Suicide Deaths Are a Major Component of the Opioid Crisis that Must Be Addressed
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. In observance, Dr. Gordon has partnered with Dr. Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), to highlight a dimension of the opioid crisis that receives too little attention — the links between opioid use, opioid use disorder, and suicide. (Source: NIMH Directors Blog)
Source: NIMH Directors Blog - May 1, 2021 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Joshua Gordon Source Type: blogs
PursueCare Raises Over $11M In Series A1/A2 Funding
PursueCare (pursuecare.com), a leader in telehealth addiction treatment, today announced an oversubscribed $7 million Series A2 capital raise, bringing its total Series A round to north of $11 million. The round was led by OCA Ventures, Seyen Capital, Wasabi Investors, and a syndicate of experienced healthcare investors. The company, founded in 2019, has generated unprecedented […] (Source: EMR and HIPAA)
Source: EMR and HIPAA - April 26, 2021 Category: Information Technology Authors: Healthcare IT News Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT Telemedicine and Remote Monitoring Addiction Digital Therapeutic Health IT Funding Medication-assisted Treatment Nick Mercadante OCA Ventures PursueCare Seyen Capital Substance Abuse Disorders Teleheal Source Type: blogs
Ohio joins Indiana and Kentucky in funding Pear Therapeutics ’ digital addiction treatments
Ohio is third state to fund Pear’s digital therapeutics to tackle addiction (pharmaforum):
The company has been pushing for more reimbursement of its three marketed DTx products in the US following a first FDA approval in 2017.
Pear said that the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) and RecoveryOhio are providing access to Pear’s FDA-approved DTx reSET and reSET‑O, for treatment of substance use disorder and opioid use disorders, respectively.
Funding is provided by the State Opioid Response (SOR) 2.0 grant, administered by OhioMHAS, and part of the US Department of Health and Human Serv...
Source: SharpBrains - April 26, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation addiction cognitive-behavioral-therapy digital therapeutics FDA Indiana Kentucky Ohio opioid use disorder Pear Therapeutics prescription digital therapeutics reSET reSET-O substance Source Type: blogs
Sexual Assault: How It Relates to Substance Use
Sexual assault is a serious matter and frankly can be difficult to talk about. The fact of the matter is, one...The postSexual Assault: How It Relates to Substance Use appeared first onCliffside Malibu. (Source: Cliffside Malibu)
Source: Cliffside Malibu - April 15, 2021 Category: Addiction Authors: Cliffside Malibu Tags: Substance Abuse assault depression PTSD Source Type: blogs
The Pain Is In Your Brain: Your Knees Know Next to Nothing
By HANS DUVEFELT
A “frozen shoulder” can be manipulated to move freely again under general anesthesia. The medications we use to put patients to sleep for such procedures work on the brain and don’t concentrate in the shoulder joints at all.
An ingrown toenail can be removed or an arthritic knee can be replaced by injecting a local anesthetic – at the base of the toe or into the spine – interrupting the connection between the body and the brain.
An arthritic knuckle can stop hurting and move more freely after a steroid injection that dramatically reduces inflammation, giving lasting relief long after any...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 14, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Patients Physicians Primary Care Hans Duvefelt Pain Management Source Type: blogs
Register Now for 4th Annual Older Adult Mental Health Awareness Day Symposium
Registration is open for the May 6 symposium on older adult mental health. The National Council on Aging, U.S. Administration for Community Living, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration sponsor the day-long symposium.
Issues around mental health are especially relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic and particularly for older adults who may already face isolation and loneliness.
This free, virtual event will empower professionals with the latest tools to improve the lives of older adults in their communities, both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more and registerThe post Register Now for...
Source: BHIC - April 13, 2021 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Carolyn Martin Tags: Health Information Mental Health Public Health Senior Webinars consumer health health equity health literacy mental health resources older adults symposium Source Type: blogs
From digital therapeutics to personalized mental health solutions: Pear Therapeutics expands platform via partnerships with Empatica, etectRx, KeyWise, and Winterlight
Pear Therapeutics Expands Platform with Digital Biomarkers, Machine Learning Algorithms and Sensor-Based Technologies (press release):
Pear Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that it has entered into agreements with multiple technology companies, including Empatica Inc., etectRx, Inc., and KeyWise, Inc. The new technologies complement the voice-based biomarkers previously licensed from Winterlight Labs. These new agreements bolster Pear’s Prescription Digital Therapeutics (PDT) platform, by adding to its library of digital biomarkers, machine learning algorithms, sensor-based technologies, and digital therapeutics.
The n...
Source: SharpBrains - April 7, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation digital biomarkers digital therapeutics Empatica etectRx KeyWise Pear Therapeutics WinterLight Labs Source Type: blogs
Playing Poker With the Devil: “Prior Authorizations” are Paralyzing Patients and Burning out Providers
By HANS DUVEFELT
The faxes keep coming in, sometimes several at a time. “Your (Medicare) patient has received a temporary supply, but the drug you prescribed is not on our formulary or the dose is exceeding our limits.”
