Let’s Stop Making Excuses For Egregious Medical Errors
To save the life of a child, a zoo sacrifices a prized, endangered gorilla. In exchange for one nearsighted Israeli soldier captured in Gaza, Israel released 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. (This example from the Middle East may not be surprising. In Judaism, it is commanded that “to save a life is as if one saved the world.”) And there are other examples of extreme bravery to save one life. That’s how much societies value the life of each human being.
So how, then, do we explain our national acceptance of approximately 251,000 preventable deaths each year from medical error (according to a recent BMJ study)?
We can wat...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 21, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Karen Wolk Feinstein Tags: Featured GrantWatch Health Professionals Hospitals Organization and Delivery Payment Policy Quality Consumers Health Care Delivery Health Philanthropy Health Professions insurers Medical Errrors MRSA Nurses outcomes data Pa Source Type: blogs
Zika Zoo
When we decided to work on Zika virus in February 2016, experiments in mice were certainly part of our plans. However, one does not simply walk into a mouse facility and start inoculating animals with viruses! Carrying out animal experiments requires approval of a detailed protocol by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). I have filed many IACUC protocols in the past 30 years, and to work on Zika virus in mice, we had to file a new one. Here is how the process works.
Read the remainder of this article at Zika Diaries. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - June 16, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information animal IACUC mice protocol viral virus viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
Are Priority Review Vouchers The Answer To Incentivize Drug Development? Not So Fast.
In the May issue of Health Affairs, two papers examine the potential for voucher systems to incentivize drug development in areas of unmet medical need. Co-authors Kevin Outterson and Anthony McDonnell take a look at potential exclusivity voucher programs designed to encourage development of new antibiotics, while David Ridley and Stephane Régnier analyze the effects that expansion of existing priority review voucher (PRV) programs may have on the value of PRVs as a development incentive.
Ridley and Régnier’s work is of particular importance as both houses of Congress pursue a spate of legislative proposals that do mak...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 15, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Pranav Aurora, Morgan Romine and Gregory Daniel Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Global Health Health Professionals Quality FDA FDAAA priority review rare diseases Source Type: blogs
Your Money Or Your Life: Federal Policies And Health Disparities In Puerto Rico
Discussions in Washington continue to focus on creating a fiscal board rather than on the underlying structural causes of the crisis. While P.R. politicians can and should be held responsible for the emission of government debt, there is consensus that a fiscal watchdog alone won’t solve the problem. One of the principal, and often unnamed, causes of the P.R. fiscal crisis is a federal policy which provides unequal treatment to the territories for Medicaid funding.
As will be explained in this article, Medicaid parity alone would have covered the P.R. government’s entire primary cumulative deficit. Federal Medicaid Fun...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 13, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Maria Levis Tags: Costs and Spending Equity and Disparities Featured Global Health Medicaid and CHIP Medicare Public Health Congress immigrants Puerto Rico U.S. citizens Zika Source Type: blogs
TWiV 393: Lovers and livers
Possible sexual transmission of Zika virus, and a cell protein that allows hepatitis C virus replication in cell culture by enhancing vitamin E mediated protection against lipid peroxidation, are the subjects discussed by the TWiVerati on this week’s episode of the science show This Week in Virology.
You can find TWiV #393 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen below.
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Download TWiV 393 (68 MB .mp3, 94 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email, Google Play Music
Become a patron of TWiV! (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - June 12, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology cell culture flavivirus hepatitis C virus lipid peroxidation replication replicon SEC14L2 semen sexual transmission viral viruses vitamin E zika virus Source Type: blogs
Zika virus and mosquito eradication
The Aedes aegypti eradication campaign coordinated by the Pan American Health Organization led by 1962 to elimination of this mosquito from 18 countries, including Brazil. Ae. aegypti transmits not only Zika virus, but dengue virus, chikungunya virus, and yellow fever virus. Could control measures be implemented today to achieve similar control of this mosquito? Two articles in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases revisit the successful PAHO mosquito control campaign and suggest that its approaches should be revived.
The elimination of Ae. aegypti in 18 countries, which was accompanied by a marked reduction in dengue hemorrha...
