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In May of 2008, the FDA has approved HIFU on a clinical trial basis for recurrent prostate cancer. This video shows some encouraging results in England as well.
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Kennedy sits on the Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services and is also a member of Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. BD
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We certainly have had our cases of violence at hospitals here in the US by all means with shootings, etc. The problem is global and impacts other countries as well. Beating up the staff and breaking supplies is not the best way to handle this by any means, but when we have loved ones lost and perhaps a level of maybe not understanding treatment plans and conditions, emotions take over, could happen to anyone anywhere. Just last week a patient pulled a knife on staff in a northern California hospital and then we had the shooting here in Long Beach not too long ago. BD
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Today myself and a few other bloggers participated in a live conference call with both a short presentation from Peter Neupert and a question and 
answer session. It was very informative and actually nice to hear voices of other healthcare bloggers on the internet. What I felt made the session valuable as well was the different cross section of bloggers that were represented here, as we all have some specific areas of focus with different geographic locations in the US too, but all came together with health related questions that benefit all.
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We posted a number of times about questionable practices Eli Lilly used to market its atypical anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa (olanzapine). A post from 2007, with links backward, is here, and our most recent post is here. The company remains entangled in litigation over its marketing of this drug. That litigation has lead to the release of numerous internal documents that provide quite a view of Lilly’s marketing practices. In particular, a Bloomberg news article discussed how the company used ghost-writers:
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Perhaps this will help with an eye to eye, face to face discussion to explain the plan. The AMA only has one fourth of US Physicians as members, but still is a large bargaining power who too has lost a big amount of revenue. This is an interesting stance though with all the lawsuits they have brought about against insurance carriers and their practices over the years. It just comes down to a couple items, a known situation versus an unknown, what will be the compensation under a government plan. Secondly, its about the money. When you look and see what pays the salaries of 
healthcare officials at hospitals, groups, etc. it is insurance so despite all the disputes and legal cases over the years, its about money and keeping those levels of compensation. Combined with the unknown and fear of money loss, I think this is perhaps why we are seeing some strange bedfellows.
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A nurse anesthetist, Alvin Earl Parkes, who worked for decades at Pulaski Memorial Hospital and Montgomery Regional Hospital (Blacksburg, VA) pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges that he stole the medicine that was supposed to numb patients undergoing surgery.
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I didnt realize until I read this that the VA was considering replacing their Vista EMR with commercial software, so I guess an anticipated
expenditure of a large amount would draw attention anywhere. I just posted about the Department of Energy not meeting their goals with software not being used that took a lot of money to develop, so sounds like the VA is the same boat as a lot of departments. Hows the Inspector General doing with their IT I wonder?
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Professors at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (one of the most prestigious business colleges in the world) had some very interesting observations about healthcare IT yesterday in an article entitled: