In a report, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) is calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review the safety and effectiveness of opioid painkillers. The panel of experts says monumental changes are needed to the way in which physicians treat pain, their patients cope with pain, and government and private insurers support individuals’ treatment for chronic pain. [1]
You shouldn’t take one doctor’s word for it when they diagnosis an illness, as 88% of patients who seek a second opinion receive a new or revised diagnosis. Another 21% of patients receive a “distinctly different” diagnosis, meaning the first doctor’s diagnosis wasn’t even in the ballpark, a recent study says. [1]
Doctors at teaching hospitals are more likely to prescribe generic drugs over name-brand ones when pharmaceutical sales representatives are kept at bay, a study published in JAMA shows. [1]
By comparison, doctors working in hospitals that don’t keep pharma sales reps on a short leash – freely accepting meals and gifts, and letting reps have free reign of the hospital – prescribed far more name-brand medications.
The World Medical Association (WMA), the top medical-ethics body, has appointed Dr. Ketan Desai, an Indian doctor facing corruption charges, as its president.
The France-based association sets ethical standards for physicians worldwide and represents millions of doctors. Its members include the American Medical Association (AMA) and the British Medical Association (BMA).
In his speech, Desai warned against “unqualified people indulging in professional medical practice causing endless harm to society.” [2]
Medical marijuana is legal in about half of the United States, and the DEA missed its chance to legalize it on the national level when it passed on rescheduling marijuana this past summer. But in Canada, doctors have been given the green light to prescribe heroin to severely addicted patients.
Are we living in a parallel universe or something?
Insys Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company that sells fentanyl, an opioid painkiller 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin, is fighting pot legalization in Arizona with the most powerful weapon in business and politics: money. [1]
There’s a vicious presidential campaign going on, while Americans play tug-o-war over transgender bathrooms and other social issues. So maybe you haven’t heard that our antibiotics are failing, and we need to do something about it if we’re to beat future disease.
Source: Nova
An increasing number of doctors believe marijuana should be legalized.
An increasing number of doctors are fed up with their careers and looking to take their medical expertise elsewhere. The misery is becoming so widespread that physicians have created a place to come together to talk shop and look for other work: the Drop Out Club.
