Allegations Against the Maker of OxyContin Are Piling Up. Here ’s What They Could Mean for the Billionaire Family Behind Purdue Pharma
Executives from Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the powerful opioid painkiller OxyContin, admitted in federal court in 2007 that Purdue’s marketing practices and interactions with doctors had understated the strength and addictive potential of the drug — an omission that many experts believe contributed to an opioid epidemic that claimed nearly 50,000 American lives in 2017 alone.
But on Thursday, the release of a previously sealed deposition from 2015 showed that Purdue executives knew of OxyContin’s strength long before that $600 million settlement. The deposition, which had been filed in court, reve...
Source: TIME: Health - February 22, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jamie Ducharme Tags: Uncategorized Drugs healthytime onetime Source Type: news
'Alarming' number of people received restricted fentanyl, study says
An "alarming" number of US patients received a highly potent form of opioid that is 100 times more powerful than morphine and that they never should have been prescribed, according to a new study. (Source: CNN.com - Health)
Source: CNN.com - Health - February 19, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Ibuprofen a'Reasonable' Option for Early Pain Control After Hip Replacement Ibuprofen a'Reasonable' Option for Early Pain Control After Hip Replacement
Combining paracetamol (acetaminophen) with ibuprofen does not cut postoperative use of morphine in a clinically meaningful way relative to ibuprofen alone, in patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA), results of a Danish randomized trial suggest.Reuters Health Information (Source: Medscape Orthopaedics Headlines)
Source: Medscape Orthopaedics Headlines - February 14, 2019 Category: Orthopaedics Tags: Orthopaedics News Source Type: news
Experimental 'nano-painkiller' is more effective and less addictive than morphine
Researchers at the University of Delaware and in France re-engineered naturally occurring compounds to treat pain with longer lasting effects than morphine but minimal addiction risk. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - February 13, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Miracle treatment or dangerous drug? Indonesian growers cash in on Kratom as it takes hold in the US
Many have died, suffered extreme reactions and overdoses to the morphine-like substance. It is grown in Indonesia were its use is banned but exports are allowed. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - February 9, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Verily Forges Rehabilitation Center to Fight Opioid Crisis
Verily is responding to the opioid crisis through the planned creation of a high-tech rehabilitation center. Dubbed One Fifteen, the proposed rehabilitation center is part of a partnership Verily has with healthcare providers Kettering Health Network and Premier Health, and in partnership with Alexandria Real Estate Equities. One Fifteen will open in Dayton, OH.
Verily revealed plans surrounding the center on a blog post dated Feb. 6, 2019. The idea for One Fifteen came from a team of clinicians, engineers, and health systems specialists. The group undertook an assessment of the opioid crisis and uncovered a complex set of...
Source: MDDI - February 8, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Omar Ford Tags: Digital Health Source Type: news
Pause for thought, Caroline ’ s story
Hello, I thought I should write to you with my experience. I want to reach out to people such as me prior to their ops. Whether I would have read or thought twice then I do not know……but here goes…
I had a huge fibroid, along with several smaller ones……infact the surgical team did agree with my reference to my “alien” because it did look like an alien!!….melon sized with smaller add ons. I did have some endometriosis too. So the best option was a total hysterectomy (womb, ovaries and cervix).
I could have had other options which were pharmaceutically treated such as induced tempor...
Source: The Hysterectomy Association - February 6, 2019 Category: OBGYN Authors: Linda Parkinson-Hardman Tags: Health endometriosis fibroids hysterectomy stories Source Type: news
Pause for thought, Caroline ’ s story
Hello, I thought I should write to you with my experience. I want to reach out to people such as me prior to their ops. Whether I would have read or thought twice then I do not know……but here goes…
I had a huge fibroid, along with several smaller ones……infact the surgical team did agree with my reference to my “alien” because it did look like an alien!!….melon sized with smaller add ons. I did have some endometriosis too. So the best option was a total hysterectomy (womb, ovaries and cervix).
I could have had other options which were pharmaceutically treated such as induced tempor...
Source: The Hysterectomy Association - February 6, 2019 Category: OBGYN Authors: Linda Parkinson-Hardman Tags: Health endometriosis fibroids hysterectomy stories Source Type: news
Carfentanil: a narrative review of its pharmacology and public health concerns - Leen JLS, Juurlink DN.
Carfentanil is a synthetic fentanyl analogue approved for veterinary use. It is a mu-opioid receptor agonist with an estimated analgesic potency approximately 10,000 times that of morphine and 20-30 times that of fentanyl, based on animal studies. Since 20... (Source: SafetyLit)
Source: SafetyLit - January 24, 2019 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Tags: Alcohol and Other Drugs Source Type: news
Buprenorphine May Best Morphine for Treating NAS
(MedPage Today) -- But questions raised about high risk of study bias in meta-analysis (Source: MedPage Today Public Health)
Source: MedPage Today Public Health - January 22, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: news
Medtronic ‘Embraces’ its Role in the Opioid Crisis Fight
Not many medtech companies have the reach and scale of Medtronic. Yet, the Dublin-based firm is in the same position as any other device firm when it comes to the awareness and acceptance of alternatives to oral opioids.
Medtronic is hoping to change this with the help of its newly-launched Embrace Targeted Drug Delivery (TDD)clinical study. The 100-patient trial is a post-market study set to evaluate the use of the SynhroMed II intrathecal drug delivery system for patients with chronic intractable non-malignant primary back pain with or without leg pain. The first patient was enrolled in Embrace TDD last week.
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Source: MDDI - January 18, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Omar Ford Tags: Business Source Type: news
Focusing on usability can limit medical device recalls: Here ’ s how
By Stephanie Van Ness and Rex Palmer of Boston UX
Building great software has always been challenging. Building software that safeguards patients while flawlessly controlling sensitive embedded and connected medical devices — from room-sized proton radiation systems to portable automatic external defibrillators (AED) — magnifies the challenge. It should be no surprise that design issues cause many device recalls.
So how do you mitigate potential problems when designing a medical device user interface (UI)? Begin with a strong focus on usability.
The importance of usability
According to researchers Martin A. Makary...
Source: Mass Device - January 17, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Danielle Kirsh Tags: Blog Boston UX Source Type: news
Doctors in poor areas prescribe up to FOUR times as many high-strength opioid painkillers
Researchers from the universities of Nottingham and Manchester found doctors in Blackpool and St Helens prescribe the most opioid painkillers such as codeine, tramadol and morphine. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - January 15, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
