There has been a tremendous number of articles and a lot of interest in the use of ketamine in the treatment of depression and chronic pain. This prompted many drug companies to invest and Johnson and Johnson developed a new product to treat depression. However there are always challenges with new products especially effectiveness, side… Read More
To get an update of what states are in the compact go to https://imlcc.org/. The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact offers an expedited pathway to licensure for qualified physicians who wish to practice in multiple states. The IMLC mission is to increase access to health care for patients in underserved or rural areas and allowing them… Read More
From June 2018 JAMA Between 2001 and 2016, the number of opioid-related deaths in the United States increased by 345%, from 9489 to 42 245 deaths (33.3 to 130.7 deaths per million population). By 2016, men accounted for 67.5% of all opioid-related deaths, and the median (interquartile range) age at death was 40 (30-52) years. The… Read More
From May 1, 2018 LA Times and JAMA The U.S. opioid crisis has passed a dubious milestone: Overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids like illicit fentanyl have surpassed deaths involving prescription opioids. This switch occurred in 2016, according to data published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. And it seemed to happen pretty suddenly. Data from the National… Read More
A March 8, 2018 in NEJM looks at the potential health effects of the smokes form wildfires. This Perspective article was entitield “The New England Journal of Medicine — Where There’s Wildfire, There’s Smoke.” This article looks at the increased number of wildfires and their potential health effects. The recent Napa wildfires Fine particles are… Read More
A February 20, 2018 issue of Modern Healthcare reported on a letter that Consolidation throughout the healthcare industry was increasing costs by driving more care from private offices to the more expensive location of hospitals, the Physicians Advocacy Institute warned in a letter to Congress. Healthcare organizations have been joining forces to try to get ahead of the… Read More
Abstract OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of Medicaid coverage on dental care outcomes, a major health concern for low-income populations. DATA SOURCES: Primary and secondary data on health care use and outcomes for participants in Oregon’s 2008 Medicaid lottery. STUDY DESIGN: We used the lottery’s random selection to gauge the causal effects of Medicaid on… Read More
A January 2018 report presents a conclusion that not all rural communities need critical-access hospitals. Rural/Critical Access hospitals can maintain up to 25 inpatient beds, but researchers with the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Center for Outcomes Research and Education found only three to five of those beds were occupied on average in the seven states… Read More
LA County Mental Health Resources are an important part of the solution to help prevent suicides in Southern California. Is this a model system that is effective and also sustainable? Is this a poison control model that might work in other parts of the country? Is this like a trauma center referral solution? This a… Read More
