The whole idea behind diagnostic categories in mental health is that providers seeing the same patient should agree on the same disorder. If they don’t, then mental health therapy is not scientific or objective. It’s little more than subjective whim. See this report, via Robin Hanson: The field trials used a statistic called kappa. This [...]Thirty years ago, it was estimated that less than five percent of the population had an anxiety disorder. Today, some estimates are over fifty percent, a tenfold increase. Is this dramatic rise evidence of a real medical epidemic? In All We Have to Fear, Allan Horwitz and Jerome Wakefield argue that psychiatry itself has largely [...]Former CMS Administrator Dr. Donald Berwick proposes to cap health sending at a growth rate even lower than that under ObamaCare, and lower than the House Republican plan he has attacked. Chris Jacobs has tracked down some of Berwick’s cost cutting ideas: As many as 80 percent of hysterectomies are scientifically unnecessary. So are more [...]America’s Health Insurance Plans has released its annual survey of Health Savings Account (HSA) plans. Here is Chris Jacob’s summary: The survey finds that as of this January, 13.5 million Americans are enrolled in insurance plans compatible with HSAs — an increase of more than 18% compared to January 2011. What’s more, enrollment remains evenly [...]
. : WSJ WSJ Facebook Twitter MarketWatch MarketWatch Barrons Barrons SmartMoney SmartMoney All Things Digital All Things Digital Financial Jobs Financial Jobs More Big Charts Virtual Stock Exchange WSJ Asia WSJ India WSJ China chinese edition WSJ Japan japanese edition WSJ Europe WSJ Americas en Espa ol em Portugu s WSJ Radio WSJ Wine SEARCH WSJ Blogs Real-time commentary and analysis from The Wall Street Journal Health Blog WSJ's blog on health and the business of . health Search Health Blog1 May 31, 2012, 8:19 AM A.M . Vitals : Countering Discount Drug Cards Article Comments Health Blog HOME PAGE Email Print Twitter Digg More close StumbleUpon MySpace del.icio.us Reddit LinkedIn Fark Viadeo Orkut Text By Stefanie Ilgenfritz Here’s what’s making health news this : morning CVS CaremarkScott Sumner responds to Brad Delong: Yes, government did cause the Great Depression. Why do airlines charge $25 for checking bags, but not for bringing huge bags on the plane? The purpose of locks, a locksmith said, is to protect you from the 98% of mostly honest people who might be tempted to try your [...]When we think of regulation, we think of specific rules that spell out the boundaries between what is approved and what is forbidden. For example, requiring credit card issuers to give 45 days’ notice prior to a rate increase. I call this bright-line regulation (BLR). What I want to propose is an alternative approach, called [...]
The Los Angeles Times recently ran a provoking story on insurance company coverage of specialty medicines and the increasing share of the cost patients are being forced to pay on their own. This is an issue I’ve raised in the past and it’s encouraging to see coverage of the disturbing insurance company practice of raising [...]As health-care providers computerize how they take care of us, we’re computerizing how we take care of ourselves—and how we connect back to our doctors. There are apps for managing our prescriptions, tracking blood sugar, and monitoring pacemakers or pregnancies. These tools are critical to breaking the chokehold that paperwork, waiting rooms and endless process [...]Vitamin A deficiency affects the immune system, leading to illness and frequently to blindness. It probably causes more deaths than malaria, HIV or tuberculosis, killing as many people every single day as the Fukushima tsunami. It can be solved by eating green vegetables and meat, but for many poor Asians, who can afford only rice, [...]More than half of people with individual insurance will have to switch to a more expensive plan in 2014. Google’s Street View: “probably the single greatest breach in the history of privacy.” WHO: 10,000 black market operations involving human organs take place each year – a new organ is sold every hour. Tom Coburn defends [...]Also: Scientists analyzed 19 years of skin cancer records and reported in the journal Cancer that aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers may help protect against skin cancer. They compared the rates of skin cancer in those who took one or more of these drugs with those who didnt.
The 2012 Pharmaceutical Industry Profile is now available as a free interactive e-book on the popular iTunes Bookstore. I can’t tell you how often I refer to the Profile as a resource, but this electronic version offers interactive utility to the original content. Hopefully it’ll be as useful for you. Of course, the Profile will [...]
