This is kind of scary as to where we are going with pain killers. One good thing though is that there are many new devices on the market coming out that distribute pain killer right to the affected area for recovery from surgery, wounds and so on and I would take that in a heartbeat versus taking pain killers. I have had surgeries 
to where for a few days where I took Vicodin and I know what it does after a couple of days and that’s about all I am good for as I prefer being alert.
The case being made here is less liver damage from the acetaminophen found in combination drugs, like Vicodin, but it also puts the drug in a stronger controlled group with regards to refills, etc. Again myself I couldn’t imagine anything stronger as the combination drug was enough for me for a couple or three days. This is of course abused drug in the US. In 2007 the Purdue drug company pleaded guilty to their claims that the drug was not addictive. The company also makes patches that release opioid controlled substances as well and was approved by the FDA in 2010.
Purdue Pharma Receives FDA Approval for Butrans™ Transdermal System For Severe Pain Management.
Some of the drugs get recalled too, like this example below.
FDA Recall: Vicodin (Hydrocodone Bitartrate) in Phenobarbital Bottles Qualitest Pharma-Incorrect Package Labeling
Earlier this year the FDA approved cough and cold medicine to contain hydrocodone so it looks like it’s going to be around for a while and I guess we shall wait and see fi the pure stuff makes it to the market. BD
FDA Approves NDA for Two Hydrocodone Cough and Cold Medications From Cypress Pharmaceuticals
NEW YORK -- Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of the nation's second most-abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse.
The new pills contain the highly addictive painkiller hydrocodone, packing up to 10 times the amount of the drug as existing medications such as Vicodin. Four companies have begun patient testing, and one of them – Zogenix of San Diego – plans to apply early next year to begin marketing its product, Zohydro.
If approved, it would mark the first time patients could legally buy pure hydrocodone. Existing products combine the drug with nonaddictive painkillers such as acetaminophen.
Oxycodone is now the most-abused medicine in the United States, with hydrocodone second, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration's annual count of drug seizures sent to police drug labs for analysis.
The latest drug tests come as more pharmaceutical companies are getting into the $10 billion-a-year legal market for powerful – and addictive – opiate narcotics.
Zogenix has completed three rounds of patient testing, and last week it announced it had held a final meeting with Food and Drug Administration officials to talk about its upcoming drug application. It plans to file the application in early 2012 and have Zohydro on the market by early 2013.
Opiates block pain but also unleash intense feelings of well-being and can create physical dependence. The withdrawal symptoms are also intense, with users complaining of cramps, diarrhea, muddled thinking, nausea and vomiting.
Purdue Pharma and Cephalon, a Frazer, Pa.-based unit of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals, are conducting late-stage trials of their own hydrocodone drugs, according to documents filed with federal regulators. In May, Purdue Pharma received a patent applying extended-release technology to hydrocodone. Neither company would comment on its plans.
After a while, opiates stop working, forcing users to take stronger doses or to try slightly different chemicals.
Pure hydrocodone falls into the stricter drug-control category than hydrocodone-acetaminophen medications, meaning patients would have to go to their doctors for a new prescription each time they needed more pills. But Jackson said that's no guarantee against abuse, noting that dozens of unscrupulous doctors have been caught churning out prescriptions in so-called "pill mills."
some decent audit trails and checking. It’s funny we have all the data being sold out there and they grab stuff for free and use it for all kinds of intelligence, but when it comes to simple verification we have little. Chapter 7 of the Attack of the Killer Algorithms shows how flawed data hurts us from the consumer side. 
Wipes But Can’t Do the Same to Give Consumers the Chance to Find Their FDA Recalls - BarCode Baby Steps?
operational expertise to help transform undervalued companies into industry leaders for long-term success and value creation. Cerberus holds controlling or significant minority interests in companies around the world. 
now with ICD10 coding coming up. For quick research and clinical information this could work ok but there is questionable information today too in some of the medical journals and the article states journals will be included here as well. Hopefully I think we have more credible data in journals rather than the opposite. More so than Cedars I still think our Congress needs this capability to gather and sort information to make laws. The US is the only country that ties ICD codes to billing so our Health IT issues are much more complicated than other countries. 
research. Some states have even put governors in their software to block the automated data mining services on the web. With machine learning we always run some risk of “rogue algorithms” too, happens all the time on the stock market so again something to be aware of with writing the unreadable with data base upon data base now aggregated and joined at the hip to ensure “accurate” data is in fact contained. 
have yet another case of “discrimination by the algorithms” for the 99% group and of course I’m right in there with everyone else. When will people starting paying attention here as to what is going on with flawed data?
read more about part 4 and how that occurs here. You have old agencies like the MIB that can’t get their records fixed to be accurate and some people are denied coverage because of that fact.
matched data” the discriminates as now we have “Discrimination by the Algorithm” and it’s showing in more places all the time. Last time I wrote about the FICO mismatched data it all ended up over at the Daily Kos via another publisher as an awareness. As far as I am concerned the FIOC Medication Adherence Scoring is nothing but mismatched data analytics created to sell software and is the work of some “underground” think tanks on how to generate more money and profits. You can find my comments too on the Daily Kos on this as another author included them in her column who was in total agreement. Do you know how common flaws are? Look at this link and see about the 31k that are “living” but Social Security says they are dead.
doctors, doctors on staff at hospitals where they have set foot, and retired doctors. Actually this post got a visit from the AMA with a nice interview on the topic at the link below. Now the AMA sells some data too along the line here relative to doctors and prescriptions. 
who, and how much are the profits on the sale of this data. I’m smart enough to know that you can’t create laws to govern how to write algorithms and code but we can sure go for plan B. Someone needs to enlighten our digital illiterate Congress about this. Read the article at the red link below and think about that excise tax you pay to put a new tire on your car and this will make sense! 
know and want it disclosed publicly. They always come back with “its’ not our fault but rather the data we pull from is not updated. I heard that with HealthGrades and just recently in the news, guess what, HealthGrades merged with a “marketing” company so I think the data may not be doing so good selling itself with accuracy, so let’s get marketing in here and see how we can whoop it up a bit and get consumers to still buy in,even though we know there are flaws, we just want money when we sell this data. You can read in the AMA interview link above about the blame shifting for flawed data with Healthgrades, “it’s not our fault”…right!
we were ahead of our time and the public was not ready for this, but we talked about algorithms created for “desired” results and those for “accuracy” and how they are not always the same. I do a few others out there I communicate with that are far smarter than me that also make this case too. Read this book and learn up. We have a lot going on sadly with the “dark side”. I have had people on Twitter tweet me and thank me for this reference too, it opened their eyes. 
prepared the report. He blamed a faulty algorithm that the state uses to match people to crimes in its electronic database of criminal records. The state says it was appropriate to include the cousin's record, because that kind of information is useful to employers the same way it is useful to law enforcement.”