by Marianna Rakovitsky, RPh
Oh, Summer! The weather is warm, the sun is shining and it is the time when we try to get outside as much as possible. Summer is my favorite time of the year. I love the beach, days that are filled with light and sunshine, trips to the orchards and hanging out in the backyard. The sunshine that makes the summer such a …
Medications that increase the risk of photosensitivity
Three years ago, the Department of Justice took stock of the orthopedic medical device industry–represented by the five big makers of orthopedic implants–and concluded that it was rampantly violating federal anti-kickback laws with the bribes and favors it was offering to surgeons. Such bribes often came in the form of training grants for those just starting out in the profession, or as lucrative consulting contracts for influential academic orthopedists.
The …
How industry money continues to influence orthopedics
by Crystal Phend
Homocysteine-lowering supplements do not help prevent further cardiovascular events in heart attack survivors, a large randomized trial affirmed.
The trial, which followed more than 12,000 heart attack survivors over nearly seven years, found that folic acid plus vitamin B12 effectively reduced homocysteine levels, but did not reduce major vascular events overall nor any other individual endpoint compared with placebo, reported Jane M. Armitage, BM BChBSc, MBBS, of the University …
Homocysteine lowering does not reduce heart attack risk
As originally reported in a New York Times article recently, with more coverage in MedPage Today, the University of Michigan School of Medicine has decided to end all industry support of CME as of January 1, 2011.
According to the dean of the medical school, “the decision was based on a review of literature about the influence on clinical faculty of industry-funded CME.” Apparently the decision was made after a …
How essential is industry funding for university CME?
by Kate Atkinson, MD
Six years ago, I organized a group of female healthcare practitioners for a women’s medical journal club. A multidisciplinary team of doctors and NPs from primary care and sub-specialties regularly attended monthly dinners. Invited speakers presented on a variety of topics and over the course of a meeting we exchanged insights while challenging each other on how best to manage our challenging patients.
Our group grew …
How the Massachusetts gift ban hurts primary care doctors
by Charles Bankhead
Increased emphasis on conflicts of interest has yet to sway physicians’ generally positive attitudes toward drug and device manufacturers’ marketing activities, a survey of almost 600 attending physicians and trainees showed.
More than 70% of respondents saw nothing inappropriate about attending sponsored lunches, and 25% had no problems with accepting large gifts from industry representatives, according to an article in the June issue of Archives of Surgery.
Surgeons, trainees, and …
What doctors think about drug and device marketing
by Edison Wong, MD
With the recent proposal to repeal the so-called Massachusetts “gift ban” (more appropriately referred to as the “interaction ban”), I asked myself who stands to gain the most from such bans?
Is it the consumers or patients? Is it the physicians or their practices? Is it the federal or state governments? Nope. Sadly, it is the insurers who gain the most, at the expense of patients.
The …
The Massachusetts gift ban benefits health insurance companies
by Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH
As a family doc in practice for over 30 years I have been always tried to conceptualize disease states beyond the standard text book parameters.
Thus I was elated by the prospect of discovering a new beneficial treatment for muscular dystrophy when 5 years ago I gave some Viagra to a 57-year old patient of mine with limb girdle muscular dystrophy for the usual purpose. In …
Viagra for muscular dystrophy and publicity for accidental insight
by Michael Smith
The number of emergency room visits for nonmedical use of prescription painkillers more than doubled between 2004 and 2008, according to a CDC estimate.
The increase was part of a trend that saw emergency room visits for nonmedical use of all prescription and over-the-counter medications reach the same level as those for abuse of illicit drugs, the agency said in the June 18 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly …
ER visits rise because of prescription drug abuse
by Emily P. Walker
An advisory panel voted 20-12 to recommend that the FDA allow rosiglitazone (Avandia) to stay on the market, but most panelists want to see the controversial diabetes drug carry tougher warnings on its label.
