MajorHealth News - Physicians

Few Industries Immune From Widespread Layoffs

Few Industries Immune From Widespread Layoffs
Recessions can be notoriously uneven. They can wreak havoc with the livelihood of factory workers but not that of bank tellers or nurses. Whole industries can see jobs washed away forever, while others hum along and even grow.

Cancer Drug Costs May Help Doctors Select a Treatment

Oncologists will soon be adding “financial counselor” to their job description. With an increasing number of cancer patients suffering economic hardships as a side effect of expensive therapy, most oncologists are finding that cost needs to be considered as part of treatment options. Leading cancer organizations are now working on incorporating cost into treatment guidelines and other materials. The change, which departs from the current American medical ethos, is fraught with thorny questions not only for cancer doctors and patients but also for the health care system at large.

The U.S. spends about $200 billion annually on cancer care; many new drugs cost several thousand dollars monthly. For patients, co-payments represent the most severe sappers of bank accounts. Increasingly, insurers are holding patients accountable for up to 20 percent of the prescription price. Covered drugs being used off-label (for an indication not formally approved but still medically appropriate) can carry co-pays of up to 30 percent.

[More]

Cancer Drug Costs May Help Doctors Select a Treatment

Cancer Drug Costs May Help Doctors Select a Treatment

Oncologists will soon be adding “financial counselor” to their job description. With an increasing number of cancer patients suffering economic hardships as a side effect of expensive therapy, most oncologists are finding that cost needs to be considered as part of treatment options. Leading cancer organizations are now working on incorporating cost into treatment guidelines and other materials. The change, which departs from the current American medical ethos, is fraught with thorny questions not only for cancer doctors and patients but also for the health care system at large.

The U.S. spends about $200 billion annually on cancer care; many new drugs cost several thousand dollars monthly. For patients, co-payments represent the most severe sappers of bank accounts. Increasingly, insurers are holding patients accountable for up to 20 percent of the prescription price. Covered drugs being used off-label (for an indication not formally approved but still medically appropriate) can carry co-pays of up to 30 percent.

[More]

Few Industries Immune From Widespread Layoffs

Few Industries Immune From Widespread Layoffs
Recessions can be notoriously uneven. They can wreak havoc with the livelihood of factory workers but not that of bank tellers or nurses. Whole industries can see jobs washed away forever, while others hum along and even grow.

A Report from the Russian Front in the Global Fight against Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

TOMSK, RUSSIA–Misha K.–ex-con, ex-drug abuser, family man–arrived promptly at 4 P.M. for his daily dose of antibiotics. He is fighting his second bout with tuberculosis (TB), both times caught while serving a four-year prison term in this small city at the edge of Siberia. His crime: petty thievery to support his drug habit.

The first time, prison doctors put him on a nine-month regimen of antibiotics, a standard prescription for routine cases of so-called susceptible TB. The susceptibility label is something of a misnomer. When streptomycin was discovered in the 1940s, the miracle drug was hailed as the magic bullet that cured TB. But the wily Mycobacterium tuberculosis quickly developed resistance. Now it takes four drugs to cure "susceptible" TB.

[More]

Few Industries Immune From Widespread Layoffs

Few Industries Immune From Widespread Layoffs
Recessions can be notoriously uneven. They can wreak havoc with the livelihood of factory workers but not that of bank tellers or nurses. Whole industries can see jobs washed away forever, while others hum along and even grow.

Cancer Drug Costs May Help Doctors Select a Treatment

Oncologists will soon be adding “financial counselor” to their job description. With an increasing number of cancer patients suffering economic hardships as a side effect of expensive therapy, most oncologists are finding that cost needs to be considered as part of treatment options. Leading cancer organizations are now working on incorporating cost into treatment guidelines and other materials. The change, which departs from the current American medical ethos, is fraught with thorny questions not only for cancer doctors and patients but also for the health care system at large.

The U.S. spends about $200 billion annually on cancer care; many new drugs cost several thousand dollars monthly. For patients, co-payments represent the most severe sappers of bank accounts. Increasingly, insurers are holding patients accountable for up to 20 percent of the prescription price. Covered drugs being used off-label (for an indication not formally approved but still medically appropriate) can carry co-pays of up to 30 percent.

[More]

A Report from the Russian Front in the Global Fight against Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

TOMSK, RUSSIA–Misha K.–ex-con, ex-drug abuser, family man–arrived promptly at 4 P.M. for his daily dose of antibiotics. He is fighting his second bout with tuberculosis (TB), both times caught while serving a four-year prison term in this small city at the edge of Siberia. His crime: petty thievery to support his drug habit.

The first time, prison doctors put him on a nine-month regimen of antibiotics, a standard prescription for routine cases of so-called susceptible TB. The susceptibility label is something of a misnomer. When streptomycin was discovered in the 1940s, the miracle drug was hailed as the magic bullet that cured TB. But the wily Mycobacterium tuberculosis quickly developed resistance. Now it takes four drugs to cure "susceptible" TB.

