It takes into account which of eight different vaccine formulations are being made available by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency that buys all the doses and functions as the national clearinghouse. Some doses are for infants and toddlers. Some can be used only in children and adults with no underlying health conditions, such as asthma. Some are for nearly everyone.
How to get one: H1N1 vaccine clinics are being scheduled next week in some towns for those at high risk, mostly pregnant women.
City residents only
Time: 03:00 PM – 07:00 PM
Upham’s Corner Health Center, Ground Floor
415 Columbia Road
Dorchester , MA 02125
Phone: (617)287-8000 Please be aware that the following restriction(s) Apply:
Novel H1N1 vaccine available City/Town residents only Age 5 and older with chronic health problems Age 18 and older with chronic health problems Age 50 and older with chronic health problems Comments:Belmont, MA: Belmont residents or those in Belmont schools.
Pregnant women, children, family members who live with children, healthcare workers, those with chronic health conditions. Staff speak English, Spanish, Cape Verdean and Haitian Creole.
—————————————————————————–
Nov 09, 2009
Time: 04:30 PM – 07:30 PM
Chenery Middle School Community Room
95 Washington St.
Belmont , MA 02478
Phone: (617)993-2720 Please be aware that the following restriction(s) Apply:
Novel H1N1 vaccine available By appointment only Comments:
This clinic is for pregnant women, family members of babies
less than six months of age, day care workers who care for babies
less than six months of age and 2 and 3 year olds that need shots.
Belmont residents or those in Belmont schools.
————————————————————————
Winchester, MA
Nov 09, 2009
Time: 09:00 AM – 03:00 PM
Winchester Town Hall-Waterfield Room
71 Mount Vernon Street
Winchester , MA 01890
Phone: (781)721-7121 Please be aware that the following restriction(s) Apply:
Novel H1N1 vaccine available Seasonal Influenza vaccine available By appointment only City/Town residents only Comments:
For pregnant Winchester residents only. Please email:jbyford@winchester.us to request an appointment. Please indicate which vaccine you need, and your telephone number. H1N1 vaccine contains thimerosal. Seasonal vaccine does not.
Nov 10, 2009
Time: 09:00 AM – 03:00 PM
Winchester Town Hall – Waterfield Room
71 Mount Vernon Street
Winchester , MA 01890
Phone: (781)721-7121 Please be aware that the following restriction(s) Apply:
Novel H1N1 vaccine available Seasonal Influenza vaccine available By appointment only City/Town residents only Comments:
For pregnant Winchester residents only. Please email: jbyford@winchester.us to request an appointment Please indicate which vaccine you need, and your telephone number. H1N1 vaccine contains thimerosal. Seasonal vaccine does not.
The state has issued a new report documenting yet another way college students get nickle and dimed – on health insurance. The message here — stay on your parents plan.
Insurance companies rack up much higher profits on health coverage sold to nearly 100,000 Massachusetts college students than on plans available to the general public, according to long-awaited data released late yesterday by the state. The figures also show that college-student plans also have higher administrative costs…
The state plans to ”study whether the Connector Authority, the agency that oversees the state’s landmark health insurance law, could create a better product for the student market.”
Isn’t that something the universities should be doing?
WASHINGTON — A sea of protesters filled the west lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall on Saturday in the largest rally against President Obama since he took office, a culmination of a summer-long season of protests that began with opposition to a health care overhaul and grew into a broader dissatisfaction with government.
Thousands of opponents of the Democrats’ health care legislation are gathered outside the Capitol, for a noon news conference and rally led by Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, and the chants are already underway, echoing across the Mall.
“Kill the bill!” they are shouting. “Kill the bill!”
A series of spot interviews suggests that the protesters have come to Washington from all across the country – Texas, Ohio, Oregon and the greater Washington area. It’s a generally older crowd, many in their 50s and 60s, predominantly, white, and many self-identified as Christians. They are fiercely conservative and deeply skeptical of the government, many of them adamantly opposed to abortion rights.
