It is finally beginning to take place, looking to see where there are possible duplicated efforts as well as trying to determine whether perhaps a device or a drug is the best answer for certain treatments and of course, cost is right in there.  One good example in the text below is the treatment for prostate cancer, with one treatment being 4 times the amount of another.  At this point, the question arises too, is the more expensive treatment the better choice as far as the cure and treatment?  We may not know the ultimate answer for a while and there will be other emerging technologies no doubt as well.

What is also interesting too is the comparison of aspirin to Plavix by one insurer, stating Plavix is only slightly more effective than aspirin?  Yikes, we need more numbers I think to see if that is in fact true, especially since Plavix was the 2nd most expensive item under Part D.  That is almost scary if in fact it would turn out to be true as the numbers between cost on the 2 items is huge. 

Biotech is not left out either, with some hospitals saying they can use low tech to fight the spread of MRSA better, but that could also be tweaked a bit as hospitals are all on such tight budgets and can’t afford a lot more.  BD 

Desperate Hospitals – May 2009

TWO GOVERNMENT REPORTS TUESDAY OFFERED early hints of the potential industry impact of a $1.1 billion federal program to compare the medical benefit and cost-effectiveness of surgeries, medicines and medical devices. The reports -- by the Institute of Medicine and the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research -- suggest priorities for spending $700 million of the research program's funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Neither report identifies particular products or companies for scrutiny, but many suggested studies clearly would zero in on money-makers from identifiable companies. At the top of the Institute of Medicine's list (at http://www.iom.edu) is the comparison of heart-arrhythmia drugs with device-based treatments marketed by Medtronic (MDT) and St. Jude Medical (STJ). Surprisingly high among research priorities is the need to examine "balance training" services that home-health-care outfits such as Amedisys (AMED) promote for the prevention of injurious falls by older adults. Such programs have been a fast-growing source of profits in the home-health business.

Another top priority is examining the use of pricey biologics for fighting auto-immune diseases such as arthritis and ulcerative colitis. Those biotech treatments include Humira from Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Remicade from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Orencia from Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY). Not far behind on the research program can be spotted the expensive tests for antibiotic-resistant staph germs, now sold by Cepheid (CPHD) and Becton, Dickinson (BDX). Many hospitals have said they can better contain resistant germs by paying careful attention to low-tech anti-infection practices.

The Institute of Medicine experts also urge a comparison of conventional prostate-cancer surgery with surgery that uses the $1.3 million robot from Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) or treatment with radiation.  Health insurers complained further that proton-beam treatment for prostate cancer, as sold by Varian Medical Systems (VAR), costs four times as much as radioactive-seed implants, with little evidence for its comparative superiority.

Health insurers decried the overprescribing of the anti-clotting drug Plavix from Bristol-Myers, for preventing the recurrence of a stroke. Plavix costs $1,500 per year, noted one health-insurance trade group, but is only slightly more effective than $15-a-year aspirin. Medicare data for 2007 showed Plavix was the government's second-largest expenditure under the Part D drug benefit, after Pfizer's cholesterol drug Lipitor.

Marshalling Evidence for What Makes Sense in Health Care - Barrons.com

Technorati Tags: Obama Healthcare,healthcare,medical devices,drugs,pharma,treatment,cancer,heart illness,hospitals,biotech

After having read a few articles, what I find interesting here is the fact that several of them relate to the fact that doctors use electronic medical records, well maybe, but they seem to rely on the fact that Michael Jackson’s medical history will inherently be found in one of them, do you think? I would almost bet not in this case and think that even if they were a practice using electronic records, an old paper chart might be around for high profile patients, at the physician’s office.  Obviously the hospitals in the area are all on electronic record systems, but perhaps not the treating doctors at their offices.  Here’s one article from TMZ that makes the point about records being electronic. 

On the prescription side of things, there are more doctors using e-prescribing, but the DEA still wants paper.  Physicians who do use e-prescribing have complained about it too, everything else is electronic, but when it’s time for a controlled substance, they have to drop the computer and pick up a pen and pad. 