Wednesday’s vote marks the second time an FDA advisory panel has essentially endorsed rosiglitazone. In 2007, a panel voted that while the drug appears to …
Rosiglitazone (Avandia) stays on the market, with stronger warnings
by Crystal Phend
Overdoses of the “club drug” ecstasy at all-night rave dance parties may be a rising but under-reported public health problem, the CDC said.
What may be the first public health investigation into the epidemiology of ecstasy overdose revealed that 18 patients landed in hospital emergency departments for illness related to the hallucinogenic stimulant within 12 hours after a Los Angeles New Year’s Eve rave.
This cluster of events was accompanied …
Ecstasy overdose is becoming more frequent at rave parties
by Crystal Phend and Emily Walker
Despite hints that the FDA may be leaning toward pulling rosiglitazone (Avandia) from the market, it’s going to be a tough decision for the advisory committee slated to begin meeting on Tuesday, and things could still go either way, leading endocrinologists predict.
“I think the FDA advisory committee is going to struggle with this because none of the data is conclusive,” …
Will Avandia survive the FDA advisory panel?
A persistent theme for Health Care Renewal has been how concentration and abuse of power in health care trap patients and heath care professionals in a maze of bureaucracy, perverse incentives, deception, and conflicts of interest.
To anyone who has to make the transition from person to patient, some of these problems become immediately obvious.
Consider, for example, this account of “going into a hospital for a minor procedure”:
The very idea of …
Is health care experience mandatory for a pharmaceutical CEO?
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A good chunk of every medical visit is spent writing prescriptions.
Before we had an electronic medical record, this was often an arduous task, leading to serious writer’s cramp. Now the computer makes it easier on the doctor, but it doesn’t seem to have much effect on the patient.
A recent article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine highlighted what most doctors have suspected all along, that a good chunk for …
Be skeptical of natural and herbal supplements
Many prescription medicines are actually two or more medicines combined into one pill or package. True, this packaging is convenient– but you can often save money by buying your medicine as its separate components. Let’s look at some examples:
Lotrel blood pressure pills. This is actually a combination of two blood pressure medicines: amlodipine and benazapril. Lotrel, the combo pill, is available in a generic form, as are it’s two individual …
Combo pills do not save patients money
by Diana E. Lee
At an appointment with my local neurologist I showed up feeling bone tired and mentally drained.
Next thing I knew I was going back on a medication I had deliberately chosen to stop taking just because a doctor told me I should be taking something.
When the doctor finally came into my exam room he looked over the list of medications I was taking and declared that Lyrica alone …
Treatment decisions under migraine headache influence
In May, I spoke at the Chronic Care and Prevention Congress about my most recent report, “Chronic Disease and the Internet.”
I talked about the social life of health information and the internet’s power to connect people with information and with each other. Living with chronic disease is associated with being offline – no surprise. What’s amazing and new is our finding that if someone can get access to the internet, …
Drug chains and the advice of online patient communities
Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times writes about a new report from the President’s Cancer Panel calling attention to the role common chemicals may play in the development of cancer.
The overarching message is that we should be exercising much more caution in our trust of chemicals.
I am not familiar with the nuances of regulatory policies for chemicals, but (as Kristof points out) the “existing regulatory presumption [is] that …
Chemicals that cause cancer can’t be accurately studied
As the mountain of vitamin D research showing its importance grows to Everest heights, you may be wondering about some statements that are thrown around as “truth.”
Here are some fun vitamin D myths to pass along to friends, family and loved ones, because, when it comes to vitamin D, you want to get your dose (even of information) just right.
1. Just go out in the sun, already. That will fix …
Vitamin D myths and advice for patients
by Todd Neale
One high school student in five has taken a prescription drug without a doctor’s order, according to a nationwide survey.
Abuse of a prescription drug was most common among white students (23%), followed by Hispanics (17.2%) and blacks (11.8%), according to Danice Eaton, PhD, of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health in Atlanta, and colleagues.
Improper use increased steadily from ninth grade (15.1%) to 12th grade (25.8%). Girls …
Abuse of prescription drugs starts in high school
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