Maine Residents Are Importing Drugs From Foreign Pharmacies
The pharmaceutical industry may be fuming, but as of today, Maine residents can start purchasing prescription drugs over the Internet, thanks to a contentious law that has some predicting the initiative could be duplicated in still more states. Residents are allowed to purchase medicines from Internet pharmacies in Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia (back story here).
The law underscores the extent to which prescription drug pricing remains an issue, despite the passage of the Medicare D program several years ago. Many state employees, as well as workers in the city of Portland and one large company, claimed they sa...
Source: Pharmalot - October 9, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Transportation Planning: An Important Ally in the Movement towards Better Health
An individual or community’s health is dependent upon many factors. Biology and genetics, health care services and individual behavior generally receive the spotlight in discussions of determinants of health. Does the individual eat a healthy diet? Does the family have access to quality preventative screenings? While these determinates are vital, increasingly, social, economic and physical environment determinants of health are being recognized for their contribution to an individual or population’s health status – examples include discrimination, income and environmental exposures.
Variation in socioeconomic and phy...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - October 3, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Advocacy Cost Coverage Policy Health Reform Patients Publc Health Quality Source Type: blogs
Talking About Hard Stuff With Your Doctor
By Jack Maypole, M.D., Director, Comprehensive Care Program, Boston Medical Center. Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine
As a pediatrician, I find that most teens I see in my office are pretty uncomfortable talking to me about personal habits that might affect their health, like smoking or using drugs or alcohol. I get it—a doctor’s routine questions during a visit could easily seem like a big invasion of a teen’s privacy.
But doctors aren’t trying to embarrass you. In fact, doctors and nurse practitioners work hard to support teens’ privacy.
So, let’s clear up some question...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - September 19, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Jack Maypole, M.D., Director of Pediatrics, South End Community Health Center Source Type: blogs
Can New Talents Develop After a Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease?
I am asked if this type of cognitive ability can slow down the process of deterioration from Alzheimer's disease. It seems that it could be beneficial in this regard.
By Max Wallack
+Alzheimer's Reading Room
I would like to introduce you to the work of Dr. Daniel C. Potts, a neurologist in Alabama. Dr. Potts’s father died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2007.
Having never painted previously, Dr. Potts’s dad became an acclaimed watercolor artist after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
Here is an amazing video of this artist’s work:
Dr. Potts is now, “Very interested in improving quality of life for those with Alzheimer...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - September 18, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Max Wallack Source Type: blogs
Is There a True Medical Benefit From Knowing Your APOe4 Genotype?
Would the availability of helpful drugs change your decision about being tested for Alzheimer's disease?
By Max Wallack
+Alzheimer's Reading Room
Last month I wrote an article, Would You Want to be Tested for the APOe4 Gene?
I asked the reasons why people would, or would not, want to know their APOe4 genotype. In other words, I was asking if people would want to know if they are genetically predisposed to Alzheimer's disease.
I received many interesting responses. Many people did want to know.
Among the people who did not want to know, there were two major reasons. Lack of confidence in the security of the infor...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - September 15, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Max Wallack Source Type: blogs
Quality vs Costs of US Corporate Owned but Offshore Medical Schools
Background: Off-Shore Medical Schools for US Students Owned by US Corporations While US health care appears to be more corporate than health care in any other developed country, one part of health care that has remained a bit less corporate is medical education. In particular, no US medical school is a for-profit venture, to my knowledge. (This just makes US medical education a bit less corporate than the rest of health care because, as we have discussed endlessly, academic medical institutions in the country have frequent institutional conflicts of interest, and their boards of trustees, administration, and fa...
Source: Health Care Renewal - September 13, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: medical schools Ross University DeVry Inc off shore medical schools Source Type: blogs
Survival of the fattest
Best quote of the day by Alan Sager, professor of health policy at Boston University, from an article in FierceHealthFinance:"The most profitable hospitals are the ones that are able to command higher payments. We again see the survival of the fattest where profitability has more to do with their market leverage than with efficiency." (Source: Running a hospital)
Source: Running a hospital - September 4, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Great Grams Inspires Teen to Hunt for Alzheimer's Cure
When we all went back to our rooms in the early evening, great grams made a run for it and started telling random hotel guests in the hallway that my grandma was trying to kill her!