American Hospital Association urges DEA to pilot test proposed e-prescribing rule

Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances - Are we getting any closer?

Anyway, if controlled substances were e-prescribed it could help with investigations as such, with readily identifying the physician instead of using the DEA tracking number to find the doctor and it would give a secondary audit trail in case one failed.  I just think it would tend to make it a bit more difficult to create those prescriptions on controlled substances, but the DEA has not come to a conclusion yet.  Would it have made the drugs a little more difficult to get, possibly?  We will all be waiting to see what the reports state as the actual cause of death is for sure.  BD 

Investigators are focusing on at least five doctors who prescribed drugs to Michael Jackson as they try to unravel the circumstances surrounding the pop star's death, according to law enforcement sources.
Authorities removed drugs and other medical evidence from the Holmby Hills mansion where Jackson was stricken and are trying to determine whether the medications were properly prescribed and whether they played any role in his death.

One of the most significant clues so far is the discovery of what one source described as "numerous bottles" of the powerful sedative Diprivan( Generic Name: Propofol) at the home. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it is an ongoing investigation, said some of the bottles were full and others were empty. None had prescription labels, and investigators are trying to determine how Jackson got the drugs.
Diprivan is an extremely potent drug that is supposed to be dispensed by a person trained to administer anesthesia, such as an anesthesiologist or a certified registered nurse anesthetist, and it is typically used in hospitals. Experts expressed alarm that it would be used at a private home.

But medical experts said Diprivan should never be used for insomnia. John F. Dombrowski of Baltimore, a member of the American  Society of Anesthesiologists, said that in a hospital setting, he has EKG equipment, a blood pressure cuff and a blood-oxygen monitor in order to watch a patient's status. Also on hand in a hospital is supplemental oxygen, he said.
"But unless you have a trained physician to rescue that patient, all of the monitors in the world mean nothing. Machines are great, but this is where you need the skill set of a physician."

Investigators focus on five Jackson doctors - Los Angeles Times

Technorati Tags: Michael Jackson,drug abuse,Diprivan,Propofol,drugs,pharma,DEA,investigation,deaths,side effects,medical records

For Oncologists, this stands to represent a big help in the chemotherapy area as the cost of maintaining the expensive drugs has been a rising cost over the last few years.  The proposed changes are not due until the year 2010.  Radiologists will be looking at a 30% reduction with the proposed adjustment and cardiologist around an 11% cut with left heart catheterizations, transthoracic echocardiograms, and EKG payments being reduced.  I just posted about a hand held ECG device and perhaps devices as such might be having an impact too on the compensation.

Hand Held Electrocardiogram (ECG) Device – Add 2 Drops to the Device and Send the Information to the Cardiologist or Physician (No paper required)

AMA Now Says Government Funded Insurance Would be OK – CMS Proposes 21.5% Medicare Physician Pay Cut

"Welcome to Medicare" visits are something new that is added for a higher reimbursement for primary care physicians as well as changes to the consultation fees and codes with "evaluation and management" being selected that pays at a lesser rate which may result in lesser pay for specialists.  CMS is accepting comments on the new rules until the end of August and the final ruling is expected by November 1st.  BD

WASHINGTON, July 2 -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced proposed changes that will increase Medicare payments for primary care physicians by an estimated 6% to 8%.

Changes include refining the definition of practice expenses, eliminating payment for consultation codes, and revising treatment of malpractice premiums, as well as adjustments to the physician fee schedule (PFS), according to a CMS press release.

One of the biggest changes would remove physician-administered drugs, such as chemotherapy agents, from the "physician services" category used under the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.

Doctors have long lobbied CMS to put the drugs under Medicare's Part D drug benefit, rather than keeping them in Part B, the section of Medicare that determines how much physicians are paid.

CMS has finally agreed.

CMS will accept comment on the new rules until Aug. 31 and will issue a final rule by Nov. 1. The new payment rules will apply to physician services provided after Jan. 1, 2010.

