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Week of May 19 - In Case You Missed It...TOMF Medical News Roundup

May 27, 2014


In Case You Missed It...
May 20, 2014

Arizona Study Ties Legionnaires to Windshield Fluid

Today's Arizona Daily Star carries an odd page-one story. Researchers have long known riding in cars was a "risk" for Legionnaire's disease but dismissed it as an illogical association - sort of like eating butter and then coming down with the measles. There was no reason to suspect anything.
But now researchers at Arizona State University found that school bus windshield washer fluid is a breeding ground for the bacteria. They studied the fluid from buses in central Arizona school districts and found it grows faster during the warm months.

Researchers have yet to calculate the risk, but spraying the windshield is a way to aerosolize the bacteria.

More People Using Physician Ratings

As deductibles and co-pays climb, more US patients are turning to Internet rating services to select their physicians.

According to today's Wall Street Journal roughly a quarter of US adults have checked a doctor on a web-rating site, and about a third have chosen to see, or avoid, a doctor based on the rating.

Have a Good Feeling About ObamaCare?

If you like ObamaCare, then you may not watch TV, or be susceptible to advertising.

The May 17 Arizona Daily Star reports that over the past four years $418 million has been spent on negative TV ads, mainly at the local level throughout the United states, while only $27 million has been spent on positive ads.

In Case You Missed It...
May 21, 2014

Star Trek Here?

Did you know that Nokia and Qualcomm offer prizes, up to $10 million, for people or companies that invent tricorders similar to that used by by Leonard "Bones" McCoy on old Star Trek episodes? If you did, did you know that several prizes have already been awarded?

Researchers in fact have gone even further, creating simple sensors to detect pollutants in air and water, hand-held scanners to test blood for dozens of diseases and a host of other inexpensive devices to screen all sorts of body secretions.

Lest you think these are a long way from consumer use, please know one thing: almost all of these marvels become apps on cell phones. The incredibly fast development and adoption of smart phones has made the applications simple and cheap.

Check out details in the May 2014 Smithsonian magazine. As a bonus, there is a story about global warming that uses Phoenix as a model -- which is easy to translate down here.

VA Under Fire -- Hold Yours

Veteran's Administration Hospitals and the system itself has come under fire nationwide -- and in Phoenix -- for a host of items, including (maybe) secret wait lists. Allegations of deaths, delayed treatment harm and disrespect remain that: allegations.

So far no patient deaths have been found. Only whistle-blowers have told us about the secret wait lists. Now is the time to collect facts. If you have a story about how you or a loved one was treated by the VA, please get in contact with one of our Congressional representatives.

For the rest of us, reserve judgment.

As the national government prepares to trim military budgets, the VA has suffered. Wait times have gone from 100 days to over a year for certain appointments. Congress has the ability to change more than 40% of the VA budget through appropriation and this may be the time to meet the needs. Not only do we have young vets, some horrifically wounded, from 13 years of war but out aging vets from conflicts past are also taxing the system.
Both parties get it. We must honor our vets for their service and the VA can be better with more funding.


In Case You Missed It...
May 22, 2014

US Finally Ready to Take on Drug Prices?

The pharmaceutical industry routinely notes that developing innovative drugs costs on average $1.2 billion and takes 10 to 12 years to get a drug to market and that the FDA approval process for drugs has remained largely unchanged for four decades.

"We have to modernize the discovery process," one industry leader said. "We can only be as innovative as our regulator."
Most nations regulate drug prices so American consumers bear the brunt of the discovery costs. Tight US patents limit the cost recovery time for a limited term of years before generics can be brought to market.
A new pill that has an 80 percent cure rate for Hep C, however, is renewing the drug price debate, Gilead Science's Solvaldi costs nearly $1,000 a pill and takes $84,000 for a treatment course. You can read about the debate by clicking here.