02
A number of articles in the Nation, plus posts by some of our blogging colleagues discussed the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its role in policy, including health policy advocacy. The lead article, “ALEC Exposed,” in the Nation, characterized ALEC as:
Read the rest of this entry »
02
The revolving door now accommodates the whole political spectrum. A Salon article documented the transit of one Howard Dean, former darling of the left-wing of the Democratic party:
Read the rest of this entry »
31
There was a recent reminder of the case of the tainted heparin, which begged more questions than it answered. (A case summary is appended to the end of this post, and nearly all our posts are here.) The case is of fundamental importance because it involves the failure of pharmaceutical companies to fulfill their core mission, to supply pure, unadulterated drugs. Three years later, how the heparin was adulterated, and who was responsible are still unknown.
JAMA just published a major news article (Kuehn BM. As production goes global, drug supply faces greater risks to safety, quality. JAMA 2011; 306: 811-813. Link here.) This, in turn, was based on a five page case study of the heparin incident in a report by the Pew Health Group entitled “After Heparin: Protecting Consumers from the Risk of Substandard and Counterfeit Drugs” (link here). Reading between the lines, the Kuehn article raised several questions which it did not seek to answer, but which we have raised previously.
26
Hospital - noun, 1. a charitable institution for the needy, aged, infirm or young 2. an institution where the sick or injured are given medical or surgical care, Merriam-Webster
- noun. 1. an institution providing medical and surgical treatment and nursing care for sick or injured people, Oxford Dictionary
25
Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama met “with eight business leaders to hunt for ideas to revive the economy,” according to the Wall Street Journal. At the session, the President asked “what he and his administration could do to improve their confidence….” The reporters’ White House informants emphasized that the point was “listening to the CEOs and not telling them what to do.”
23
Revised HHS Rules for Conflict of Interest Fall Short
This morning NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins announced revisions to the existing 1995 regulations on objectivity in research that is funded by the Public Health Service. The focus is on significant financial interests (SFI) and on financial conflicts of interest (FCOI). The regulations illustrate the 3-way dance involving academic institutions (the grantees), NIH (the grantor) and academic scientists (the investigators). Thanks to Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) and his investigator Paul Thacker, headlined revelations in recent years about unacceptable management of FCOI at places like Stanford (Alan Schatzberg), Emory (Charles Nemeroff) and Harvard (Joseph Biederman) forced these revisions of the NIH regulations.
19
We have frequently discussed the disconnect between incentives, particularly total compensation, given to the leaders of health care organizations and their roles, or lack thereof, in improving the health care of their patients or the public. One measure of that disconnect is how leaders’ pay continues to defy gravity while the economy continues to suffer, and health care dysfunction continues to fester.
19
To err is human, and any group of humans can be expected to include those who stray. However, the constant spin that surrounds most top leaders of health care organizations seems to suggest that these people are different. In particular, the lavish compensation given leaders of health care organizations is often justified by claims that those in leadership positions are the best and the brightest.
18
An article “Factors contributing to an increase in duplicate medication order errors after CPOE implementation” by Wetterneck et al. appeared recently in JAMIA (JAMIA doi:10.1136/amiajnl-2011-000255).
17
A poster who wishes to remain anonymous, a Senior Clinician in the state of Victoria, Australia, added this comment to my March 2011 post on ‘anecdotes.’ (That post was entitled “Australian ED EHR Study: An End to the Line “Your Evidence Is Anecdotal, Thus Worthless?“.)