Medical News: CMS Announces New Payment Rules that Benefit Primary Care Docs - in Public Health & Policy, Medicare from MedPage Today

Technorati Tags: Medicare,coding,consultation,Welcome to Medicare,cardiology,imaging,radiology,primary care,specialists,compensation,CMS,payments

This is an area where I didn’t realize we had this potential, although it is tricky and still work in progress.  The comments in the article state that the procedure needs to be 2 parts as the hormones that produce the eggs also have to function.  A new technique has been developed to freeze the ovaries without the loss of very many eggs, which has also been an issue with older technologies.  These procedures are and have been performed at Yale University.  BD

AP) -- Two new techniques to preserve and transplant ovaries might give women a better chance to fight their biological clocks and have children when they are older, doctors announced Monday.

Women in their 20s or 30s could theoretically have an ovary removed and frozen, and then have it reimplanted years later when they are ready to have children.

"We are in the middle of an infertility epidemic," said Dr. Sherman Silber, director of the St. Louis Infertility Center in Missouri, one of the experts behind the research. "With these new techniques, we could dramatically expand our reproductive lifespan."

Silber and colleagues studied how many eggs were lost or preserved in fresh and frozen ovarian tissue of 15 young women before they had cancer treatment. The doctors found no difference in the number of eggs in fresh tissue and in ovaries frozen using a new ultra-fast technique.

Using the traditional, slow-freezing methods of preserving ovaries, about half of a woman's eggs were lost.

Doctors say more ovary transplants possible

Technorati Tags: transplants,ovaries,healthcare,technology,surgery,cancer,frozen solutions,doctors,infertility

This is another one of those scary stories with a worker who took the injections herself instead of giving the medication to the patient, then filled the syringe with saline for the patient.  The problem is the syringes were not sterilized and she had hepatitis C from an old drug habit.  It appears that over 5,000 patients were potentially exposed.  She is no longer employed and is in custody. 

The hospital hired her even though they knew she had hepatitis and had provided counseling on how to limit her exposure to patients, which in this case didn’t work and now she faces a number of charges, especially if anyone dies from being exposed.  You hate to see big brother type of monitoring grow, but sometimes it might prove beneficial, like perhaps in the operating room where she was found and did not have permission to be.  So far, nine patients have tested positive.  BD 

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- A former hospital employee may have exposed hundreds, or even thousands, of surgical patients to hepatitis C after taking their fentanyl injections and replacing them with used syringes filled with saline solution, authorities say.

Kristen Diane Parker, who worked at Rose Medical Center in Denver, has admitted to secretly injecting herself in a bathroom and using unclean syringes as replacements for patients, investigators say.

She had hepatitis C, which she believes she contracted through using heroin and sharing dirty needles while she lived in New Jersey in 2008, authorities say.

Nine patients who had surgery there during that time have tested positive for hepatitis C. Investigators are looking into whether they contracted the virus from Parker.

Parker quit after she was found in an operating room where she was not allowed to be. She subsequently tested positive for fentanyl. Hospital officials then contacted the DEA.

Hospital worker may have exposed patients to hepatitis - CNN.com

Technorati Tags: Hepatitis C,healthcare,hospital,injections,fentanyl,drugs,DEA,herion

Double click on any word for a dictionary or additional information.

Nice coverage on what’s happening in the world of Health IT, notice all the devices spotlighted in the video. One of the individuals speaking on the video is Steve Shihadeh, VP Microsoft Health Solutions Group,who was kind enough not too long ago to speak with me about Amalga, the HealthVault and what is being done today, along with what’s in store for the future.

Steve Shihadeh, VP Microsoft Health Solutions Group – The Amalga Software Solution for Aggregating Hospital Information (Interview)

Also, not too long ago myself and several other bloggers participated in a conference call with Peter Neupert, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Health Solutions, and you can read more here.

Discussion with Peter Neupert – Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Health Solutions Group

One other company, TelaDoc will also have a new HealthVault Benefit next month for patients to add records to the PHR.

