THCB 20th Birthday Classic: As I’ve always suspected, Health Care = Communism + Frappuccinos
By MATTHEW HOLT
Our 20th birthday continues with a few classics coming out. Back in 2005 I was really cutting a lyrical rug, and would never miss a chance to get that Cambridge training in Marxism into use. This essay about whether health care should be a public or private good has always been one of my favorites, even if I’m not sure Starbucks is still making Frappuccinos. And 18 years later the basic point of this essay remains true, even if many of you will not have a clue who Vioxx or Haliburton were or why they mattered back then!
Those of you who think I’m an unreconstructed commie will correctly suspec...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 15, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Matthew Holt Communism Frappuccinos Source Type: blogs
It ’s OK to Break the Rules Now and Then
This study introduces an augmented intelligence platform for the real-time synthesis of institutional knowledge captured in EHRs.” One caveat that the researchers acknowledge in the report was that they had yet to conduct prospective validation of the augmented EHR curation approach.A second nference-based investigation reviewed the records of patients who had received more than 94,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, more than 36,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, and 1,745 doses of the Johnson& Johnson vaccine. The study ’s goal was to determine the incidence of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), w...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - April 26, 2021 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
As I ’ve always suspected, Health Care = Communism + Frappuccinos
By MATTHEW HOLT
Happy 15th birthday THCB! Yes, 15 years ago today this little blog opened for business and changed my life (and at least impacted a few others). Later this week we are going to celebrate and tell you a bit more about what the next 15 years (really?) of THCB might look like. But for now, I’m rerunning a few of my favorite pieces from the mid-2000s, the golden age of blogging. Today I present “Health Care = Communism + Frappuccinos”, one of my favorites about the relationship between government and private sector originally published here on Jan7, 2005. And like the Medicare one from last we...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 12, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Matthew Holt OP-ED 15th Birthday Celebration Commumism Frappuchinos Source Type: blogs
Here ’s why direct-to-consumer drug ads need FDA oversight
Many physicians in different fields have voiced criticisms against direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug ads. First, a 2013 survey found that 74 percent of physicians believe DTC drug ads overemphasize the benefits of the drugs and misinform patients. Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist, interviewed by Rebecca Ruiz on DTC prescription drug ads states, “It’s almost impossible for the public to actually parse the ads and come to their own independent conclusions.” This implies that DTC prescription drug ads may be worded or presented in such a manner as to convince viewers of the drug’s usefulness...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 25, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/zachariah-tman" rel="tag" > Zachariah Tman < /a > Tags: Meds Medications Public Health & Policy Source Type: blogs
Government Regulation, Lawyers and the Opioid Crisis
By DEVON HERRICK
A short letter to a medical journal nearly 40 years ago may have been the nudge that set the opioid crisis in motion. A letter to the New England Journal of Medicine asserted addiction to prescription opioids was rare, claiming only four addictions were documented out of thousands patients who were prescribed powerful opioid pain pills in a hospital setting. The article has been cited hundreds of times in the years since. Doctors and drug makers may have relied on the letter as evidence that it was safe to prescribed opioids to more patients with chronic pain in settings far removed from carefully supervi...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 12, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Opiood Crisis Vio Source Type: blogs
Over-the-counter pain relievers and your heart
Ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like naproxen are and have been the go-to “benign” pain medication for doctors and patients alike. Why? They aren’t addictive, and it’s not easy to overdose. Serious side effects like gastrointestinal ulcers and bleeding seemed to be limited to high doses taken for longer periods or time, or to people with significant medical problems.
Even before the era of the opioid epidemic, it was raining NSAIDs, across the country.
In 2004, the manufacturer of the NSAID Vioxx pulled it from the market because the drug was associated with serious cardiovascular ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 15, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Back Pain Drugs and Supplements Headache Health Heart Health Injuries Pain Management Source Type: blogs
Pontifications About Health Care Reform Written by Insiders Who Benefit from the Status Quo - Worse Than We Think
Perceptions that the US health care system is dysfunctional and needs major reform go way back. Atimeline from the Tampa Bay Times noted President Theodore Roosevelt ' s proposal for a national health service in 1912. Nonetheless, as we have discussed endlessly, most attempts at reform failed, and health care dysfunction seems to be getting worse.One big problem may be that we don ' t understand how much discussion of health care reform is driven by those who benefit from the status quo. A Personal AnecdoteWhen I began my academic career in 1983, I was often in the audience for talks about how to fix healt...
Source: Health Care Renewal - April 17, 2017 Category: Health Management Tags: Amgen conflicts of interest deception health care reform Institute of Medicine Mayo Clinic Merck National Academies public relations Source Type: blogs
The scary evolution of direct-to-consumer advertising
One night in 1997, as Americans watched Touched by an Angel they were touched by something else unexpected: an ad for a prescription allergy pill called Claritin, sold directly to patients.
Prescription drugs had never been sold directly to the public before — a marketing tactic called direct-to-consumer or DTC advertising. How could average people, who certainly had not been to medical school, know if the medication was appropriate or safe without a doctor’s recommendation?
