Category:

Laura Joszt, assistant managing editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

The nation's opioid crisis is forcing hospitals to begin rolling out non-addictive alternatives to treatments that have long been the mainstay for the severe pain of trauma and surgery, so they don't save patients' lives or limbs only to have them fall under the grip of addiction...Doctors and hospitals around the country are searching for ways to relieve extreme pain while at the same time sharply limiting what was long considered their most effective tool. It's a critical part of the effort to overcome the worst addiction crisis in U.S. history...The new approach: Mixing a variety of different medications, along with techniques like nerve blocks, spinal anesthesia and numbing lidocaine, to attack pain from multiple directions, rather than depending solely on opioids to dampen brain signals that scream "ouch." It's known by the wonky name "multimodal analgesia."...Without the opioid side effects of nausea, vomiting and constipation, patients may find it easier to start eating solid food and walking around hours after surgery...

Policies that limit or regulate interactions between doctors and pharmaceutical company representatives may affect what drugs are prescribed to patients, according to a new study...Drugs promoted by pharmaceutical representatives - known as detailed drugs - lost market share after hospitals enacted such policies, while drugs that weren't detailed gained market share...the findings suggest institutions and organizations can play a role in relationships between doctors and the drug industry..."Detailing" visits from drug representatives are one way to educate doctors about new drugs and treatments they would need to learn of elsewhere...those visits are linked to increased use of brand name and costly drugs even when less expensive generic treatments are available...The million dollar question is whether drug detailing and restrictions on detailing are affecting patient outcomes...

The morning-after pill is being sold in a vending machine at the University of California, Davis and many people support this type of availability...Along with condoms and pregnancy tests, the Wellness-To-Go Machine in a study lounge also dispenses the Plan B pill for $30 a box…It took economics major Parteek Singh nearly two years to get the vending machine into the lounge... Singh is getting calls from student across the country who want the same type of vending machine. "I want to see this on every college campus,"...

Mary Bridgeman, Clinical Associate Professor at Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network.

Laura Joszt, assistant managing editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Laura Joszt, assistant managing editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.