By August, TelaDoc members with a Microsoft HealthVault account will be able to import, as a Continuity of Care Record, pertinent TelaDoc EHR data to their HealthVault personal health record.

Related HealthVault/Amalga Reading:

Single Sign on for Microsoft Amalga – Sentillion Signs License Agreement

Microsoft Amalga at Wisconsin Health Information Exchange – Video about their RHIO Solution

A Deep Dive into Microsoft Life Sciences Today and in the Future – Interview with Michael Naimoli

Microsoft Introduces Groundbreaking Technology – Amalga Life Sciences Software

Health Care on Brink of IT Revolution - CNBC.com

Technorati Tags: PHR,HealthVault,Google Health,personal health record,TelaDoc,Health IT,healthcare,technology,Microsoft

Reminder: Double click on any word for a description or dictionary meaning on the Medical Quack.

The good news in all of this is that the judges are not buying it, thank goodness, one plans an appeal.  We all worry about side effects but it still doesn’t stand up in court with hideous crimes and the suits get filed just because “they can”, a waste of taxpayer money.  BD 

The first is Randall Robbins II, a convicted murderer who strangled the teenage mother of his child. Robbins is suing Pfizer, alleging that the Zoloft he was on led him to try to commit suicide and then take his girlfriend’s life.

The second case is regarding John Mullarkey. Mullarkey, who stabbed his ex-girlfriend Demi Cuccia 16 times on Aug. 15, 2007, then slit his own throat in a suicide attempt, and his attorney, say that Mullarkey “acted out of passion and a diminished capacity linked to the acne drug Accutane.”

Murderers: Zoloft, Accutane Made Me Do It | IguanaBio

Technorati Tags: Side effects,Zoloft,Accutane,criminals,lawsuits,medications

Some visits are a simple email back and forth, while others are a bit more sophisticated.  For a physician in order to collect it’s almost easier to use one of the pre-set formats, as this way you can collect and be sure all information is exchanged with an encrypted connection.   There is a limit too as to what you can do online as some conditions really should be seen in person, and a web cam can also be very helpful, like looking at a wound or skin rash for a simple example. 

Some insurance carriers are beginning to offer coverage but sometimes the cost is very affordable and you may not even need to worry about that end of it.  Also, medical devices are now entering the picture and this will continue to grow so as an example a follow up visit relative to controlling diabetes and reviewing current medications could be done digitally if the information was complete and available for the doctor to read.  I post quite a bit on the site here about devices and try to keep up with what is coming online, to include the infamous blue tooth inhaler, yes there is one of those in the works. 

OptumHealth, a unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc., will enroll you as a physician anywhere across the US if you want to earn additional money with web consults and they are also working with American Well, again, I don’t know all the fine print but it was announced not too long ago that they were recruiting for this purpose.  BD 

Back in November I posted about American Well and the Blue Cross/Blue Shield collaboration in Hawaii and now it has expanded once more to OptumHealth, which is part of UnitedHealthCare and offers it’s own PHR (personal health record) for participants.

Also in April, American Well physician video services became available in Minnesota with Blue Cross. 

OptumHealth (Subsidiary of UnitedHealthCare) Teams Up With American Well for 24/7 Physician Consults

 

This year, 39% of doctors said they’d communicated with patients online, up from just 16% five years earlier, according to health-information firm Manhattan Research, a unit of Decision Resources Inc. So far, the most common digital doctor services are the simplest ones, like paying bills, sending lab results and scheduling appointments. But patients like Ms. Rust are also using computers to deal with issues that usually require a trip to the doctor’s office.

Among companies that now cover digital visits are Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp., as well as Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in states including Florida, Hawaii and North Carolina. WellPoint Inc. and Humana Inc. are trying it in parts of the country, and may expand their coverage.

Another option is live online visits, using technology from companies such as American Well Corp. The firm has created an encrypted setup for real-time interaction between doctors and patients, using Web video, live chat or a phone conversation connected through a secure computer system. OptumHealth, a unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc., is rolling out the American Well system nationally.