Soon, ads for Meridia, Propecia, Singulair, Paxil, Prozac, Vioxx, Lipitor, and Viagra followed — exhorting patients to “ask their doct...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 17, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/martha-rosenberg" rel="tag" > Martha Rosenberg < /a > Tags: Conditions Cancer Source Type: blogs
What Experts in Law and Medicine Have to Say About the Cost of Drugs
By ANDY ORAM
Pharmaceutical drug costs impinge heavily on consumers’ consciousness, often on a monthly basis, and have become such a stress on the public that they came up repeatedly among both major parties during the U.S. presidential campaign–and remain a bipartisan rallying cry. A good deal of the recent conference named Health Law Year in P/Review, at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, covered issues with a bearing on drug costs. It’s interesting to take the academic expertise from that conference–and combine it with a bit of commo...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 2, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Andy Oram Drug Pricing Pharma Source Type: blogs
Anti-inflammatory medications and the risk for cardiovascular disease: A new study, a new perspective
This study only included people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. The results might be different if people with other conditions had been included.
Other medical problems. The risks and benefits of celecoxib in people with other medical problems (such as significant kidney disease) are uncertain because this study excluded them.
Other medical treatments. All patients in this study took a medication to protect the stomach; outside of studies, that’s not always the case.
While these issues are valid, I think this study does provide a significant measure of reassurance regarding the cardiovascular risks of celec...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 23, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Arthritis Drugs and Supplements Health Heart Health Pain Management Source Type: blogs
Validic Survey Raises Hopes of Merging Big Data Into Clinical Trials
Validic has been integrating medical device data with electronic health records, patient portals, remote patient monitoring platforms, wellness challenges, and other health databases for years. On Monday, they highlighted a particularly crucial and interesting segment of their clientele by releasing a short report based on a survey of clinical researchers. And this report, although it doesn’t go into depth about how pharmaceutical companies and other researchers are using devices, reveals great promise in their use. It also opens up discussions of whether researchers could achieve even more by sharing this data.
The ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 30, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Digital Health Healthcare Healthcare Analytics Healthcare Interoperability HealthCare IT Big Data Clinical Research Data Sharing Devices Medical Device Integrations Patient Engagement Pharma Clinical Trials Source Type: blogs
Proposed Drug and Device Laws Should Be Pushed to 2017
By PAUL BROWN, TRACY RUPP, and STEVEN FINDLAY
Senate leaders now say they won’t consider companion legislation to the House-passed 21st Century Cures Act until September, after months of delay. Lawmakers would then have to reconcile the differing House and Senate versions, presumably by year’s end during a lame-duck Congress.
We believe the summer delay is a good thing, and that Congress should actually extend consideration of the complex legislation into 2017 when must-pass FDA funding through industry user-fees will be on the congressional calendar. That way, lawmakers can debate the implications of the propos...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 14, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized 21st Century Cures Act Consumer's Union FDA User Fees Medical Devices Steven Findlay Source Type: blogs
Congress Shouldn’t Pass The 21st Century Cures Act In A Summer Rush
The full Senate may in the next few days consider companion legislation to the 21st Century Cures Act that passed the House last year. The legislation—currently 19 separate bills—makes substantial changes to the way the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves drugs and devices. Set to adjourn for an extended election-year summer recess on July 15, the clock is ticking. The congressional calendar in the fall is full and the Senate may simply not have the time to take up the complex legislation, and reconcile it with the House version, before the November elections.
We believe that’s a good thing. The legi...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - July 11, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Paul Brown, Tracy Rupp and Steven Findlay Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Public Health Quality 21st Century Cures Act Congress FDA NIH regulation Source Type: blogs
Corruption of clinical trials reports: a proposal
CORRUPTION OF CLINICAL TRIALS REPORTS:A PROPOSALThere is a disconnection between the FDA’s drug approval process and the reports we see in medical journals. Pharmaceutical corporations exploit this gap through adulterated, self-serving analyses, and the FDA sits on its hands. I suggest we need a new mechanism to fix the problem – by independent analyses of clinical trials data.When they analyze and publish their clinical trials in medical journals, pharmaceutical corporations have free rein to shape the analyses. The FDA conducts independent analyses of the data submitted by the corporations, and it may deny or delay a...
Source: Health Care Renewal - June 22, 2016 Category: Health Management Tags: Bernard Carroll citalopram clinical trials Eric Topol escitalopram FDA Forest Pharmaceuticals Jay Amsterdam Jon Jureidini Leemon McHenry Lisa Cosgrove Lundbeck Underwriters Laboratory vortioxetine Source Type: blogs
The Paradox of Evidence-based Medicine
By MICHEL ACCAD, MD
Anish Koka recently wrote a great piece entitled “In Defense of Small Data” that was published on The Health Care Blog.
While many doctors remain enamored with the promise of Big Data or hold their breath in anticipation of the next mega clinical trial, Koka skillfully puts the vagaries of medical progress in their right perspective. More often than not, Koka notes, big changes come from astute observations by little guys with small data sets.
In times past, an alert clinician would make advances using her powers of observation, her five senses (as well as the common one) and, most importan...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 15, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Simon Nath Tags: Featured Physicians THCB MICHEL ACCAD Source Type: blogs