Here’s a report on the event from organizers at Freedom Works, a key player in the tea party protests against ”Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Cali.) proposed takeover of the American health care system.” (More on their leader, in this Sunday’s NY Times Magazine, already on line.)
The Washington Post counted 10,000 v. Freedom Works’ 25-30,000. NY Times said “tens of thousands.
The tea-party rally was the latest display of a populist wave of voter discontent among conservatives, which has divided the Republican Party in recent weeks. Protesters said the health-care bill is the latest move by Democrats toward socialism
The Post also noted that nine pro-reform activists were arrested earlier in the day after a sit-in at Sen. Joe Lieberman’s office. The Connecticut senator, who opposes the bill, takes quite a few contributions from his constituent, the Hartford-based insurance industry.
The NYTimes business section has an update on academic/industry partnerships and explains new transparency rules in the Senate reform bill. Massachusetts has had a state law on this but it’s only been in effect for a few months.
Also, read on and find that for first time I my career, I found a device (or drug) maker list payments to med school docs, In this case Mass General.
As part of the health care overhaul under consideration by Congress, lawmakers have included so-called sunshine provisions intended to shed light on the financial relationships between the medical industry and doctors.
The targets are common business practices like drug company payments to doctors for speeches and consulting services, which have the potential to influence patient care and drive up the nation’s medical bills.
For more about industry sponsorship of academic research, see the article in the latest issue of Health Affairs. where a group of Boston area researchers found that ”52.8percent have some form of relationship with industry.”
There are many potential impacts of these data. First, giventhat industry relationships are frequent and diverse, closescrutiny of researchers’ industry relationships is likelyto be a major undertaking for institutions—especiallyamong those with large numbers of researchers. Second, relationshipsare most common among productive, senior faculty members whocontribute substantially to their research community. This findingsupports the belief that it is difficult, but not impossible,to find academic scientists without industry relationships toserve in advisory roles for organizations such as the Food andDrug Administration, the NIH, or the Institute of Medicine.Third, the widespread nature of these relationships will raiseserious concerns regarding the integrity of the academic researchenterprise (either rightly or wrongly) on the part of electedofficials, university officials, and perhaps the American public.
In a related story, James Ridgeway comments on a Mother Jones story on medical devices on his excellent “Unsilent Generation” blog. Read both. THe MJ story mentions two companies with tied to the state and, in one case, to Mass General doctors.
These companies makes things like artificial joints and heart valves, which are often needed by older people—and paid for by Medicare.
In recent months, these companies have launched a huge lobbying blitz in response to provisions in the health care reform bills that would levy fees on their high-profit enterprise. The efforts apparently have not been wasted: In the latest versions of the legislation, the level of fees has dropped considerably (though that hasn’t stopped the manufacturers’ whining).
In the Mother Jones story, DePuy, is based in Raynham, is one of four companies that in 2007 “said they would pay $311 million to settle federal charges that they gave doctors millions of dollars in kickbacks, often in the guise of consulting fees. The government deferred prosecution of the four companies so long as they complied with the settlement terms.
Another company settling was Indiana-based Zimmer, which has been a player at Mass General. On the company website , they list more than $9 million in consulting fees paid to eight doctors at Mass General Hospital since 2007 and another $19 million to some of those docs and others for a total of 14 who listed under MGH Corporation. More on MGH’s role in licensing right to material to the company that was used for orthopedic implants.
For news about the medical device industry, see Mass Device, a website devoted to news about local companies and national trends.
For more about industry sponsorship of academic research, see the article in the latest issue of Health Affairs. where a group of Boston area researchers found that ”52.8percent have some form of relationship with industry.”
Implications of the data. There are many potential impacts of these data. First, giventhat industry relationships are frequent and diverse, closescrutiny of researchers’ industry relationships is likelyto be a major undertaking for institutions—especiallyamong those with large numbers of researchers. Second, relationshipsare most common among productive, senior faculty members whocontribute substantially to their research community. This findingsupports the belief that it is difficult, but not impossible,to find academic scientists without industry relationships toserve in advisory roles for organizations such as the Food andDrug Administration, the NIH, or the Institute of Medicine.Third, the widespread nature of these relationships will raiseserious concerns regarding the integrity of the academic researchenterprise (either rightly or wrongly) on the part of electedofficials, university officials, and perhaps the American public.