Digital Doctor Visits Become More Common - WSJ.com

Technorati Tags: Digital doctor,physician,technology,healthcare,online consultations,health insurance,email,convenience,American Well,webcam,Health IT

The company, Tapeless Medical  just announced some additional new products this week and for anyone who had had the sticky tape on any wound bandage, you know what I am talking about here.  The wrap is re-useable too.  I could think of sometimes in the past where I wished I would have had one of these versus the sticky tape.   They even have one that looks like a full pair of underwear too and they are all washable.  BD 

 

TAPELESS MEDICAL INTRODUCES 4 NEW PRODUCTS

For Immediate Release Contact: BARRY SHESOL, M.D.
June 26, 2009

BRANDON, Wis.--Tapeless Medical, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer and supplier of a unique line of secondary wound dressings, is pleased to announce the introduction of four new wound dressing holders that will enhance wound recovery for thousands of individuals nationwide.

Preferred by providers and patients alike, Tapeless Medical’s wound dressing products are made with a  latex-free, non-restrictive material that allows for a full-range of motion. Compatible with all primary dressings, the dressing holders are available for a variety of anatomic locations.
Beyond the clinical attributes, the products are also practical. Each bandage is washable and can be reused many times over.

The new products--the sleeve dressing holder, the bunion dressing holder, the hand dressing holder and the short pants dressing holder--join popular predecessors such as the finger/toe dressing holder, the long leg dressing holder, the arm dressing holder, the universal dressing holder, the head dressing holder, the torso dressing holder, the breast dressing holder, the foot band and the stump dressing holder.

As new patient and market needs emerge, Tapeless Medical will continue to add new products to its unique brand of tapeless wound dressings.

To place an order, view products or a demonstration, visit www.tapelessmedical.com.  You can also call (toll-free) 1-800-252-4884.

TAPEless Medical - Wounds - Bandages - Diabetic Ulcers - Vascular Ulcers - Skin Wounds

Technorati Tags: wound Care,bandages,tapeless medical,healthcare,dressing

This is almost like a good news/bad news day for the company.  The big news is having the first drug on the market to treat atrial fibrillation, which has also been treated with devices.  The cancer connection still lingers with their diabetes drug questioning the amount of time spent actually tracking patients, and the FDA will continue to review additional information and studies related to Lantus.  BD 

Boston (DbTechNo) - The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) have just approved a drug made by Sanofi-Aventis for treating patients with heart arrhythmias.

Arrhythmias are characterized by tan abnormal heartbeat, which can result in death if not treated properly and timely.

The drug is called Multaq, and was approved by the FDA after a 3 year delay.

It will be sold in pill form in a dose of 400-milligrams and is taken twice daily.

According to Sanofi their drug is the first on the market to treat atrial fibrillation to show reduced numbers of hospitalizations due to irregular heartbeats.

Sanofi-Aventis Heart Drug Approved by FDA : dBTechno

Technorati Tags: Heart,atrial fibrillation,Multaq,Sanofi-Aventis,Arrhythmia,healthcare,FDA,Lantus,diabetes

The story has been out about some of the information on the benefits of spinal putty to enhance bone growth from one physician, but I can’t help but think of this as being nothing but a benefit.  As the article states with spinal surgery, the other alternative is to use chips from a patient’s pelvic bone, so now we are cutting at 2 areas.  As long as the product does what it says it does, I think the extra expense is well worth it.  I have had a small amount place in my jaw with oral surgery and it worked fine.  BD 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Products used to stimulate bone growth in spinal fusion surgery worsen the risk of complications and boost overall hospital costs, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They said spinal fusion surgery using bone growth products such as those made by Medtronic Inc and Stryker Corp resulted in higher rates of complications than conventional spinal fusion procedures, and increased total hospital charges by 11 to 41 percent.

InFuse and Stryker's OP-1 Implant and OP-1 Putty contain recombinant, or genetically engineered, human bone morphogenetic protein or BMP, an artificial protein used to promote bone growth.

Medtronic spokeswoman Marybeth Thorsgaard said the JAMA study only looked at hospital-related costs and complications. "Other studies have demonstrated reduced complication rates and reduced associated costs with the use of BMP long term," she said by e-mail.

