“Supersized” dummies
Is “bigger” better? CNN reports that “at the University of Michigan, researchers created “supersized” crash test dummies modeled on today’s obese drivers. “Americans are getting bigger and so are crash test dummies. Researchers at the University of Michigan are designing dummies to look like today’s drivers by “supersizing” existing models. “Crash dummies have been in use for nearly 50 years. These newer models represent older, weightier and obese drivers. Accurate models help researchers better predict the impact of a crash...
Read MorePrenatal pot use risky
Medical Groups Advise Against Prenatal Cannabis Use Due To Links To Cognitive Impairment, Academic Underachievement. The New York Times (2/2, Saint Louis, Subscription Publication) reports, “As states legalize marijuana or its medical use, expectant mothers are taking it up in increasing numbers,” many presuming that “cannabis has no consequences for developing infants.” But, “marijuana’s main psychoactive ingredient – tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC – can cross the placenta to reach the fetus, experts say, potentially harming brain development, cognition and birth weight.” Currently, “the...
Read MoreURMC Video Stories
Watch URMC’s Super Bowl Ads As the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots take to the field on Super Bowl this coming Sunday, UR Medicine will be taking to the airwaves. Two local ads will run on Fox Rochester during the game to showcase the exceptional care offered at our region’s leading medical center. The first video ad highlights URMC’s stroke care program and the second one its heart transplant program. The third video tells the story in more depth of Michael, the patient featured in the heart transplant ad. Click on a picture below to get a sneak peek: The region’s only...
Read MoreMedical Marijuana?
NY Physicians Reluctant To Prescribe Medical Marijuana As Alternative To Opioids For Chronic Pain. Crain’s New York Business (1/29, Lewis) reports that although medical marijuana “offers an alternative to opioid drugs for treating chronic pain,” most physicians in New York “are still reluctant to embrace cannabis as a medical treatment.” According to Crain’s, “only 833 physicians, about 1% of the state’s total, are certified to prescribe the drug.” The article mentions that the Medical Society of the State of New York wrote a letter to the state Health Department in December that “called the...
Read MorePopulation Health
What does the future hold? In a series of article on Population Health this week in Medical Economics (click on image below) the authors discuss a number of recent developments in medical practice that we’ve been actively involved in at His Branches Health Services over the past few years. One of the primary questions is, how will these changes be affected by the recent shift in power in Washington, DC? What is “population health”? By definition it is “the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group,”...
Read MoreHigh Prices for Drugs With Generic Alternatives
The Curious Case of Duexis Aaron Hakim, MS and Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS JAMA Intern Med. Published online January 23, 2017. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.8423 Approximately 13% of health care expenditures in the United States are for prescription drug spending, nearly $420 billion in 2015. High-priced pharmaceuticals, therapies that cost more than $600 per month, are projected to eclipse 50% of total drug spending by 2018. Price increases for these therapies have been persistent, with unit costs increasing 164% between 2008 and 2015. Pharmacy benefit managers are third-party administrators...
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