Oregon Academy of FPs just says no to pharma

From the Register-Guard article:

The Oregon Academy of Family Physicians, representing 1,300 doctors around the state, announced last week that it would no longer accept financial support from the pharmaceutical industry, swearing off unrestricted grants for continuing education seminars, sponsorship of events or advertisements in its publications. But individual members can still see pharmaceutical reps at their discretion.

“This is about taking the institutional view that as a professional medical society, we are committed to decision-making that is based on scientific evidence,” said Kerry Gonzales, the group’s executive director. “We want to avoid even the perception of influence or impropriety.”

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One in four female teenagers have an STD!

From the New York Times article:

The first national study of common sexually transmitted diseases among teenage women has found that one in four are infected with at least one of the diseases, federal health officials reported on Tuesday.

Nearly half of African-American teenage women were infected with at least one of the diseases monitored in the study — human papillomavirus (H.P.V.), chlamydia, herpes simplex type 2 and trichomoniasis, a common parasite.

That figure compared with 20 percent of white teenage women.

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It's a small, small, small world?

From the mlive.com article:

At least one pharmaceutical was detected in tests of treated drinking water supplies for 24 major metropolitan areas, according to an Associated Press survey of 62 major water providers and data obtained from independent researchers.

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Check out Dr. Carlat's blog posting on the two recent journal articles on industry-supported CME

Click here.

Expert witness testifies on Lilly drug

From the New York Times article:

Eli Lilly, the drug maker, could and should have warned physicians as early as 1998 about the link between Zyprexa, its best-selling schiophrenia medicine, and diabetes, an expert witness told jurors Friday in a lawsuit that claims that Zyprexa has caused many mentally ill people to develop diabetes.

Instead, Lilly hid Zyprexa’s risks from doctors to protect the drug’s sales, according to the witness, Dr. John Gueriguian. Lilly waited until 2007 to add strong warnings to Zyprexa’s label to reflect the drug’s tendency to cause severe weight gain and blood sugar changes.

...

A lawyer for Lilly said after Dr. Gueriguian’s testimony that the company had shared all it knew with the F.D.A. and that the question of the link between Zyprexa and diabetes was still a subject of scientific debate.

Click here to access the NYT article.

Prescription drug costs rise for seniors

From the Washington Post article:

Drugmakers increased prices by an average of 7.4 percent last year for the brand-name medicines most commonly prescribed to the elderly, according to the advocacy group AARP.

The increase far exceeded inflation, continuing a longtime trend.

...

The trade group representing drugmakers, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said AARP's numbers reflect neither the true amounts consumers pay for medicine nor a slowing in the growth of drug prices when taking into account generics.

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Hospitals and drug errors

From the Wall Street Journal article:

Hospitals are taking steps to prevent errors in the use of so-called high-alert medications -- those that, when given in the wrong dose or used incorrectly, have the highest risk of seriously harming or even killing a patient.
...
While there are 19 categories of high-alert medications, according to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, studies show that about eight medications, including heparin, account for 31% of all medication errors that harm patients.

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Testimony Before the Senate Committee - Physicians and the Device Companies

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NYT Weekly Health Quiz

Check it out, click here and take the quiz! How well did you do?

Will MA ban industry gifts to physicians?

Maybe -- from the Boston Globe article:

Senate President Therese Murray proposed today a broad measure to control healthcare costs by in part banning all gifts and freebies to doctors from drug companies, saying the perks have helped drive up costs for consumers.

If adopted, the legislation would make Massachusetts the first state in the country to place an outright ban on drug-industry gifts. Prohibited gifts would include any payments, entertainment, meals, travel, honoraria, subscriptions -- and even a pen bearing a drug company logo. Companies would be forbidden from offering the gifts and doctors, their families and employees would be forbidden from accepting them.

Under the proposal, anyone who violates the ban could be fined $5,000, face two years imprisonment or both.

Click here to access the BG article.

"the Jarvik episode"

Check out the New York Times article "Drug Pitchman: Actor, Doctor or Pfizer's Option" by Doctor Zuger; an excerpt:

Years ago, a large poster featuring an appealingly sweaty and smiling young man climbing a mountain appeared in my subway station, directly across from my usual waiting spot. Purportedly he had been invigorated by one of the first AIDS drugs marketed directly to the public. He looked magnificent on top of his mountain, a lot better than my AIDS patients — a lot better than me.

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The heart of a champion

From the New York Times article:

The high school wrestling career of Dustin Carter ended Friday in defeat but with an ovation from the crowd at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Carter, who had an acute bacterial infection in his bloodstream at age 5 and had parts of all of his limbs amputated, battled his way into Ohio’s Division II wrestling tournament as a 103-pound senior for Hillsboro High School.

...

“I told him, ‘Dusty, you went way beyond your expectations,’ ” Russ Carter said by telephone. “ ‘With everything you did, you inspired people out there.’ ”

I've categorized this as "Off topic," but is it really? Click here to access the article.

Rise in nursery product injuries

From the Wall Street Journal article:

Nursery products were involved in 66,400 injuries that sent children to emergency rooms in 2006, an 11% increase from the year earlier, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The agency said in a report yesterday that the number of injuries to infants and children under age five involving cribs, high chairs, walkers and other items rose by 6,600 from 59,800 in 2005.

Click here to access the article (sub. req.).

The China syndrome?

From the Wall Street Journal article:

The Food and Drug Administration needs more inspectors and a comprehensive computer database to better track products entering the U.S. from foreign sources, a top drug-safety official told lawmakers.

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FDA Public Health Update

Recall of Heparin Sodium Injection and Heparin Lock Flush Solution (Baxter)

MDR-TB, WHO knew?

From the WHO website:

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has been recorded at the highest rates ever, according to a new report published today. The report presents findings from the largest survey to date on the scale of drug resistance in tuberculosis.

The report, "Anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in the world", is based on data collected between 2002 and 2006 on 90 000 TB patients in 81 countries. It found that extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), a virtually untreatable form of the respiratory disease, has been recorded in 45 countries.

Click here to go to the WHO website:

America's Health Insurance Plans on the offense

From the Wall Street Journal article:

The health-insurance industry is racing to defuse a growing furor over retroactive policy cancellations that have saddled some patients with big medical bills and sparked lawsuits.

America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group, is pushing a proposal with state regulators that would give consumers the right to appeal such policy cancellations, known as rescissions, to an external panel, whose decisions would be binding. Some insurance companies, eager for even quicker action, are preparing to roll out their own independent review programs.

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Surgeons as consultants to device companies under more scrutiny

From the Wall Street Journal article:

The Senate Special Committee on Aging plans to discuss the practice of device manufacturers retaining surgeons as paid consultants in today's hearing. Sen. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the committee, has proposed legislation that would mandate disclosure of consulting payments by medical-device makers and drug companies.

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Health insurer's action called "egregious"

From the Los Angeles Times article:

One of California's largest for-profit insurers stopped a controversial practice of canceling sick policyholders Friday after a judge ordered Health Net Inc. to pay more than $9 million to a breast cancer patient it dropped in the middle of chemotherapy.

The ruling by a private arbitration judge was the first of its kind and the most powerful rebuke to the state's major insurers whose cancellation practices are under fire from the courts, state regulators and elected officials.

Calling Woodland Hills-based Health Net's actions "egregious," Judge Sam Cianchetti, a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, ruled that the company broke state laws and acted in bad faith.
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Earlier, Health Net had defended its actions, saying it never would have issued Bates a policy in the first place if she had disclosed her true weight and a preexisting heart condition on her application.

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Freestyle reinin'