In conventional spinal fusion, surgeons fuse one or more vertebrae to reduce pain and stabilize the spine, using chips from a patient's pelvic bone. It is painful and can extend recovery time.

BMP allows doctors to perform the surgery without harvesting bone from the patient. 

Bone growth agents increase spine surgery costs | Health | Reuters

Technorati Tags: Stryker,Medtronics,Bones,surgery,bone growth,spinal fusion,bone putty

Only a little over 50% have opted for the employer insurance plan, as when wages are $7.00 to $10.00 an hour, over 20% of their income goes towards health insurance.  With stats as such it would seem logical that Wal-Mart would maybe entertain the government insurance plan too so the rest of the employees can also have coverage.  BD 

While mega-retailer Wal-Mart announced yesterday that they supported an employer-funded health care plan, in accordance with the Obama administration's proposal, only 51.8 percent of the estimated 1.4 million Wal-Mart employees currently have taken the mega- retailer up on their health care offer.
"It's too expensive," said 20-year Wal-Mart department manager Jill Terry in an interview today. "It was costing me $400 a month and on my salary, I couldn't do it. Most people who work here can't afford it."
In a letter to President Barack Obama, Bentonville-based Wal-Mart joined with Service Employees International Union, which has more than a million members, and the Center for American Progress in support of a plan to require employers to foot the bill for medical insurance.
"We are for shared responsibility," wrote Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke. "Not every business can make the same contribution, but everyone must make some contribution."

Terry, who works as a manager for the retailer at their number one store in Rogers, AR., said she opted instead for the insurance offered by her husband's place of work because it was 10 times cheaper than the plan offered by Wal-Mart.

foodconsumer.org - Wal-Mart's employee healthcare plan "too expensive"

Technorati Tags: Wal-Mart,health insurance,healthcare,Obama Health Reform

The device sounds almost like it is Roto Rooter for the arteries.  Patients are feeling immediate relief after the procedure.  Doctors are now able to open arteries with the device that couldn’t be touched before.  The article states it can also be used in the heart area as well as in the legs.  The catheter creates creating high frequency vibrations to break up the plaque.  The procedure for this patient, once the catheter was in place was a matter of 31 seconds and she had almost immediately relief from “tired legs” which she had been battling for a while and the procedure is well tolerated by seniors too.  BD  

The inventor of the device, called the Crosser Catheter, was in El Paso to watch his invention used on Benner and several other patients at Las Palmas Medical Center and to gather information on how to make it better.

Blocked arteries, such as the one on Benner, are so common among El Pasoans that this area is attracting inventors of medical devices who want to use their inventions on patients with severe cases.

Benner was one of those cases.

The catheter also can be used in clogged arteries of the heart.

"In the last two or three years possibly, we could not open up many of these arteries in the heart or legs and now we can open arteries that are totally occluded," Quintana said.

Patients with blocked arteries risk amputation if they are left untreated. The disease can also increase a patient's risk of heart attack or stroke.

Plaque-piercing device relieves patients' clogged arteries - El Paso Times

Technorati Tags: Medical devices,plaque,stroke,heart attack,arteries,procedure

The pilot program is taking place in India. Pretty soon the cell phone will be doing just about everything. Soon they will be used for Ultra Sound diagnostics as well. I guess next the big challenge will be to extract your payment while providing the ultra sound test all at once (grin). The old credit cards we have known for years could be a thing of the past in a few years, video below on how the ultra sound works. BD

Mobile phones often double for other practical devices – camera, clock, calendar – and now a credit card.

Citibank has rolled out its Citi Tap and Pay program on a pilot basis in India. Using near-field communications technology, Citibank has launched a next-generation, contact-less, credit card payment mechanism in Bangalore.

The technology will allow customers to tap their mobile phone at a compatible reader at the point of sale to pay for purchases, eliminating the need for the conventional swiping of credit cards and enhancing the security of credit card transactions by eliminating the need to hand a physical card to a merchant.

