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New Zealand's opposition Labour Party and the Malaysian Medical Association …urged national negotiators to go slow on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, citing worries over the potential effect on drug costs… due to the veil of secrecy surrounding the negotiations, we remain uneasy about the potential outcome...

Electronic health records can increase a provider's malpractice exposure,… EHRs initially were envisioned to reduce medical errors, but surmises that hasn't yet occurred…EHRs are causing or contributing to malpractice problems… found to create new, unanticipated legal problems…are changing the nature of medical malpractice lawsuits.

• Computer glitches and design flaws, such as a restrictive drop down menu, which can cause medical errors
• The "transparency" of EHRs themselves, which makes it harder to hide mistakes or sloppy work habits
• The increased documentation requirements and resulting desire to use templates and other shortcuts, which can lead to discrepancies in the EHR
• The inability of EHRs to catch some errors, such as dosage mistakes

More than half of large employers in 2016 will aim to more tightly manage employees’ use of high-priced specialty drugs, one of the fastest-growing expenses in their health plans…companies still expect the cost of specialty drugs…continue rising at a double-digit annual rate — well ahead of the pace for traditional pharmacy drugs or companies’ overall spending on health benefits…

Mary Jo Goolsby, EdD, MSN, NP-C, FAANP, FAAN, owner of the Institute for NP Excellence, discusses what DOT medical examiners provide to retail pharmacies. (video)

Corporations are directly contracting with health-systems to provide higher-quality care to their employees at a lower cost…Boeing,.. has negotiated directly with local health-systems to offer more affordable health benefits to more employees...

Irish researchers say the young field of gut microbiota is a pharmaceutical and regulatory "dream" with clear targets… Gut microbial communities consist of hundreds of abundant bacteria species and perhaps thousands of molecules at physiologically relevant concentrations,…we want to harvest them to improve human health...

Food and Drug Administration says Kardashian's social media posts violate federal drug-promotion rules…they don't mention side effects of Diclegis, which include sleepiness that can make it dangerous to drive or perform other activities that require mental alertness…

FDA official accused of tipping companies off to 'unannounced inspections'… plant inspector has been charged with taking more than $150,000 in bribes to pass on info on upcoming pharmaceutical inspections to Chinese drugmakers…Taiwan's Agency Against Corruption has also swept up the inspector's wife and executives and owners of 8 drug companies believed to have made payoffs..

Google's life sciences team,…partnered with DexCom to develop small low-cost sensors to improve diabetes management….to build continuous glucose monitoring devices, incorporating Google's miniaturized electronics platform…enable them to use data…to improve outcomes and reduce the costs associated with diabetes care,..

..measles outbreak in the copper-mining Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 315 people and infected at least 20,000,…Hundreds more deaths have likely not been documented due to difficulties accessing remote areas,…province's worst outbreak of the disease since 2010….