Well, which is it? Nine times out of ten, the fax doesn’t say. They don’t explain what their dosage limits are. And if it isn’t a covered drug, the covered alternatives are usually not listed.
So the insurance company is hoping for one of a few possible reactions to their fax: The patient gives up, the doctor tries but fails in getting approval, or the doctor doesn’t even try. In e...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 1, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Physicians Primary Care Hans Duvefelt Prior Authorization Source Type: blogs
Digital Therapeutics, Megan & Me!
Anyone who follows me knows that I’ve been questioning whether digital therapeutics are real and more importantly whether the people building and trying to sell them are simply trying to replicate the American drug pricing model–patent, protect, prescribe & price gouge. So who better to have this conversation with than the person in charge of explaining and selling the notion of digital therapeutics to the world? Megan Coder is Executive Director of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance. She graciously and bravely agreed to talk to me. Who won the argument? You’ll have to watch to decide, but I found our ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 31, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Tech Matthew Holt digital therapeutics dtx Megan Coder Source Type: blogs
Crime and Punishment
Update: Learn how to read:Idid not say that only poor people plea bargain, or anything remotely like that. I said that only people who can afford good lawyers have a decent chance of getting their case dismissed. As I said correctly, the vast majority of cases are plea bargained. And as I also said, explicitly, clearly, and truthfully, it would be impossible for every case to go to trial because the courts can ' t handle the workload they have now.I do not publish idiotic comments. Please stop wasting my time with stupid crap. It is possible for a law to be explicitly racist, and of course throughout much of U.S...
Source: Stayin' Alive - March 30, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Seeking solace, finding resilience in a pandemic
In times like these, it can feel wrong to feel happy. There is so much suffering in the world that appreciating the goodness that still exists can seem unempathic, if not altogether futile. A landmark study on happiness often mentioned at dinner parties and social gatherings (when we had those things) considered how people react to intense, sudden changes to their circumstances. The researchers found that people who had recently won the lottery were no happier after some time had passed than people who had experienced severe trauma that paralyzed their lower bodies. It’s a testament to stubbornness as our common lot in l...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 25, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Adam P. Stern, MD Tags: Behavioral Health Coronavirus and COVID-19 Mental Health Source Type: blogs
Annabel Edith Villagra, RIP
Michael F. CannonAnnabel Edith Villagra hasdied.If that name doesn ’t ring a bell, you may have known her as Annabel Battistella. Or Fanne Foxe. Or the “Argentine Firecracker.” Or “the Tidal Basin Bombshell.” Or the 38‐year‐old exotic dancer with bruised eyes who jumped out of a car and into Washington, DC’s Tidal Basin after a row with her lover, 65‐year‐old House Ways and Means Committee Wilbur D. Mills (D‐Ark.), in 1974.Mills was the father of Medicare. In his 2006 bookMedicare Meets Mephistopheles, Cato adjunct scholarDavid Hyman writes, “As the chairman of the House Ways and M...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 24, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Michael F. Cannon Source Type: blogs
After Moving Slightly Forward on Buprenorphine, Will We Shift Into Reverse?
Jeffrey A. SingerThe Department of Health and Human Services issuedrelaxed guidelines for physicians wishing to treat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) with buprenorphine in the closing days of the Trump administration. While I arguedhere that the guidelines don ’t go far enough, it was nevertheless a step in the right direction.Even though outright repeal of the Drug Enforcement Administration ’s so‐called “X‐waiver,” required of health care practitioners wishing to treat OUD with buprenorphine receivedbipartisansupport in the last Congress, the Biden administration is consideringrescinding the new bup...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 1, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Confronting Stigma From Opioid Use Diorder in Cancer Care
by Fitzgerald Jones, Ho, Sager, Rosielle and MerlinHave you ever been so distressed by a perspective piece that it kept you up at night? The type of rumination that fills you with so much angst that you have no choice but to act. This is exactly how we felt when we read theAAHPM Quarterly Winter 2020 Let ’s Think About It Again.1 (member paywall)The column, which is structured as a sort of written debate in which two authors argue a clinical question, describes a case of a 45-year-old man with severe substance use disorder (SUD) recently diagnosed with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer. He was offered aggr...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - January 30, 2021 Category: Palliative Care Tags: ftigerald jones ho merlin rosielle sager Source Type: blogs
Confronting Stigma From Opioid Use Disorder in Cancer Care
by Fitzgerald Jones, Ho, Sager, Rosielle and MerlinHave you ever been so distressed by a perspective piece that it kept you up at night? The type of rumination that fills you with so much angst that you have no choice but to act. This is exactly how we felt when we read theAAHPM Quarterly Winter 2020 Let ’s Think About It Again.1 (member paywall)The column, which is structured as a sort of written debate in which two authors argue a clinical question, describes a case of a 45-year-old man with severe substance use disorder (SUD) recently diagnosed with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer. He was offered aggr...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - January 30, 2021 Category: Palliative Care Tags: ftigerald jones ho merlin rosielle sager Source Type: blogs
