Author: Peter

A father’s bid to keep his 20-year-old daughter on life-support at a Reno hospital after doctors declared her brain-dead is pending before a Nevada state court judge. Beyond the family attorney’s claim on Wednesday that the cost of caring for Aden Hailu (AY’-dehn HEHL’-oo) is driving hospital efforts to pull the plug, the case raises key questions about Nevada’s interpretation of national end-of-life guidelines.

• What’s the issue?
• What’s the Nevada law?
• What’s the Uniform Determination of Death Act?
• What did the Uniform Determination of Death Act do?
• How many states follow the act?
• What tests are recommended to determine brain death?
• Have there been cases similar to Hailu’s in other states?

Only half of small urban hospitals have two-factor authentication capability…Fewer than half of U.S. hospitals support an infrastructure capable of two-factor authentication, The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT reported…while 35 percent of critical access hospitals and 40 percent of small rural hospitals report the lowest levels of capability…Two-factor authentication requires users to give at least one other form of identification beyond username and password to get access to electronically protected information, such as a PIN and fingerprint or voice recognition…The process is a low-cost, effective way to meet HIPAA standards, but not enough hospitals have implemented it into their cybersecurity plans…cybersecurity experts assert reported levels of adoption are still drastically low, given the steady rise in healthcare data breaches and the increase in hackers targeting the healthcare industry…Some states are above the bar on establishing two-factor authentication. Ohio raked at the top with 93 percent adoption..Vermont, with 83 percent…Delaware, with 81 percent…On the other hand, Montana, with 19 percent, North Dakota, with 23 percent, and Maine, with 26 percent, saw the lowest percentages…

In California…the “Compassionate Use Act,” too many of us remained quiet about the claims being made by people attempting to promote marijuana for their own agendas…The public approved the use of marijuana for seriously ill Californians to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes, when recommended by a physician who has determined that the person’s health would benefit from the use of marijuana…There was no need for any placebo-controlled, randomized, FDA–approved study to be conducted — just the physician’s recommendation…The public has been duped by individuals whose main goal is to promote the legalization of marijuana… Keith Stoup, legal counsel for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, was quoted as saying, “We will use [medical marijuana] as a red herring, to give marijuana a good name.”…“in California, marijuana has been de facto legalized under the guise of medical marijuana.”…more than 23 states has approved marijuana for “medical” purposes, and four states and Washington, D.C., have allowed its recreational use, with taxation. To date, this social experiment has met with devastating consequences…Depending on when you graduated from pharmacy school, you pledged an oath. Whether you will abide by that oath to stay educated about pharmaceuticals and be a voice for appropriate drug use is up to you, but the public is relying on you to hold up your end of your oath.

A new poll…Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found significant skepticism about one of the drug industry’s most prevalent talking points. Almost two-thirds of Americans said they did not believe that Medicare negotiating with drug companies to lower prices would lead to fewer medicines being developed. And a majority — 55 percent — believes that even outright price controls wouldn’t slow the flow of new drugs…but the findings suggest that Americans reject a key counterargument the industry makes whenever the specter of government action on drug costs comes up: The current system, while imperfect, allows drug companies to create breakthrough lifesaving medications. They warn that any major changes, particularly more government involvement, could hamper that… poll points to several reasons underlying the public’s attitude…

The New York Times’ editorial board is right when it notes that direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising helps “educate and inform patients about drugs their doctors might not mention, encourage discussions between doctors and patients, and can help patients take more responsibility for their own health care.”.. DTC advertising is designed to provide scientifically-accurate information to patients so that they are better informed about their health care and treatment options – and there is never any requirement or obligation for physicians to prescribe a particular medication…Beyond increasing patient awareness of disease (including undiagnosed conditions) and available treatments, DTC advertising has been found to increase awareness of the benefits and risks of new medicines and encourage appropriate use of medicines. In addition, such advertising encourages patients to visit their doctors’ offices for important doctor-patient conversations about health that might otherwise not take place.

Eli Lilly's plan to close a Swiss laboratory that conducts tests and experiments on live animals has caused concerns by a local animal welfare group over the fate of the facility's hundreds of dogs, cats and livestock…company said…it was working to secure new owners for many of the animals as its Elanco animal health company may shut the research center in the Swiss town of Saint-Aubin…Julika Fitzi, a veterinarian and lawyer who works with the group Swiss Animal Protection, worries many may be killed…the laboratory houses about 350 dogs, 170 cats, 280 sheep, cattle and pigs and about 200 mice, figures that Eli Lilly didn't confirm…The expected closure comes as Eli Lilly looks to concentrate some of its Swiss research activities in Basel following its acquisition of the animal health business of Novartis earlier this year…Elanco's spokeswoman…said on Thursday the company will make a final decision on the Saint-Aubin research site later this month…if it is closed the company's primary plan for so-called "companion animals" such as cats and dogs would be "transfer of ownership to other facilities and employee pet owners."

Drug Store News recently had an opportunity to sit down with Alissa Hsu Lynch, VP sales strategy, operations and global capabilities at Johnson & Johnson Consumer to discuss how J&J is optimizing its health-and-wellness position in retail. Hsu Lynch leads the strategic development of key retail initiatives across J&J's $6 billion portfolio of consumer brands…

• How is J&J delivering value within the health-and-wellness space to its retailer customers?
• What core consumer segments do you see as key to your health-and-wellness strategy?
• How is the Affordable Care Act affecting your growth plans?
• How is technology changing the way you engage with patients and consumers?
• How are you aligning your company’s assets to match the go-to market strategy of large integrated retail healthcare providers?
• What key insight do you want your retail partners to know about the future of health care?

New residency programs to train doctors in Southern Nevada will be launched at four hospitals, Valley Health System officials announced Thursday…The programs at Centennial Hills, Desert Springs, Spring Valley and Summerlin hospitals include emergency medicine, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedic surgery, psychiatry and the transitional year for residents preparing to enter a medical or surgical specialty…Coordinating the programs will be Dr. Andrew Eisen...has been named chief academic officer for the Valley Health System…The number of residency slots created by the eight programs has yet to be determined, but officials plan to have residents in family medicine, internal medicine and general surgery in place by July 1, 2017.

The planned merger of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer with competitor Allergan, aimed in large part at cutting the combined company's tax bill, illustrates a troubling trend in the industry: Firms are focused more on pursuing near-term profits than on the difficult, longer-term research needed to develop truly groundbreaking new drugs. This is unfortunate, because disease may be making a comeback…the accelerating spread of multi-drug-resistant bacterial infections. There are now more than two million cases each year in the U.S. alone. Last month, scientists announced that they had found evidence, in farm animals in China, that genes for antibiotic resistance are being transferred directly among different bacteria -- a trick (horizontal gene transfer) that will allow the resistance to spread more quickly than ever before…The pharmaceutical industry's reshaping doesn’t bode well for humanity's ability to respond. Almost all antibiotics in use today were discovered between 1940 and 1960. Research progress since then has been almost nil.

New numbers show Nevadans have been slow to jump into the state's health insurance exchange…Department of Health and Human Services reported Wednesday that 23,248 Nevadans bought coverage through Nevada Health Link in the first month of open enrollment, from Nov. 1 through Saturday…That's roughly half of the 40,285 residents who bought a plan through the exchange in the first month of sign-ups a year ago…Federal officials said enrollment should pick up as the Dec. 15 deadline nears to buy a plan with a Jan. 1 start date...Consumers without coverage in place by then face a federal tax for going without health insurance.