Meantime, it doesn’t take the NY Times to dig into conflict of interest issues. A student journalist with the Minnesota Daily points out how medical students receive free textbooks from drug companies promoting their products. Case in point: an otolaryngology text given out by a company making an ear infection drug – with the company’s logo on it, and with the beginning of each chapter crediting the drug company.
The student journalist also pointed out that the University of Minnesota has no policy to ban such practices.
Here, arguing that the state program is a success, is Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a Boston-based, nonpartisan public-policy group that researches financial, tax and economic issues. The group is also part of the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes the state plan.
Arguing that the plan is a failure is Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, a nonprofit public-policy group based in Alexandria, Va., that conducts research to advance market-based solutions to health reform. The institute is funded by private donors, philanthropic organizations and companies that include health-care-related businesses.
In October, MassCare, Physicians for a National Health Plan and others testified at the on Beacon Hill that the state health system is a non-functional corporate giveaway. Instead, they are pushing a bill that would establish a single payer system for the state: This from the Oct. 21 Belmont (Mass.) Citizen-Herald:
A quarter of the Legislature has signed onto a proposal to scrap the state’s landmark health care system, which still relies on private insurance companies to cover millions of residents, in favor of a single-payer system, publicly run and available to all residents.
Backers of the single-payer plan (H 2127) argued Tuesday that the state’s current system has failed to control costs, prevented even insured residents from obtaining needed care and left as much as 5 percent of the population without coverage.
Killer viruses, computers that see all, and the undead public option. (Or, as Jon Stewart said last night –”It’s alive!“) Welcome to the haunted edition of the Health Wonk Review – the floating digest of posts from the health policy blogosphere. This week, we put the death back into death panels.
The health care system is an out-of-control beast, promising to heal us while sucking more and more out of our pockets. The shadowy Blob of the drug, device and insurance industries threatens to absorb a larger share of the GNP each year. (So do hospitals and some docs, but they have always worn their halos and angel costumes.) One time, a mob of angry Medicare recipients chased down a Congressman like a scene from Night of the Living Dead. But, the situation has become even more frightening. Until recently, people didn’t come to town meetings with guns to yell at at their reps and senators like crazed Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining. There were no pictures of either Clinton with a Hitler mustache. And, who knows what other secrets lie behind closed White House doors beside deals with drug makers.
In honor of Halloween, BHN offers a costume theme. Add your own. Or go to the end and add a comment with your nominee for the scariest ever doctor, nurse, lawmaker, lobbyist or other healthcare player — real or imagined. I vote for the twin gynecologists, both played by Jeremy Irons, in the movie “Dead Ringers.” They made their own medical instruments.
Dr. Anthony Horan’s article on the Health Care Blog Putting Profit before Patient ” contends that the current method of using PSA blood tests to screen for prostate cancer often causes more harm than good.
Then, there are some screening tests that work — like the pap smears and colonoscopies. But, most people don’t get colonscopies when they need them, says National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) president Margaret E. O’Kane. She blogs on the agency’s “The State of Health Care Quality 2009″ report. The report includes good news -almost all of the 30 million Americans living with asthma are getting care. But, there are problems too. Only 42.5 percent of people are receiving colon cancer screening at the appropriate age. O’Kane recommends that Congress create insurance exchanges, tie payment systems to performance and standardize measures for public reporting.
H1N1: Virus shedding monster
Despite new movement on health reform, the arrival of H1N1 and the shortage of vaccines is generating a lot of news. On the Disease Management Care Blog, Jaan Sidorov “points out that it may not be the fault of the Obama Administration’s but it is certainly responsible for the H1N1 vaccine shortages. This may have implications on how the Government will handle the rest of the nation’s health and could give another opening to opponents of health care reform.”