[More]

Few Industries Immune From Widespread Layoffs

Few Industries Immune From Widespread Layoffs
Recessions can be notoriously uneven. They can wreak havoc with the livelihood of factory workers but not that of bank tellers or nurses. Whole industries can see jobs washed away forever, while others hum along and even grow.

Cancer Drug Costs May Help Doctors Select a Treatment

Oncologists will soon be adding “financial counselor” to their job description. With an increasing number of cancer patients suffering economic hardships as a side effect of expensive therapy, most oncologists are finding that cost needs to be considered as part of treatment options. Leading cancer organizations are now working on incorporating cost into treatment guidelines and other materials. The change, which departs from the current American medical ethos, is fraught with thorny questions not only for cancer doctors and patients but also for the health care system at large.

The U.S. spends about $200 billion annually on cancer care; many new drugs cost several thousand dollars monthly. For patients, co-payments represent the most severe sappers of bank accounts. Increasingly, insurers are holding patients accountable for up to 20 percent of the prescription price. Covered drugs being used off-label (for an indication not formally approved but still medically appropriate) can carry co-pays of up to 30 percent.

[More]

A Report from the Russian Front in the Global Fight against Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

A Report from the Russian Front in the Global Fight against Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

TOMSK, RUSSIA–Misha K.–ex-con, ex-drug abuser, family man–arrived promptly at 4 P.M. for his daily dose of antibiotics. He is fighting his second bout with tuberculosis (TB), both times caught while serving a four-year prison term in this small city at the edge of Siberia. His crime: petty thievery to support his drug habit.

The first time, prison doctors put him on a nine-month regimen of antibiotics, a standard prescription for routine cases of so-called susceptible TB. The susceptibility label is something of a misnomer. When streptomycin was discovered in the 1940s, the miracle drug was hailed as the magic bullet that cured TB. But the wily Mycobacterium tuberculosis quickly developed resistance. Now it takes four drugs to cure "susceptible" TB.

[More]

Few Industries Immune From Widespread Layoffs
Recessions can be notoriously uneven. They can wreak havoc with the livelihood of factory workers but not that of bank tellers or nurses. Whole industries can see jobs washed away forever, while others hum along and even grow.

Cancer Drug Costs May Help Doctors Select a Treatment

Cancer Drug Costs May Help Doctors Select a Treatment

Oncologists will soon be adding “financial counselor” to their job description. With an increasing number of cancer patients suffering economic hardships as a side effect of expensive therapy, most oncologists are finding that cost needs to be considered as part of treatment options. Leading cancer organizations are now working on incorporating cost into treatment guidelines and other materials. The change, which departs from the current American medical ethos, is fraught with thorny questions not only for cancer doctors and patients but also for the health care system at large.

The U.S. spends about $200 billion annually on cancer care; many new drugs cost several thousand dollars monthly. For patients, co-payments represent the most severe sappers of bank accounts. Increasingly, insurers are holding patients accountable for up to 20 percent of the prescription price. Covered drugs being used off-label (for an indication not formally approved but still medically appropriate) can carry co-pays of up to 30 percent.

[More]

Humanitarian Crises Rampant In Africa

Humanitarian Crises Rampant In Africa
Spiraling violence in Somalia, forced civilian displacements in eastern Congo, and neglected medical emergencies in Myanmar and Zimbabwe were among the Top 10 humanitarian crises of 2008, according to a list released by Doctors Without Borders.

Some cough medicine overdoses deliberate: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some children showing up in emergency rooms with overdoses of cough or cold syrup may have been intentionally medicated to keep them quiet, doctors cautioned on Thursday.

Handsome Doctors in the Operating Room

Handsome Doctors in the Operating Room
Title: Handsome Doctors in the Operating Room
Category: Health News
Created: 12/22/2006
Last Editorial Review: 12/22/2006

Handsome Doctors in the Operating Room

Handsome Doctors in the Operating Room
Title: Handsome Doctors in the Operating Room
Category: Health News
Created: 12/22/2006
Last Editorial Review: 12/22/2006

A Report from the Russian Front in the Global Fight against Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

TOMSK, RUSSIA–Misha K.–ex-con, ex-drug abuser, family man–arrived promptly at 4 P.M. for his daily dose of antibiotics. He is fighting his second bout with tuberculosis (TB), both times caught while serving a four-year prison term in this small city at the edge of Siberia. His crime: petty thievery to support his drug habit.

The first time, prison doctors put him on a nine-month regimen of antibiotics, a standard prescription for routine cases of so-called susceptible TB. The susceptibility label is something of a misnomer. When streptomycin was discovered in the 1940s, the miracle drug was hailed as the magic bullet that cured TB. But the wily Mycobacterium tuberculosis quickly developed resistance. Now it takes four drugs to cure "susceptible" TB.

[More]