Copay Assistance – Good For Patients, Bad For Prices
Peter Bach and I have an essay in the Annals of Internal Medicine laying out some of the problems with pharmaceutical funded copay assistance programs. Check it out.
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Cancer: A Disease of the Young?!?
If you only paid attention to popular media, you’d think cancers primarily strike young people. Here’s a picture from a medical journal contrasting media coverage of cancer to actual occurrence of cancer in younger and older people:
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Your Environment is What You Eat
If you eat lots of meat, then you are contributing to global warming. Animals like cows require lots of grain, and they emit lots of methane; therefore, demand for hamburger increases CO2 emissions. Here’s a picture from the Washington Post illustrating how much we can reduce emissions by changing our diets:
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Don't Let Your Physician Tell You What To Do Without Finding Out Your Goals
A recent study of men with early-stage prostate cancer found no difference in 10-year death rates, regardless of whether their doctors actively monitored the cancers for signs of growth or eradicated the men’s cancers with surgery or radiation. What does this study mean for patients? Based on research we have conducted on prostate cancer decision-making,…
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Who’s Paying Out-of-Pocket for Medical Care
Many Americans are buying healthcare insurance that asks them to pay a lot, out-of-pocket, for the care they receive. It looks like that trend, towards higher expenses, is especially common among higher income folks, as shown by this picture courtesy of the Commonwealth Fund:
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The Silent, Terrible Toll of Sexual Harassment in Medical Schools
It is hard for any physician to advance as a medical researcher. Competition for research funding is fierce; the rigors of publishing in prestigious medical journals are gargantuan. And women pursuing such careers face even bigger challenges, with many having to take on disproportionate burdens at home compared to their male colleagues (caring for kids,…
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America Is Number…5 Out Of 5?
Here’s a picture from @RAdamsDudleyMD, one that, sadly, is consistent with many previous studies. The US doesn’t measure up in giving people access to medical care.
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Did You Know That Obamacare Causes Diabetes? Here's Why It Happens And Why It's A Good Thing
Obamacare is a big, messy law with so many moving parts, it is often hard to tell how well it’s working. People debate whether it is killing jobs or creating them; they argue about whether it is lowering medical expenses or raising them. These debates often feel irresolvable because the law, being a national one,…
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The High Price of Free Lunch
Once again: correlation does not equal causation. And it is possible that companies give lunches to physicians who are already inclined to prescribe their products, or who are already high prescribers. But why should we leave any of this up to doubt?!? Physicians should not accept gifts from drug companies.
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Rare Diseases Are Becoming Too Common. Sound Impossible? Here's Why It's Not
It is hard to make money treating rare diseases. There simply aren’t enough customers to generate many profits. That’s why the U.S. government passed the Orphan Drug Act in 1983, a law which created a series of incentives to encourage drug companies to develop treatments for rare or “orphan” diseases – conditions affecting less than…