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7213. robertjayb - 1/9/2008 9:34:41 PM U.S. dead last in health survey...(AFP)
WASHINGTON (AFP) - France is tops, and the United States dead last, in providing timely and effective healthcare to its citizens, according to a survey Tuesday of preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries.
.................................................
....researchers found that while most countries surveyed saw preventable deaths decline by an average of 16 percent, the United States saw only a four percent dip.
The non-profit Commonwealth Fund, which financed the study, expressed alarm at the findings.
"It is startling to see the US falling even farther behind on this crucial indicator of health system performance," said Commonwealth Fund Senior Vice President Cathy Schoen, who noted that "other countries are reducing these preventable deaths more rapidly, yet spending far less."
The 19 countries, in order of best to worst, were: France, Japan, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Sure glad we don't have that bad old socialized medicine...
7214. wonkers2 - 1/9/2008 10:12:58 PM Thanks, RJB, I sent the article to my brother-in-law who works in Big Pharma. 7215. robertjayb - 1/9/2008 11:20:38 PM Reversal of Alzheimer's symptoms claimed...
ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2008) — An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer’s disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.
7216. judithathome - 1/10/2008 12:36:24 AM And how long before it's used on the general public? Probably not before I'm past help..... 7217. wonkers2 - 1/10/2008 12:56:00 AM Wow! That could be dynamite! 7218. thoughtful - 1/10/2008 7:48:57 PM Very exciting for those suffering with alzheimers, and especially for their care givers. Also very exciting in that the drug is already in the market place and is sold.
Unfortunately though, not all dementia is caused by alzheimers. Would not have helped my MIL, for example, who had plain old hardening of the arteries as we used to call it. 7219. robertjayb - 1/10/2008 11:45:28 PM Big Pharma Front Group Launches Anonymous Blog To Publish An ‘Enemies List’
Washington DC Councilmember David Catania has been pushing a bill to require the licensing of pharmaceutical representatives and to prohibit them from providing knowingly false information to doctors. Many pharmaceutical sales reps try to “influence doctors’ prescribing decisions in ways that have little to do with the best interest of the patient” by resorting to “questionable methods, including providing gifts and meals to doctors” in order to promote their drugs.
Advocates of the pharmaceutical industry responded by launching an anonymous blog site devoted to defending the industry’s practices. The site — BigPharmaRealPeople — “grabbed attention with an enemies list” which included Catania, whom it called “public enemy #1.”
The site’s editors had refused to disclose their names and instead adopted the identities from characters in Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged. Recently, a poster named “John Galt” revealed himself to be Scott McTavish, a sales rep, sales manager and director for three Big Pharma Companies over the past 30 years. Blogging over at Pharmalot, Ed Silverman challenges the front group to disclose its sponsorship and backing:
One other thing, Scott. Since you chose not to answer any of our messages directly, we are still curious to know more about your background and those of your ’staff.’ We would also like to know what, if any, sponsorship or backing you may have. If you really do enjoy an open debate about all the facts, more disclosure would be helpful - unless your site is merely an example of astroturfing dressed up as a social networking experiment.
The avowed mission of the Big Pharma front group’s website is to “remind the American public who is actually on their side” and to “fight ridiculous government rules and regulation that hamper Big Pharma.” The site’s authors write:
The purpose of BigPharmaRealPeople.org is the following: … To point out that corporations are not faceless, evil giants that take advantage of the individual.
The Washington City Paper responds, “Have to say, guys — this anonymous Web site isn’t doing much to combat that whole ‘faceless’ thing.” And the site isn’t having much success thus far. Catania’s bill passed the D.C. City Council on Tuesday.
(Think Progress) 7220. wabbit - 1/11/2008 12:11:37 AM Message # 7215 - That's good news about Enbrel. I've been using it for 5-6 years now, though my injections are subcutaneous, not perispinal. Maybe the price will start to come down if they continue to find other uses for the drug. Right now it runs about $1700/month (for four injections). 7221. arkymalarky - 1/11/2008 12:57:19 AM Damn. 7222. wonkers2 - 1/11/2008 2:02:59 AM Wow, bottled gold. 7223. robertjayb - 1/11/2008 7:28:57 PM Saliva test for breast cancer...(HouChron)
Houston researchers are developing a test to diagnose breast cancer from saliva, an advance that eventually should enable dentists and physicians to alert patients during routine office visits.
In a study published Thursday, a team at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, led by a dentist, reported that specific protein markers in saliva can easily identify people with breast cancer cells, benign tumor cells and healthy cells.
"This will be a noninvasive, quick means of detection," said Dr. Charles Streckfus, a UT-Houston Dental Branch professor of diagnostic sciences who has expertise in molecular epidemiology and salivary function. "With it, dentists will be able to catch cancers before a woman can feel a lump."