This year, one of the key topics of conversation at our annual meeting was the importance of collaboration among different members of the research ecosystem – and rightly so, as this collaboration is allowing biopharmaceutical researchers to move in some really groundbreaking directions. Today, I came across an interesting article about a program that my alma mater has implemented, [...]
This weekend my wife’s mother from Sicily was here and we watched a movie in Italian with the well-known Italian actress Margherita Buy. I thought, hey! she’d make a great Natascia in our independent film Catania! They thought I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of her, [...]
: , WSJ WSJ Facebook Twitter MarketWatch MarketWatch Barrons Barrons SmartMoney SmartMoney All Things Digital All Things Digital Financial Jobs Financial Jobs More Big Charts Virtual Stock Exchange WSJ Asia WSJ India WSJ China chinese edition WSJ Japan japanese edition WSJ Europe WSJ Americas en Espa ol em Portugu s WSJ Radio WSJ Wine SEARCH WSJ Blogs Real-time commentary and analysis from The Wall Street Journal Health Blog WSJ's blog on health and the business of . health Search Health Blog1 May 29, 2012, 9:45 AM Basic Science : To Respond to Plavix , Don’t Forget to Take It Article Comments Health Blog HOME PAGE Email Print Twitter Digg More close StumbleUpon MySpace del.icio.us Reddit LinkedIn Fark Viadeo Orkut Text By Ron Winslow Photo Researchers . Inc When platelets become activatedAlso: Pacific Bluefin tuna carried radioactive cesium from Fukushima, Japan, to California waters last year. There may be no public health risk but it raises the possibility that other migrating sea life carried traces of radioactivity from the nuclear disaster vast distances, scientists reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Please support our independent film project Catania! when five Italian sisters return to their home in Sicily to divide up the family art and antiques, all hell breaks loose. Click here to make a pledge and get awesome gifts. Only 7 days to go! We can’t make the [...]Also: Researchers say they have identified a gene that's important for producing sperm, a potential target for contraceptive pills; and a study suggests metabolic factors may be more important than obesity in predicting heart-disease risk. Also: An FDA panel votes against expanded use of a blood-thinning drug; a study finds calcium supplements increase the risk of heart attack; and an international group launches an emergency polio-vaccination plan.
Today the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a study that shows the importance of intellectual property to jobs in every state. The study shows that the economic value of jobs supported by Intellectual property substantial. In addition, IP-intensive industries account for more than 55 million jobs, more than $5 trillion in gross domestic product and [...]
This year’s reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act is a top priority for PhRMA and for our member companies, who recognize the critical importance of providing FDA with the resources it needs to do its incredibly essential job. Yesterday, PhRMA President and CEO John Castellani posted his thoughts on PDUFA reauthorization on the [...]
The editors at The Catalyst recently asked John P. Clark, Vice President and Chief Security Officer, Pfizer Inc., a few questions about being on the front line in the battle against foreign counterfeit medicines. John provided a snapshot of the risks patients could face if the closed U.S. drug supply system were to open up. [...]
The U.S. currently leads the world in medical innovation. But for how long? This is a question we must all ask ourselves today with the release of a new report by Battelle focusing on what other countries are doing to lure biopharmaceutical research away from the U.S. [Read the summary] The epicenter for biopharmaceutical research and [...]
Monday, I was privileged to sit in at the Council on Foreign Relation’s David Rockefeller Studies Program panel discussion on Spending on Health as an Investment, Fiscal Sustainability and Aging. The panel discussion, hosted by Mikael W. Hodin, CFR Adjunct Senior Fellow and Executive Director of the Global Coalition on Aging, included PhRMA’s president and & CEO [...]
On Friday, PhRMA will be launching its new clinical trials report titled “Research in Your Backyard” in The Old Line State. This report compiles all the great data about clinical trials taking place in Maryland and how such trials are benefiting patient care and local and state economies. The timing of this report is important, [...]
Under the House, by Leslie Hall Pinder, is a charming novel about a dysfunctional family, the Rathbones, who struggle with families lies and secrecy. Evelyn, the youngest of the clan, is sent away to boarding school to silence her from speaking out and asking questions about the identity of her father and other [...]