“On Friday October 23, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) met in the aftermath of a tumultuous month in which the health insurance companies’ lobbying operation released a study it commissioned which, according to the White House is “an attempt to confuse the debate around health reform…Just when the insurance industry must feel that it couldn’t get any worse, attendees at the AHIP conference were subjected to this guerilla music by “Public Option Annie.”
Health policy poet Madeleine Begun Kane offers this limerick urging the president to play a stronger role in bringing about the public option. (Too bad Obama vacationed in Martha’s Vineyard and not Nantucket.)
“Recent comments by Sen. Jay Rockefeller and others indicate
that a strong public option could become a reality, if only President Obama stopped being a Bystander President.”
Bystander President?
Public option’s at stake — tock, tick, tock.
Please step up to the plate, Dear Barack.
Though the sidelines were cool
For a while, you’re a fool
If you fail to ensure it’s a lock.”
—–
Participatory medicine: Pirates
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn at Health Populi reports on The Center for Connected Health and “the launch of the new Journal of Participatory Medicine. We can’t bend the cost curve without engaging people in their own health care.”
The Health Blawg’s David Harlow also attended the Connected Health Symposium offering this: “Given the crushing cost of hospital-based health care services, the current and growing primary care physician shortage, and the expectation of high-quality health care services accessible to all, the Center for Connected Health is letting us all know that the road to the future is the information superhighway, paved with intelligent payment reforms — but that the nodes in the network will always be human beings.
Medicare: Uncle Fester
The AMA argues that Medicare doesn’t pay doctors enough. The AMA threatens that, unless Congress passes a bill called “The Medicare Physicians Fairness Act ” physicians will be forced to stop seeing Medicare patients, who are already worried about the stability of the program.”
Granny killers!
Really, don’t they say that every time Congress tries to limit increases in Medicare Part B? Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters give a quick history of the program to control Medicare Part B costs that this bill would override and worries “Where are we going to come up with a quarter trillion dollars?”
Quality of Care: Angel v. Dr. Sawbones
Mike King at Healthy Debate writes about how malpractice insurers recent years reduced the premiums they charge physicians. Some “at least scaled back annual premium increases that were common before reform. But there is no evidence to show that has led to a corresponding reduction in physician charges to patients.”
HIT : Frankenstien (Lots of pieces. Can we put them together and make them work?)
David Williams at the Health Business blog says telemedicine has the potential to dramatically increase the level of competition among health care providers, resulting in reduced costs.
The e-CareManagement blog suggests Senator Chuck Grassley probe more deeply into electronic medical records and patient safety.: “You’re on Track about EMR Problems, But Here Are Some More Questions to Ask”
Health 2.0 and the Big Bang, from 10/13 ehrbloggers.com : A review of the recent Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco “warns that conference organizers risk being seen as “all things to all people” if they don’t define what they want the term, “Health 2.0″ to stand for…and such a move, while financially lucrative in the short term (for the organizers), risks diluting any potential impact they wish to have on national policy…a mistake similar to the one made in the early 1990s by leaders (including myself) of the TQM movement.”
The Healthcare IT Guy– aka Shahid N. Shah – gets a little acronymy on us. But ,we are self described wonks so here it is: ”All healthcare organizations need to be aware of a problem that’s probably bigger than the Year 2000 (Y2k) migration – the ICD10 and HIPAA 5010 migration. A huge fiscal burden has been placed on payers and providers as they look to redesign business processes and systems to handle hundreds of thousands of new codes at an estimated cost of more than $14 billion
Insurance: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Roy Poses at HC Renewal wonders why we see nothing in health services research and medical literature about a potential solution to high health costs –”a repeal of a law around since 1945 that insulated health insurance from government anti-trust regulation, appear in the media. As far as I can tell, the possibly causal role of this law, and whether it needed repeal never has been discussed in the above literature, a striking illustration of the anechoic effect (i.e., certain topics in health care rarely are discussed because doing so may offend powerful interests).
The Health Access Blog analyzes objections to “employer responsibility” section of Senate Finance Committee. A section of the bill would require employers who don’t offer coverage to potentially pay $1,000s per employee. The fee applies to those who work at least 30 hours a week who receive subsidies to purchase coverage in a health insurance exchange. The fear — all the low-wage workers will get their hours cut to 29 a week. More here.
