XTEND-15sec-NEWSt
21th October 2005
Please click on the summary link of interest:
Computers no cure for dumb Doc's?1
This is the headline for an article published recently on wired.com/news. We quote:
"Medical errors kill nearly 100,000 American each year, with lethal drug interactions accounting for most of these deaths. Computerization -- which hospitals have been slow to embrace -- was supposed to eliminate most problems, but new research published Wednesday indicates that even the best computer system can't save you from a doctor's catastrophic screw-up.
Harmful medication-related mishaps cropped up in a quarter of all patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City, one of the most high-tech hospitals in the country, according to a study published in Archives of Internal Medicine.
"If you were on an airplane and a quarter of the time it crashed, that would be a problem," said study co-author Dr. Jonathan Nebeker, a physician at the VA Medical Center."
To read the balance of the article please click here.
Warren Matthews comments: These frightening facts are just one more reason why you must make every effort to stay healthy and out of hospital.
Imagine what the hospitals would be like if this bird flu really does become a problem? A really frightening thought and a sound reason to ensure that you have the best possible supplement foundation possible. In other words, use the full dose of our Total Balance (6 tablets per day) along with our Omega 3.
Even though you will be spending a bit over $2.60 a day (with the loyalty program) you will be ultimately pleased you did, as long term it makes very good economic sense, not to mention an improved sense of wellbeing which is hard to put into financial terms.
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Direct to Consumer Drug Advertising debated by US Senate...2a
The American College of Physicians (ACP), which represents 119,000 doctors of internal medicine and medical students, would like Congress to ban direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs. On September 29, in testimony before the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Donna Sweet, M.D., chair of the ACP's Board of Regents, charged that DTC advertising creates patient misperceptions, results in inefficient use of valuable physician time, challenges a physician's professional authority, inflates drug costs, and can ultimately compromise patient access to lifesaving treatments.
Presentations were also made by the FDA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Public Citizen's Health Research Group, and a University of California physician who investigated the impact of DTC ads on antidepressant prescribing. Their written testimony and a Webcast of the entire hearing are accessible via the committee's Web site by clicking here.
Warren Matthews comments: Direct to consumer advertising is a dangerous practice and benefits no one other than the pharmaceutical Companies. It certainly makes a physician's job more difficult when their patient demands one specific drug or another because they have seen it on television and think this is what they need.
Did you know that most pharmaceutical Companies now spend more on consumer advertising than what they do on research and development?
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Inflated prices of US prescription drugs... 3
Here is a recent article on CBS who interviewed Dr Peter Rost a vice president of marketing for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
He makes some quite serious observations about the price differentials of identical drugs in different parts of the worlds.
If you use pharmaceutical drugs we are sure you will find it of interest. For the full article please click here.
Warren Matthews comments: Here is an excerpt from the article:
"Drug prices have been rising faster than inflation and Americans pay more for brand-name prescription drugs than anyone else in the world. Why? Well, the drug companies and the government say we have to, so the companies can keep developing new drugs."
Maybe it they didn't spend all that money on direct to consumer advertising they could bring the prices down without affecting their R & D budgets?
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Important notice: All material provided within XTEND-15sec-NEWS is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not to be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken solely on the contents of this publication. Consult your physician or a qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health and wellbeing or on any opinions expressed within this newsletter. The information provided in this newsletter is believed to be accurate based on the best judgment of the editor but the reader is responsible for consulting with their own health professional on any matters raised within.
Computers No Cure for Dumb Docs (Full Article)full1
By Randy Dotinga | Also by this reporter
02:00 AM May. 26, 2005 PT
Medical errors kill nearly 100,000 American each year, with lethal drug interactions accounting for most of these deaths. Computerization -- which hospitals have been slow to embrace -- was supposed to eliminate most problems, but new research published Wednesday indicates that even the best computer system can't save you from a doctor's catastrophic screw-up.
Harmful medication-related mishaps cropped up in a quarter of all patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City, one of the most high-tech hospitals in the country, according to a study published in Archives of Internal Medicine.
"If you were on an airplane and a quarter of the time it crashed, that would be a problem," said study co-author Dr. Jonathan Nebeker, a physician at the VA Medical Center.
Even though the hospital's computers were supposed to protect against dangerous drug interactions, illegible prescriptions and bedside mix-ups, nine of the 937 patients studied died as a result of medication problems, the study found.
If other hospitals have similar track records, 35 people may die each year for each 100 beds because of what researchers politely call "adverse drug events."