By Bob DeMarco
+Alzheimer's Reading Room
Great Grams and young Max
I first learned about Max Wallack on December 23, 2009.
Who was this 13 year old who was named a 2009 Build-A-Bear Huggable Hero; and, donated his entire $2500 reward to the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center?
I did some research and then wrote - Who is Max Wallack?
I figured I would hear from Max in a day or two. He didn't disappoint ...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - August 28, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Press Conference Wednesday: In Wake of Controversy Over Unethical NIH-Funded Premature Baby Trial, HHS Seeks Way Forward
Family of a Baby Enrolled in the Trial to Attend; Outcome of Aug. 28 HHS Public Meeting Could Weaken Rules for Protecting Human Research Subjects
August 26, 2013
Contact: Angela Bradbery (202) 588-7741; Sam Jewler (202) 588-7779
What: Press conference to highlight the need for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to strengthen the ethical standards by which human experiments are conducted and halt any ongoing trials in which parents were not properly informed of the risks to their babies or of the purpose and nature of the research.
Publicity in April over an unethical trial conducted on premature inf...
Source: PharmaGossip - August 26, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Threading the NEIDL – the trailer
Ray Ortega of the American Society for Microbiology has created a beautiful one-minute trailer for our documentary visit to a BSL-4 facility, ‘Threading the NEIDL‘. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - August 20, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information biosafety Boston University BSL-4 movie National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory NEIDL pathogen trailer viral virology virus Source Type: blogs
PolitiFact Rhode Island Exposes Anti-Smoking Advocates' Lies
In a PolitiFact Rhode Island expose published in the Providence Journal, the lies of many anti-smoking advocates who oppose electronic cigarettes have been exposed. Specifically, many anti-smoking advocates have argued that smokers should not quit using e-cigarettes because "we have no idea what is in them." PolitiFact's "Truth-O-Meter" scored this claim as FALSE.According to the expose: "As PolitiFact Rhode Island listened during a July 1, 2013 discussion of legislation on electronic cigarettes, a categorical remark by a state representative caught our attention. Rep. Teresa Tanzi, D-South Kingstown, declared, "We have ...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - August 1, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer's Patients Mentor Medical Students To Increase Knowledge And Reduce Stigma
While the global population is aging, and the personal and economic burdens due to Alzheimer's disease and related disorders are skyrocketing, the number of doctors trained to effectively diagnose and treat people with Alzheimer's is already woefully inadequate.
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People With Early-Stage Alzheimer's Mentor Medical Students To Increase Knowledge And Reduce Stigma
While the global population is aging, and the personal and economic burdens due to Alzheimer's disease and related disorders are skyrocketing, the number of doctors trained to effectivel...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - July 21, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
43% Believe that US Health Care is Corrupt, 64% that Government is Run by a Few Big Interests, Media Shrug
We have noted (most recently here), that health care corruption, particularly its global nature and its presence in developed countries like the US, is a taboo topic and thus remains anechoic. Transparency International just released its yearly massive survey on corruption worldwide. The results are not pretty for health care and related sectors world wide and in the US. As expected, these results appear to be causing few echoes. Global Results Some useful summary statements found in the written version of the report:Governments are not thought to be doing enough to hold the corrupt to ...
Source: Health Care Renewal - July 10, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: global health health care corruption Transparency International anechoic effect Source Type: blogs
Upper Valley Memory Cafe
I am making an effort to supply puzzles to as many Memory Cafes as possible.
By Max Wallack
+Alzheimer's Reading Room
About a year ago, I became aware of a wonderful Memory Café that meets monthly. The Upper Valley Memory Café in Lebanon, New Hampshire has a wonderful program for Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers.
Students from Dartmouth are integrally involved in this program, and I think this intergenerational project is extremely beneficial to all.
Here is a link to their online blog, Memory Memos, which includes some very interesting topics. There are also some wonderful photos of people...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - July 8, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Max Wallack Source Type: blogs