The Health Affairs Blog reports on as paper entitled: Are Higher-Value Care Models Replicable? A Boeing Company pilot “shows that enhancing care via a ‘medical home’ designed explicitly for patients with severe chronic disease can improve quality of care and reduce per capita spending in well-led physician organizations without a long history of national clinical distinction.”
From Worker Comp Insider: Attorneys General in three states have put FedEx on alert for “widespread, long-term, and unlawful employment practices.” Jon Coppelman of Workers Comp Insider “looks at these new challenges to the company’s practice of classifying its drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, which leaves the drivers out in the cold when it comes to the safety net of workers comp coverage for work-related injuries – not to mention the protections of other basic labor laws.”
Obama Healthcare 2009 suggests that “Unions are supportive of the House health care reform bill , even though as a practical matter the bills discriminate against union workers.”
Food : The Headless Horseman
Of Carrot Cake and Oreos : The New America Foundation’s Joanne Kenen spent an afternoon with Dr. David Kessler, “talking about carrot cake, Oreos , policy, parenting and why the American diet is the biggest public health care challenge of our times. “
Drug Channels.net offers an analysis of the CBO review of Baucus bill and its implications for Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and pharmacies: “Retail pharmacies would benefit from increased prescription volume but will likely see gross margins drop as the uninsured get the advantage of third-party bargaining power,” says Adam J. Fein, Ph.D.
Free-market supporter and health policy grad student John J. Leppard says Obama’s approach is flawed and should be dumped. On his Healthcare Manumission blog, he asks: “With all the talk about reforming health care going on, I’m a little surprised that no one is actually talking about health care reform.”
Uninsured: Circus performer, no net
College students who want to take a break from school to cope with a serious illness get more bad news when they file their claims. Many insurers won’t cover dependents over 18 unless they are in school full time.
Henry Stern of InsureBlog comments on Michelle’s Law, which aims to change that. “A college student has to choose between life-saving treatment and losing her insurance to pay for it. InsureBlog reports on a new law forbidding carriers from dropping students in this frightening position.”
As illustrated in this week’s report, we continue to see dramatic increases in the number of cases of Influenza-like illness (ILI) across the state. This means that it is more important than ever for everyone to follow our flu prevention and control measures.
Not surprisingly, many schools are seeing an increase of H1N1 flu circulating and parents are, understandably, concerned about their children getting sick. We would like to share with you some information on how the Department of Public Health is working with administrators and school nurses across the state to help them prevent the spread of the flu.
11/4 According to a report from a worker’s rights group “Wal-Mart’s stingy sick-leave policy may contribute to swine flu’s spread.” Workers there are punished for taking too many sick days. Via the fine folks at the Institute for Southern Studies.
The report found that the only time the company is removing sick workers from the food section is when they are coughing too loudly or violently — and then the person is merely transferred to another department rather than being sent home.
10/30 Today’s weekly update of Mass residents with flu like symptoms shows ” a continuous, dramatic increase in ILI (influenza-like illness) activity over the past few weeks in excess of what was seen at the same time the last two years.”
It also includes an update on vaccine availability for n women.
(N)ot all obstetrical practices in Massachusetts are registered to receive the vaccine. This poses a problem for women who go to these providers and who wish to be vaccinated.
If your doctor is not currently registered to administer H1N1 vaccine, you might recommend that they do so through the DPH website at the DPH vaccine provider registry . Registration is fast and easy, and continues to be open for new registrants. You may also ask your provider to refer you to a medical associate who is enrolled to administer the vaccine.
As of today, more than 480,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine have been distributed to providers in Massachusetts –- just the tip of the iceberg of the total 3.5 million doses of vaccine that we expect to receive this flu season. This is not where we expected to be at this point based on what we were initially told by the federal government, and it creates a difficult and frustrating situation for everyone, especially those people at greatest risk of complications from the H1N1 flu…
10/29 Sacha Pfeiffer at WBUR tries to sort out who is getting the vaccine and who isn’t:With the H1N1 swine flu vaccine in high demand and short supply in Massachusetts and nationwide, people considered “high-risk” are supposed to be vaccinated first. But some high-risk patients can’t find the vaccine even though some seemingly healthier patients can. That has many people wondering if there’s any rhyme or reason to how the vaccine is being divvied up.