Source: virology blog - June 9, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information Chikungunya virus DDT dengue virus mosquito PAHO perifocal control vaccine viral viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
Virus Watch: How mosquitoes spread viruses
In this episode of Virus Watch, I explain how mosquitoes spread viruses. We’ll look at how a mosquito finds a host, how it finds a blood vessel, and how it delivers viruses to a new host. Don’t blame mosquitoes for viral diseases: it’s not their fault! (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - June 9, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Virus Watch arbovirus arthropod blood meal mosquito transmission vector video viral virology viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
Zika May Place Burden On Medicaid
Congress is currently debating the level of federal funding that should be made available to fight to reduce the spread of Zika. Administration officials working with local public health agencies on the ground have recently expressed fear that the funding levels are insufficient to prevent the disease from spreading. What is one overlooked concern? State budgets.
Medicaid is jointly funded by states and the federal government and serves as a key financer of health care services if Zika spreads across the country this summer. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a bulletin to state Medicaid...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 8, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Emma Sandoe Tags: Equity and Disparities Medicaid and CHIP Public Health family planning States Zika Source Type: blogs
TWiV 392: Zika virus!
Four virologists discuss our current understanding of Zika virus biology, pathogenesis, transmission, and prevention, in this special live episode recorded at the American Society for Microbiology in Washington, DC.
You can find TWiV #392 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen/watch below.
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Download TWiV 392 (62 MB .mp3, 85 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email, Google Play Music (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - June 5, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology aedes aegyptii Aedes albopictus antibody antiviral congenital birth defects innate immunity interferon microcephaly mosquito mouse model pathogenesis placenta vaccine virus viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
Zika Virus: Fight the Bite
Lots of people are wondering what they can do to prevent Zika. High school students can help. Infectious disease expert Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner presented “Zika Virus: Fight the Bite” to high school students participating in a distance learning program at NLM this spring. Dr. Macgregor-Skinner urged students to “communicate, collaborate and connect” by using cellphone cameras… (Source: NLM In Focus)
Source: NLM In Focus - June 3, 2016 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Posted by NLM in Focus Tags: Programs & Services Source Type: blogs
Virus Watch: Counting Viruses
In this episode of Virus Watch, I show how to do my favorite assay in all of virology – the plaque assay. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - June 3, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Virus Watch agar cell culture infectivity pfu plaque assay plaque forming units per ml viral virology viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
Diseases Jumping from Animals to Humans: Leiter Lecture Up for Viewing
At the annual Joseph Leiter Memorial Lecture held earlier this month, guest speaker Jonna Mazet, DVM, MPVM, PhD, talked about her specialty—diseases that jump from animals to humans. “Most of the infectious diseases that we see today like Ebola, MERS, even Zika originated from an animal host,” she told the audience. “How can we stop… (Source: NLM In Focus)
Source: NLM In Focus - May 31, 2016 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Posted by NLM in Focus Tags: Events Source Type: blogs
Response to Zika and the Olympics Letter
The following letter was received by bioethics.net in response to our link to a letter written by professionals urging the Olympics to be postponed this year because of the threat of Zika.
by Ralph R. Frerichs
It may seem strange to hear WHO’s Margaret Chan or CDC’s Thomas Frieden quickly reject any suggestion that the Olympics be postponed or moved to avoid expanding Brazil’s Zika epidemic, not even offering caveats of future research findings. Yet all this has occurred before, and not that many years ago.… (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - May 31, 2016 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Bonsai Klugman Tags: Featured Posts Politics Public Health Sports Ethics Olympics Zika Source Type: blogs
Will Zika help or hurt health plans?
Health insurers are starting to think about the impact of the Zika virus, which may arrive in force in the US over the coming months. Actuaries are looking for analogous examples for their models, such as other mosquito born illnesses including dengue fever.
Some insurers aren’t too concerned, according to Healthcare Finance News. Others are looking at reinsurance opportunities and considering premium increases.
Most Zika infections cause only mild illness, so the costs of treatment will be modest or zero much of the time. The real impact is likely to come from the cost of lifelong care for babies born with microc...
Source: Health Business Blog - May 31, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Economics Health plans Uncategorized health insurers Zika Source Type: blogs