At the Salt Lake City hospital, for instance, health workers ordered the wrong drugs, ordered the wrong doses and failed to monitor patients properly. Ninety-one percent of the 483 mishaps were moderately harmful, and 9 percent were serious, according to the researchers.
The researchers didn't blame all the drug problems on human error -- sometimes the medications didn't work the way they were expected to -- but many of the mishaps were still preventable, Nebeker said.
If you think your own neighborhood hospital might do a better job than the hospital in the study, think again. Sure, the Salt Lake City facility is part of the frequently maligned VA system. But VA hospitals are widely lauded for their advanced medical technology and commitment to reducing medical errors.
In fact, the chances are good that your local hospital is still behind the times on the technology front. Among other things, the VA hospital has a bar-code system that requires nurses to scan medications before they're given to patients; the bar-code systems are still rare today.
And the hospital forced doctors to enter prescriptions on a computer instead of on paper; only an estimated 10 percent to 15 percent of hospitals have similar computerized drug order systems.
But nobody's recommending that hospitals save money and step off the technology train. Specialists in medical errors say the problem isn't that computers fail to prevent mishaps.
In fact, thanks to the Salt Lake City hospital's computerization of drug ordering, researchers didn't find a single case of a pharmacist misreading a doctor's chicken scratch and killing or hurting a patient.
The challenge instead, medical specialists say, is making the technology assist doctors in more ways than just sounding an alarm when penicillin is ordered for someone who's allergic to it.
"The system as it presently stands is very good at getting rid of the ravages of doctor's handwriting, checking ... drug allergies ... overdoses, and not allowing choices that are nonsensical," said Dr. Robert Watcher, a surgeon at the University of California at San Francisco. But the computers are far from sophisticated enough, he said.
http://wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,67639,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_6
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Insider's Rx For Drug Costs (Full Article)full2 (CBS) If you think you're paying a lot for prescription drugs, you're right. Drug prices have been rising faster than inflation and Americans pay more for brand-name prescription drugs than anyone else in the world.
Why? Well, the drug companies and the government say we have to, so the companies can keep developing new drugs.
But that's no consolation to the tens of millions of elderly and uninsured who can't afford to pay for the drugs they need. Correspondent Bob Simon talks Dr. Peter Rost, a critic of the way drugs are priced and sold in the United States, who also happens to be a vice president of marketing for the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
Rost has taken the risky and possibly career-shattering step of opposing his own employer, and the rest of the drug industry, by saying America can have cheaper drugs if it set up a system like the one in Europe.
Rost says that on average, drugs in Europe are about half the price of those in the United States.
"You have certain drugs that cost 10 times more in the U.S.," says Rost. "We're talking about exactly the same drug, made in the same plant, by the same manufacturer."
And Rost says these are drugs that are also made in the same plant. "It is stunning," he says. "Once people become aware of it, it is stunning. And obviously, they get upset."
One example: the commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, made by Pfizer, the company he works for. In the United States, the full retail price is about $76 dollars for a month's supply. The exact same drug costs $55 dollars in Canada and just $43 dollars in Italy.
It's the high price of drugs in the United States that has outraged Rost and led him to put his career on the line to try to help America's uninsured find a way to get cheaper drugs. He's a physician and a businessman who's worked in the drug industry for 20 years - both in America and Europe - marketing and pricing prescription drugs.
"We're the wealthiest nation on earth, yet we have between 49 and 67 million Americans without any kind of insurance for drugs," says Rost. "And they pay full price, cash, and they can't always afford drugs."
He says that's because drug pricing is not a free market in the United States, the way it is with most other industries. Brand-name drugs have patents, which means no other drug company can make the same drug until the patent runs out in 20 years.
Remember: Rost is an executive for Pfizer, but he's not speaking for the drug company.
"The industry likes to talk about the U.S. as a free market. A free market in this case simply means that the drug industry is free to set whatever price they want. And mostly patients and others simply have to pay. There isn't a choice," says Rost. "In a situation like that, you can obviously raise your prices as much as you can get away with."
Rost makes a comparison to a car company that can charge whatever it wants for a car: "What's going to happen is if they double their price on cars? Imagine what's going to happen to their sales? A new car is not a necessity, but where you're sick, to get treatment, to get well, and to survive, that is a necessity."
But why can't you just buy a generic? "For some areas, that works fine," says Rost. "For many areas, there aren't generics available."
For the balance of this article please go to:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/03/60minutes/main699606.shtml
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