New USA Today/Kaiser/Harvard Poll Finds the Public Sees Real Benefits From Prescription Drugs, But Feels that They Cost Too Much and that Drug Companies Care Too Much About Profits
A new poll, the third in a series conducted jointly by USA Today and public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, finds Americans greatly value prescription drugs’ potential benefits for their families, but most believe they cost too much money and many struggle to pay for needed medicines.

for results of the poll, copy and paste this link:
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/pomr030408pkg.cfm

The prices of brand-name medications have continued to increase despite calls from all three major presidential candidates for pharmaceutical companies to make their products more affordable, the Wall Street Journal reports. Wholesale prices for the 50 brand-name medications with the most sales increased by an average of 7.82% in 2007, compared with increases of 6.73% and 6.22% in the previous two years, according to Delta Marketing Dynamics. The overall U.S. economy had an inflation rate of 4.1% in 2007.

In some cases, pharmaceutical companies have increased the prices of brand-name medications scheduled to lose patent protection to prompt patients to switch to similar, newer products that will have patent protection for a number of years. William Little, president of Delta, said, “Companies are under great pressure to deliver revenue, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do so as generics displace profitable brands.”

for full story, copy and paste this link:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/health2008dr.cfm?DR_ID=50532

One in every 10 patients admitted to six Massachusetts community hospitals suffered serious and avoidable medication mistakes, according to a report being released today by two nonprofit groups that are urging all hospitals in the state to install a computerized prescription ordering system.

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The report is the first large-scale study of preventable prescription errors in community hospitals, and its author, Dr. David Bates of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said he was surprised that these mistakes were so frequent in these community hospitals. Previous studies in large academic hospitals that also lacked computerized systems found such medication errors occurred less than half as often, he said.

for full article, copy and paste this link:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/14/1_in_10_patients_gets_drug_error/

Statement from Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP (E)
    Executive Director, American Public Health Association

    WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — “The American Public
Health Association (APHA) is dismayed by today’s presidential veto of the
Labor-HHS-Education spending bill.

    “Along with funding to expand educational opportunities and invest in
job training, the bipartisan bill passed by Congress would provide support
for core public health programs such as preventing obesity and combating
infectious disease, as well as training public health and medical
professionals.

    “As did his veto of the Children’s Health Insurance Program last month,
today’s veto demonstrates the president’s severely misguided spending
priorities. While refusing to provide basic support for health and
wellness, the president did not hesitate in signing a defense spending bill
more than three times larger.

    “APHA, supported by its thousands of members and professional allies,
urges members of Congress to overturn the president’s veto. It is essential
that we provide the infrastructure and support necessary to protect our
nation’s health.”
SOURCE American Public Health Association

Legislation aimed at speeding the availability of cheaper generic drugs has stalled in Congress in the face of major lobbying by the drug industry.The Senate bill would ban most settlements known as “reverse payments,” in which a brand-name company pays a generic manufacturer to delay the introduction of the generic drug. The Federal Trade Commission, which has called on Congress to take action, says such settlements could cost American consumers billions of dollars.

An Associated Press review of lobbying reports, from July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007, found that $38.8 million was spent by at least a dozen generic and brand-name companies and their trade associations on issues including the Senate legislation. The lobbying reports do not specify how much of that money was directed at the reverse payment bill, and they are not required by law to do so.

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On September 6, 2007, Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), the ranking member of the Committee on Finance, and Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, introduced the Physician Payments Sunshine Act — so named because it aims to “shine a much needed ray of sunlight on a situation that contributes to the exorbitant cost of health care,” according to cosponsor Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY). The bill would require manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices with annual revenues of more than $100 million to disclose the amount of money they give to physicians — whether in the form of a free dinner or vacation or a consulting fee. “This bill is about letting the sun shine in so that the public can know,” says Grassley. The move was stimulated in part by activity in Minnesota and Vermont, which have made the reporting of such relationships mandatory — Minnesota in 1993 and Vermont in 2003. Three additional states (Maine, West Virginia, and California) and the District of Columbia have now enacted similar disclosure laws, and many other states are considering doing so. Although beliefs vary widely about the overall usefulness of the data collected under state mandates, the movement toward increased transparency is gaining steam,\.
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And errors are made in up to 4 percent of the 4.5 million new prescriptions written annually, according to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, an industry trade group.The nation’s $2 trillion health care industry hasn’t been keeping up with the times, but a number of companies are going all out to create a safer universal electronic medical system that President Bush says should be in place by 2014.

One of the major players in the burgeoning $40 billion health information technology industry is Alpharetta-based McKesson Technology Solutions, which manufactures and sells robots such as Fillmore.

McKesson, which has 2,500 employees here, has robots in more than 325 hospitals, including 12 in Georgia and seven in the Atlanta area.

Company President Pamela Pure says health information technology is one of the fastest-growing divisions for San Francisco-based McKesson Corp., a Fortune 18 company. McKesson Technology Solutions accounted for $730 million of McKesson Corp.’s revenues of $24.5 billion in its first fiscal quarter of 2008, which ended June 30, and 23 percent of its operating profits. Its competitors include Siemens, GE Healthcare, Cerner Corp. and Epic Systems.

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 Having been commissioned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to evaluate the U.S. drug-safety system, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a report, The Future of Drug Safety, in September 2006 identifying weaknesses in the laws, regulations, resources, and practice of ensuring drug safety.¹ Some of the IOM’s recommendations were directed toward Congress, which it believed should increase FDA funding and regulatory authority. Some outlined ways in which other federal agencies could work in partnership with the FDA for the public good. But most of the report outlined deficiencies that the FDA itself — or the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), to which it belongs — should correct.

In general, the IOM implored the agency to “embrace a culture of safety” by increasing the priority accorded to the safety of patients. Such an emphasis could have ramifications for medical care that would be as broad and positive as those that the 1999 IOM report on medical error, To Err Is Human,² has had for the health care system. Sadly, the FDA’s official response falls far short of what the American public expects and deserves.³ Indeed, it highlights the very reason that the agency — with which I have had some firsthand experience — is in need of monumental change: its philosophy is no longer aligned with its regulatory mandate.

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The doctor walked into the hospital room with a discomforting mission. He was there to admit a medical mistake and apologize to his patient, a woman with breast cancer.

The staff had given her the same injection twice by accident, causing her white cell count to soar, said Dr. Divyesh Mehta, chief of oncology at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center. He recommended she stay in the hospital an extra day or two.

“This is our responsibility, and we are very sorry for it,” Mehta said, recalling the conversati

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For the first time, organizations that represent medical institutions are developing policies to bring an end to medical secrecy in Canada, eventually making disclosing medical errors a routine part of medical care.

Ontario leads the way, with changes to legislation moving through the Legislature that will make the records of all health professionals available to the public.

Patients will be able find out if a physician is under investigation, has been accused of medical malpractice or professional negligence, and whether disciplinary action has been taken against a care provider or limits placed on a physician’s licence.

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