10/28: I’m lapsed but go to Mass now and then. I was wondering what it would take to get the Catholic Church to see the risks involved in shaking hands with seven or eight strangers. The Globe reports that it was H1N1 .
10/27 — The latest from the state on access to the vaccine, or lack of it. Now looking at late November for most people. Their ”limited supply is reserved for people at especially high risk for flu, which includes pregnant women, children, caregivers of infants and healthcare workers with direct patient contact. As supplies grow, this will expand to include the additional priority groups of young adults up to the age of 24, and people between the ages of 25 and 64 with underlying health conditions like asthma and diabetes.
We expect the number of doses of H1N1 vaccine in the state to exceed 1 million by the end of November. As it arrives, we will continue to work to ensure that the vaccine that is available goes to these high priority groups. We thank you for your patience and understanding. 10/26 H1N1 Mist v. Shot, from the Mass DPH
The H1N1 flu shot in an inactivated vaccine, which means that it contains killed virus. The shot is given with a needle, usually in the arm. The flu shot is approved for use in people 6 months of age and older, including healthy people, people with chronic medical conditions and pregnant women. You can find more information on the H1N1 flu shot in this CDC .pdf file.
The H1N1 nasal spray flu vaccine is made with live, weakened viruses that do not cause the flu. The spray is sometimes called LAIV for “live attenuated influenza vaccine.” The spray is approved for use in healthy people 2 years to 49 years of age who are not pregnant. More info here.
On Saturday, Obama just declared H1N1 a “national emergency,” a move that is less alarming than it sounds.
The Patrick Administration has conferred with the Massachusetts Hospital Association regarding the President’s declaration and joint efforts are being made to inform hospitals of its content. The declaration does not increase the pace at which the H1N1 vaccine will become available to the public. Production delays have decreased the shipments of vaccine to Massachusetts and all other states. So far in Massachusetts, 300,000 doses of the vaccine have been distributed to clinical sites. Hundreds of thousands more are expected in the coming weeks. Public health officials reaffirmed that residents of the state can play an active role in decreasing the spread of the flu by staying home when sick and by carefully practicing health hygiene.
The declaration, which the White House announced Saturday, allows HHS in some cases to let hospitals relocate emergency rooms offsite to reduce flu-related burdens and to protect noninfected patients.
Administration officials said the declaration was a pre-emptive move designed to make decisions easier when they need to be made. Officials said this was not in response to any single development on an outbreak that has lasted months and has killed more than 1,000 people in the United States.
Our top priority is and will remain those members of the public who are at greatest risk. Initially that category includes children, pregnant women and health care workers. As supplies allow, we will also target young adults below the age of 25, and 25-64 year olds with certain underlying health conditions. Public clinics will only be held at the point that there is sufficient volume to shift beyond the focus on these target groups. The CDC states that eventually there will be enough H1N1 vaccine to protect anyone in the population who wishes to be immunized.
Flu activity is widespread in Massachusetts for the first time this fall, public health officials said today, leading a Central Massachusetts high school to close its doors until Wednesday and almost certainly reflecting cases caused by the swine flu virus, whose return has been expected since it first emerged in the spring.
(Times writer Gina) Kolata’s story was published on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the ACS released a statement from Brawley in which he says the organization stands by its screening recommendations.
Here’s why the mantra of early detection is a problem. We’ve gotten better at finding cancer but we are not very good at sorting the nasty ones out from the tumors that will never grow. If you have a raging tumor, it doesn’t seem to matter when you find it. And, yes, some malignant tumors –possibly quite a few — never grow. The concept of early detection was a very successful health campaign. Too bad, in many cases, it was wrong.
