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Cartoon – One of Those Meetings
Cartoon – Pharmaceutical Industry
An inside look at the world of drug presentations
http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/07/01/62183/an-inside-look-at-the-world-of-drug-presentations/
Critics say the system is flawed because it’s paid for by drug makers with a financial stake in the outcome.
Presentations sponsored by pharmaceutical companies only focus on one drug and do not include all the options available, including generics, says R. Adams Dudley, Director of the Center for Healthcare Value at the University of California San Francisco.
“They’re going to emphasize the education aspect of it but they wouldn’t pay for it if it did not lead to sales,” he says.
California Nurse Practitioners Lose Battle For Independent Practice, Again
California Nurse Practitioners Lose Battle For Independent Practice, Again
Expanding the medical role of nurse practitioners has long been opposed by doctors – some say for economic reasons. Proponents of the idea say it can help address the shortage of primary care doctors in the state by making treatment more accessible — and more affordable.
Under current state law, nurse practitioners can independently provide basic primary care, such as assessing a patient’s health status or diagnosing ailments. But they must follow physician-approved guidelines to prescribe medication, order tests or otherwise manage patients.
Nurse practitioners are among the most highly trained nursing professionals and must have at least a master’s degree. Registered nurses, are only required to hold an associate’s degree at minimum, and they don’t diagnose or prescribe on their own. Nurse practitioners say they provide quality care that’s comparable to that provided by physicians. They want California lawmakers to allow them to practice without the supervision of a doctor.
Advance Planning For Your End-Of-Life Care
Starting in October, Medi-Cal — the state’s version of the federal Medicaid program for low-income residents — began covering advance care planning discussions between doctors (or other qualified providers) and patients (or a family member), said Tony Cava, spokesman for the state Department of Health Care Services, which administers Medi-Cal.
Any Medi-Cal recipient can use the coverage regardless of age, he said. Doctors can bill for the conversation twice a year per patient — plus an additional 30 minutes for one of the conversations — before they have to seek authorization for more coverage.
Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older, and for people younger than 65 who have certain disabilities, started covering the discussions on Jan. 1.Medicare does not limit the number of discussions per patient each year.
For This Man, Reducing Gun Violence Is A Life’s Mission
As the ancient Chinese proverb says, from crisis comes opportunity. That is certainly true for Garen Wintemute, a leading gun-violence researcher and emergency room doctor who finds “teaching moments” in the grief-filled days and weeks following mass shootings in America.
He is currently seizing a window of opportunity recently opened by the recent mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.
Wintemute, once named a “hero of medicine” by Time magazine, has led the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis Medical Center for 25 years. Twenty years ago, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly stopped funding Wintemute’s program. He has since put up $1.3 million of his own money to keep it running.
Hundreds of companies in the U.S. are selling unproven stem cell treatments, study says
From coast to coast, at least 351 businesses at 570 locations are marketing stem cell therapies that have not been fully vetted by medical researchers or blessed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Paul Knoepfler, a bona fide stem cell researcher at UC Davis with a doctorate in molecular pathology, and Leigh Turner, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota who studies the ramifications of medical tourism, scoured the Internet to find companies advertising all sorts of stem cell treatments directly to patients and their families. They used nearly 100 search terms to identify as many websites as they possibly could — and turned up a lot more than they thought they would.
Cartoon – Making the Grade
‘Yes, dad, I mis-spoke my math grade, covered-up my reprimand from the dean, and cheated on an English quiz, but I’m getting an A in political science.’
ProPublica: For-profit southern hospitals host to most industry payments
The subject raises debate due to studies that have identified an association between industry payments and higher rates of brand-name prescribing, ProPublica reported, with some advocates arguing for limits or transparency to allow consumers to make informed decisions about providers who may be weighing outside factors in their care.
