Practice Management News

The NIH, FDA and Surgeon General’s office all announced new plans this week to combat the opioid epidemic.

The ketogenic diet was recently called the “latest buzzy” weight loss plan by the mainstream media. However, this particular weight loss plan actually dates, according to some estimates, to as early as 500 BC.

CDC recently added several tools and resources to its website to help primary care physicians and other health care providers help their patients who are addicted to opioids.

States that implemented medical marijuana laws showed reductions in opioid prescribing rates in high-risk Medicare and Medicaid Part D populations, according to two new studies published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

HHS data suggest that overdoses of opioid pain medications accounted for 42,249 deaths in 2016, the equivalent of 116 deaths per day. Opioid-related deaths continue to increase, and in 2017, HHS declared this burgeoning problem a public health emergency. In response, the HHS determined five priority strategies for combating the epidemic, one of which was the use of overdose-reversing drugs.

Due to high costs of health care, 44% of people in the United States avoid visiting the doctor’s office when sick or injured, and approximately 40% skip necessary medical tests or treatment, according to results from a new national poll that were presented at the American Society on Aging 2018 Aging in America Conference.

Less than 1% of patient harm events from 2013 to 2016 were attributable to electronic health record usability, data recently published in JAMA suggests.

Friends and family members will ask doctors for medical advice for a variety of reasons: curiosity, needing help in a situation that is unfamiliar, concern about their friends and family, or feeling ‘fed up’ with other physicians and the health care system, research suggests.

Dispensing rates for higher-strength oxycodone formulations among Australians younger than 65 years decreased when tamper-resistant versions were implemented, according to findings recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The Trump administration’s selection of longtime AIDS researcher Robert R. Redfield, MD, to be the next CDC director drew mixed reactions from experts and officials, including some who question his conduct on a research project several decades ago.