New media writer Jeff Jarvis, recently diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer, is writing about screening again: “I say, thank god science for screening.”
He’s entitled to his opinion. He is not entitled to his own personal version of the facts. He writes: “There is a growing rumble about curtailing screening.”
No. That is simply wrong. There is no move for “curtailing” screening. There are many, however, who are calling for better and more balanced presentation of the potential harms – not just the potential benefits – of such screening.
The debate over mammography and prostate cancer screening has been around for a while. According to the National Women’s Health Network, fifteen years after the debate about the value of screening mammography first flared up, too many women (and clinicians) still don’t know it’s more complicated than the “early detection is your best prevention” slogan.
Most people believe that finding cancer early is a certain way to save lives. But the reality of cancer screening is far more complicated.
Studies suggest that some patients are enduring aggressive treatments for cancers that could have gone undetected for a lifetime without hurting them. At the same time, some cancers found through screening and treated in the earliest stages still end up being deadly.
As a result, the chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society now says that the benefits of early detection are often overstated. The cancer society says it will continue to revise its public messages about cancer screening as new information becomes available.
The American Cancer Society, which has long been a staunch defender of most cancer screening, is now saying that the benefits of detecting many cancers, especially breast and prostate, have been overstated.
It is quietly working on a message, to put on its Web site early next year, to emphasize that screening for breast and prostate cancer and certain other cancers can come with a real risk of overtreating many small cancers while missing cancers that are deadly.
“We don’t want people to panic,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the cancer society. “But I’m admitting that American medicine has overpromised when it comes to screening. The advantages to screening have been exaggerated.”
As far as mammography goes, Breast Cancer Action has been all over this. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, check out their “Think Before You Pink” campaign while you’re at it.
There was a State House hearing scheduled today on bill to establish a single payer health care system in the state. BHN missed it and can’t find any reports. We’ll keep looking. Here’s the background from Mass Care.
We are going to try to hit this wired health care meeting, which takes place tomorrow and Friday at the Park Plaza.
Healthcare will have its renaissance when it moves beyond the hospital and clinic and into the day-to-day lives of patients and consumers. The Connected Health Symposium asks how information technology — cell phones, computers, the Internet and other tools — can help people manage chronic conditions, maintain health and wellness, and age with independence. Please come to Boston in the fall, as all of us join the issues of real change in 2009
We’ll try to get the low down on this early morning speech.
Healthcare Reform, Payment Reform, and the Implications for Connected Healthby Stuart Altman, of the Heller School at Brandeis University. He’s been up close for health reform efforts through at least five presidents.
Seigel called the study “sensationalist.” Scientists rarely call anything sensationalist. They tend to use terms like “overstated” or “not carefully controlled.” So, I checked him out.
He also thinks the “tobacco control movement is overstating the risk of second hand smoke.” He’s no tobacco industry apologist. He appears to makes his case based on a clear analysis of the evidence.
…(I)t appears that a large number of anti-smoking organizations are making inaccurate claims that a single, acute, transient exposure to secondhand smoke can cause severe and even fatal cardiovascular events in healthy nonsmokers. The dissemination of inaccurate information by anti-smoking groups to the public in support of smoking bans is unfortunate because it may harm the tobacco control movement by undermining its credibility, reputation, and effectiveness. Disseminating inaccurate information also represents a violation of basic ethical principles that are a core value of public health practice that cannot and should not be sacrificed, even for a noble end such as protecting nonsmokers from secondhand smoke exposure. How the tobacco control movement responds to this crisis of credibility will go a long way towards determining the future effectiveness of the movement and its ability to continue to save lives and protect the public’s health.
Killer viruses, computers that see all, and the undead public option. (Or, as Jon Stewart said last night –”
And, who knows what other secrets lie behind closed White House doors beside deals with drug makers.
Despite new movement on health reform, the arrival of H1N1 and the shortage of vaccines is generating a lot of news. On the 
Bystander President?
The AMA argues that Medicare doesn’t pay doctors enough. The
The 
From Worker Comp Insider
BHN noted the name of Boston University’s Dr. Michael Seigel in a 