The Medical-Industrial Complex
Ford Vox said: Three years ago, the Department of Justice took stock of the orthopedic medical device industry--represented by the five big makers of orthopedic implants--and concluded that it was rampantly violating federal anti-kickback laws with the bribes and favors it was offering to surgeons.
Your health plan’s Toyota complex
Ford Vox said: A trade group by the name of America’s Health Insurance Plans began the week with oddly revealing rhetoric against a key proposal under debate at the health care summit today
A Sore-Throat Bug That Carries a Deadly Punch
Ford Vox said: The throat culture for strep won't pick up a different potent germ that can put you in the hospital
Restless legs syndrome, erectile dysfunction linked?
Ford Vox said: Two disorders that seem completely unrelated except that each is the focus of massive drug company ad campaigns may actually have something in common
Rude Awakening
Ford Vox said: How the media frenzy around a Belgian man misdiagnosed as being in a vegetative state came to haunt the doctor who treated him.
'Deal or No Deal' Host Howie Mandel and His OCD
Deal or No Deal viewers know that host Howie Mandel doesn't shake hands with guests—he does a fist bump. But they may not know that it's not for effect; it's because the actor-comedian has an overwhelming fear of germs. The fist bump is one manifestation of Mandel's obsessive-compulsive disorder; he has attention deficit disorder as well. Mandel's new autobiography, Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me, and a 20/20 story that will air Friday night shine light on these poorly understood mental illnesses, which touch the lives of millions of Americans. "It's more scary than fun" letting the world peer at him, Mandel said in a far-ranging interview. Edited excerpts:
The PSA Test: 7 Reasons It Still Matters
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force asked doctors last year to stop checking PSA levels in elderly men—the very men who are most likely to have prostate cancer. By age 75, the officials reasoned, doctors are more likely to keep tinkering with their patients until they die of treatment side effects or something other than prostate cancer altogether. This spring, the New England Journal of Medicine published two long-term studies that questioned whether knowing a man's PSA level actually helps men survive. Healthcare commentators say that PSAs set off a cascade of overtreatment, endangering patients and tolerating wasteful medicine, and that patients should be wary.
Phthalates Threat: Less Boy, More Girl
Last week we learned that male factory workers exposed to large amounts of BPA, a chemical in some plastics, had abnormally high rates of erectile dysfunction and other sexual performance problems. This week the news is about phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates). Researchers reported in the International Journal of Andrology that this family of chemicals, used in manufacturing polyvinyl chloride plastics, seems to make little boys behave a bit more like little girls. This small study isn't as worrisome as the headlines suggest. Its main public-health value may be in spurring more pregnant women to avoid processed foods—a worthwhile choice anyway, for other reasons.