Mobile Phones as Credit Cards? Citibank Unveils New Program

Technorati Tags: Citibank,Cell phone,bills,transaction,credit card,bank,windows mobile,ultrasound,technology

Just a few weeks ago, we heard a different story of just the opposite, interesting how things are changing so rapidly today and new opinions emerge to the opposite.   The AMA didn’t like the idea of Medicare for all as it is going broke, but so are many hospitals so is it a race of who goes broke first? 

Also today was the proposed Medicare Pay cuts, 21.5% which has been an event every year in which Congress has rushed in to save the day, but this year it appears to be a bit different with shifting funds.  The big issue is moving payment to physicians for drugs administered into another budget area, but this too could perhaps open up some avenues to maybe negotiate some cheaper prices, but on the other hand, especially with expensive cancer drugs it gets a little touchy as some of the Oncologists are also having issues stocking the drugs for chemotherapy and other treatments, again we are back to square one cost, so cheaper drugs seem to be one of the pieces of the puzzle here.  BD 

(CNN) — The new president of the American Medical Association, which represents the interests of the nation’s doctors, said Wednesday the group is open to a government-funded health insurance option for people without coverage.

Dr. J. James Rohack told CNN that the AMA supports an “American model” that includes both “a private system and a public system, working together.”

In May, the AMA told a Senate committee it did not support a government-sponsored public health insurance option.

“If it’s good enough for Congress, why shouldn’t it be good enough for individuals who don’t have health insurance provided by their employers?” Rohack said.

He said AMA opposed expanding Medicare coverage for senior citizens into a broader general public plan, noting that the plan is “going broke” and fails to cover the costs of participating doctors.

AMA president: Group open to government-funded insurance – The CNN Wire - CNN.com Blogs

Technorati Tags: AMA,Medicare,Government funded insurance,healthcare,Pay Cuts,physicians,drugs,oncology,cancer,Obama Healthcare,Congress

The one in Chicago will be using ocean containers and when you see how many servers are in each one, there’s quite a few around 2000 in round numbers for each container.  That’s a lot of servers and thus with the new room too Microsoft is looking for data base customers to synch SQL Server in the cloud.  BD 

Microsoft Seeking Database Customers to Test Synchronizing SQL Server with the Cloud

In order to fulfill the ever growing demand of data centers (Online Live and Cloud services), Microsoft is opening two more mega data centers this July.

The first one to open (July 1st) is located in Dublin (Ireland) and is the first mega data center Microsoft has built outside of the US. Currently this building covers 303,000 square feet, with 5.4 mega watts of critical power. This will be expanded in the future. Furthermore this building is very energy efficient as it uses outside air to cool the facilities and servers! 

The second one is the Chicago Data Center, which will open on July 20th. This facility will be one of the largest data centers in the world measuring no less than 700,000 square feet (approximately 16 football fields)! What else is special about this one? It is the first one to utilize containers as a primary server packaging unit (each container houses 1,800 to 2,500 servers)!

LiveSide - Windows Live news and interviews

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Data containers,synchronization,data,SQL Server,Azure,Cloud services

This was a new term for me, but one out of 5 seniors practices “polypharmacy”.  In addition, many are seeing more than one physician, so it’s a good idea that each physician you see, knows exactly what you are taking.  BD 

Polypharmacy is a catchy name but it is one of the most expensive nouns in the dictionary. Polypharmacy means a person is taking several drugs a day or week (sometimes an average of 10 over the age of 65).
If you're taking prescription medications or OTC, over the counter drugs, they all count towards the number of drugs you ingest each week.

Modern medicine has extended our lives and reduced our suffering over the past couple decades.  But, these miracle drugs can come with a cost, both financially and health wise.  Keep yourself, physician, and pharmacist informed of what medications you are taking on a regular basis.

One in Five Seniors Over 65 Practices Polypharmacy - Hospice Careers | Senior Care Careers | NSLPN

Technorati Tags: Seniors,polypharmacy,drugs,pharma,physicians