Over the last few years, our research team has developed several new approaches to reducing unnecessary antibiotic prescribing, drawing on insights from behavioral economics and social psychology. These disciplines acknowledge that people do not always behave rationally and are strongly motivated by social incentives to seek approval from others and compare favorably to their peers.[Subscription required.]
When California's aid-in-dying law takes effect this June, terminally ill patients who decide to end their lives could be faced with a hefty bill for the lethal medication. It retails for more than $3,000. Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the company that makes Seconal, the drug most commonly used in physician-assisted suicide, doubled the drug's price last year, one month after California lawmakers proposed legalizing the practice. "It's just pharmaceutical company greed," said David Grube, a family doctor in Oregon, where physician-assisted death has been legal for 20 years.
Patients who delay getting treatment and insurers who balk at paying for it are among job stresses that Chicago nurse Ben Gerling faces on a semi-regular basis. So there was no tail-dragging when his employer offered a few four-legged workplace remedies. Gerling and dozens of other nurses, doctors, students and staffers flocked to a spacious entrance hall at Rush University Medical Center after learning about special animal therapy sessions the hospital has organized.
Across three open data platforms offering more than 3,000 clinical trials, only 15.5% were requested by a small number of researchers over the course of 2 years, according to a new study. Only 505 unique trials had ever been requested, including 356 phase III trials, or 24.7% of available phase III trials, reported Ann Marie Navar, MD, PhD, MHS, of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and colleagues.
Some health insurers are hoping to ease headaches that can flare when customers try to confirm whether a doctor is covered in a plan's network of providers. The trade association America's Health Insurance Plans will soon start testing a more efficient way to update insurer provider directories, which are becoming critical for finding the right fit as insurance evolves and coverage networks shrink.
In its first set of guidelines for prescribing opiates, the CDC said the risks of the medications outweigh the benefits for most people with long-term pain, other than patients being treated for cancer or those at the end of life. Nearly all of the prescription opiates on the market are as addictive as heroin, said CDC director Thomas Frieden. Yet prescription opiates often do a very poor job in controlling chronic pain. The CDC's 12 new guidelines are intended for primary care physicians, who prescribe nearly half of opiates. Doctors aren't legally obligated to follow the recommendations.