I’m no epidemiologist, but we all can notice how diseases and their definitions change over time. Once AIDS was a checklist of various abnormalities that clustered together, then we discovered the HIV virus and eventually treated even those who didn’t yet fit that definition. There are diseases we know the cause of, can diagnose with reasonable accuracy,…
What do you do when you have the the most expensive drug in the world and need to get it approved? Correct. You manipulate the data behind it. The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that Novartis submitted manipulated data as part of its application for a new gene therapy, and didn’t tell the agency until…
Remember when drug reps were everywhere? Well, we had some fun with them back in the Placebo Journal days. I actual empathize with drug reps because it can be a terrible job at times. I think my book Diary of a Drug Rep is very positive towards them. I also think it is really funny.…
This is getting beyond scary: Surescripts LLC, a provider of the technology widely used to route electronic prescriptions, accused Amazon’s mail-order pharmacy subsidiary PillPack of receiving patient data that it had fraudulently obtained through a third party. Looks like Amazon is doing whatever it can to break into the market but their competitors have too…
I’m writing this letter because I give a damn. About my patients. Since August of 2017, I have been a member of a patient/physician advocacy group, Physicians for Patient Protection(PPP). We formed in March 2016 out of concern for the number of patients we were seeing who had been grossly mismanaged by non-physician practitioners(NPPs) practicing…
We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle Tweet
You are not going to believe this but: Health insurance enrollment declined among people who do not qualify for financial help under ObamaCare as premiums rose to make coverage less affordable, new federal data shows. So, let me get this straight, we have a massive tax that is now voluntary. It is a redistribution of…
Recently, I wrote about bow Beaumont Health CEO John Fox’s compensation increased 82%, to more than $5.6 million, in 2017. Workers there are going crazy and starting to protest. Well, now there is more news. Two execs have just left and: Crain’s reported at least 175 employees have been given pink slips over the past…
Back in the Summer of ’99, I was excited and a little nervous to drive 5 hours down to Orlando to take my very first family medicine board exam, and I was really proud to get a passing score in the mail six weeks later. Seven years later, having left family medicine forever for the ER,…
If you haven’t heard, the newest buzz term is Value-Based Payment. It’s so hot right now, like Hansel from Zoolander. Of course, it is the same thing as pay-for-performance, quality metrics and on and on. They just change the name and make everyone change their practices. Here is what the newest fad will entail: As…