on it hope it will provoke thought about how healthcare is changing because of what e-patients can contribute, empowered as individuals and enabled by the Internet. To start that process, we’re publishing the introduction.

Three friends and mentors generously offered introductory essays. These essays they have little to do with my story, and everything to do with how e-patients can help heal healthcare:

 

My message to @Berci’s Medicine 2.0 course, March 25 2010 from e-Patient Dave deBronkart on Vimeo.

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

Clinical Trials: Accessing The Medicines Of Tomorrow Today

Reporting from the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago, empowered patient Andrew Schorr discusses how long it can take before a study is presented at ASCO and the role of clinical trials in giving patients access to the medicines of tomorrow today.

What’s Old is New at ASCO from Patient Power® on Vimeo.

*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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