7224. robertjayb - 1/11/2008 7:58:30 PM A Chronicle reader comments on the breast cancer saliva test...
The work has already been done and published by researchers at UCLA under Dr. David Wong. It has been in the news for at least five years since they first mapped the proteins and RNA to find squamous cell carcinoma, (oral cancer) and later to find breast cancer, diabetes, and now they are looking at Alsheimer's. If find it disturbing that theses doctors in their press releases (appearing all over the US today) are making it sound like they are the ones that made a break through. The NIH via the NIDCR has thrown about 60 million dollars at this technology and idea. Most of the money has gone to the UCLA/Wong team. This is the worst part of the publish or perish behavior...GRANDSTANDING by researchers or doctors on data that only replicates something that has already been done. More than that, if something is going to get commercialized it will be the longer term, bigger studies, work out of UCLA. These guys have done nothing more than validate again what already is known. Anyone who doubts this post should just do a Goggle fo salivary diagnostics, UCLAS, and Wong.
What they haven't explained is the epiphany that took Wong to this place. How do breast cancer markers end up in saliva? The parotid glands which produce about 85% of all your saliva are fed by thousands of capillaries carrying blood. The liquid part of that blood, the serum in absorbed by the Parotids that add enzymes and turn it into saliva. But the biomarkers that were in blood in the first place are not filtered out and exist intact in the saliva. You can't find these easily in blood because of all the other detritus that is circulating around in it, cells, etc. Wong is the guy with that insight.
This is likely the best candidate assay system for mass screening using a simple, non labor intensive, programmed computer chip to look for the markers ever. We will be able by just spitting into a test tube determine much about our systemic health. The real work now is to map as many disease biomarkers as possible to find if other disease can also be found in saliva.
1/11/2008 10:30 AM CST
7225. wonkers2 - 1/11/2008 8:10:59 PM Cap'n Dirty sez, "I've been applyin' the breast saliva test fer years with hardly a positive result!" 7226. robertjayb - 1/11/2008 8:45:17 PM Don't give up... 7227. judithathome - 1/11/2008 9:44:40 PM Oh my god...just heard from my broker that he has gone blind in one eye and is developing a cataract on the other! 7228. wonkers2 - 1/11/2008 9:53:46 PM A lot of Wall Streeters apparently are blind in one eye and can't see out of the other, as my grandfather used to say. 7229. thoughtful - 1/11/2008 10:22:46 PM I've decided I'm insane.
Is it just me, or does everyone find themselves obsessing over the slightest incident of which you're sure was totally meaningless and is completely forgotten by the other person and yet seems to dwell inexorably on your mind?
And if so, how does one go about extricating oneself from it.
I remember reading a hint one time about getting a song stuck in one's head...the way to eliminate it is to play the song in your mind all the way through to the end and wrapping it up with a most elaborate and flourishing ending. I've found that to work swimmingly. 7230. judithathome - 1/11/2008 11:27:03 PM Is it just me, or does everyone find themselves obsessing over the slightest incident of which you're sure was totally meaningless and is completely forgotten by the other person and yet seems to dwell inexorably on your mind?
I used to do this and invent all sorts of reactions from the other person until one day, I confronted an old boyfriend about what he MUST be thinking about some insignificant thing that was said and he MUST have interpreted it this certain way. He looked at me as though I were insane and said "Never in a million years would I have thought that...it just never would have occurred to me to think something like that!" and I realized my mind worked on a much more complex plane that did his...
So I started to apply this to everything and I'm a much more relaxed person today as a result of this particular enlightenment.
7231. alistairConnor - 1/11/2008 11:34:27 PM Yeah just enjoy your superiority... I'm of the oblivious persuasion. 7232. arkymalarky - 1/12/2008 12:00:04 AM I sometimes do that, Thoughtful, partly because I'm such a mouth. Before Christmas I was getting ready for the kids' finals, seeing who was missing what work, talking to kids individually, etc, in a fairly large class. I looked up and there was my principal at the back of the room. I had no idea how long she'd been there. I wasn't worried about kids all over the place or what was going on--all I could think about was what I'd been saying, and I couldn't remember. I'm always making remarke that have a little bite to them in ways that invoke the things the principal says. I like her, but it's just my way. So as soon as she left I asked the kids what I said, and they told me I didn't say anything or imitate her or anything mortifying. I still worry about it a bit and wonder if she's acting the same way with me.
One of my good friends at work thought this was hilarious, because I always make fun of her over how jumpy she is about the principal. I'm not jumpy about her, but that doesn't mean I feel good about making snarky humor echoing stuff she always says when she's sitting right there.
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