$110 million overall so far.

Read it and weep over what else that money could be spent on.

From Drew Altman, PhD, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. Read the entire column, but here’s an excerpt:

With so much of the media now configured for instant news and the relentless pursuit of controversy, stoked by spin and manufactured news by partisans on both sides, the many great journalists in the news business working hard to inform the public face a big challenge in explaining the complex issues in health reform.

A website called Flucount.org is attempting to track the cases and deaths of H1N1 swine flu around the world. Tracking is not easy because testing is different in different pats of the world. Many cases are also never tested and some deaths are likely missed. Even in the U.S. there is a lack of confirming whether each case is H1N1 related because test kits aren’t always accurate and it takes too long to get results back from the CDC. There are also people who get the flu and never tell anyone and there also people who never have symptoms.



The CDC itself has gone back to reporting overall flu cases instead of trying to track individual H1N1 cases. This works for now because the bulk of the flu cases are currently suspected to be H1N1. When the regular flu season hits this winter it may be unclear whether a flu case is H1N1 or a seasonal strain.



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My appearance early this morning on the statewide Wisconsin Public Radio network can now be heard online (Real Player file).

The network asked me to talk about – and take calls from listeners about – my HealthNewsReview.org project.

I probably talked too much and didn’t leave enough time for calls, but the ones we took on the air reflected an intelligence and a healthy skepticism that was refreshing.

My appearance early this morning on the statewide Wisconsin Public Radio network can now be heard online (Real Player file).

The network asked me to talk about – and take calls from listeners about – my HealthNewsReview.org project.

I probably talked too much and didn’t leave enough time for calls, but the ones we took on the air reflected an intelligence and a healthy skepticism that was refreshing.

Liz Kowalczyk of the Boston Globe reports:

At least 60 Massachusetts doctors collectively have earned more than a half-million dollars this year as speakers paid by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. – including two Boston Medical Center physicians whose participation is being reviewed for possible violation of a hospital policy against marketing activities by its doctors. …

Hospital spokeswoman Gina Digravio initially told the Globe last week that the two doctors did not violate the hospital’s policy, because they said they “fully determined their presentations.” The two-year-old rule bars doctors from giving industry-sponsored talks unless the “lecture’s content, including slides and written materials, are determined by the clinician.” Lilly, however, says on its website that it alone provides the information presented by speakers. Spokeswoman Carole Puls said the company provides slides and other materials.

Later in the week, the hospital revised its position, saying, “we have instructed the doctors to refrain from any further presentations pending a review by the medical campus provost.”

As Merrill Goozner points out on his blog, this is:

“a story we should see in abundance if Congress passes the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which is in the House and Senate versions of health care reform legislation. …

The story was made possible by the fact that Lilly is one of the first companies to voluntarily list physician payments on its website. Enterprising reporters in other parts of the country should take note, especially as more companies move to put their disclosures online.”

Liz Kowalczyk of the Boston Globe reports:

At least 60 Massachusetts doctors collectively have earned more than a half-million dollars this year as speakers paid by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. – including two Boston Medical Center physicians whose participation is being reviewed for possible violation of a hospital policy against marketing activities by its doctors. …

Hospital spokeswoman Gina Digravio initially told the Globe last week that the two doctors did not violate the hospital’s policy, because they said they “fully determined their presentations.” The two-year-old rule bars doctors from giving industry-sponsored talks unless the “lecture’s content, including slides and written materials, are determined by the clinician.” Lilly, however, says on its website that it alone provides the information presented by speakers. Spokeswoman Carole Puls said the company provides slides and other materials.

Later in the week, the hospital revised its position, saying, “we have instructed the doctors to refrain from any further presentations pending a review by the medical campus provost.”

As Merrill Goozner points out on his blog, this is:

“a story we should see in abundance if Congress passes the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which is in the House and Senate versions of health care reform legislation. …

The story was made possible by the fact that Lilly is one of the first companies to voluntarily list physician payments on its website. Enterprising reporters in other parts of the country should take note, especially as more companies move to put their disclosures online.”

I don’t usually read HEALTH magazine, but a Time, Inc. PR person sent me a news release promoting the October issue.

The article headlined “NATURAL CURES YOU NEED NOW” jumped out at me.

But when I read the article, evidence – data – did not jump out at me.

The article promoted calcium, magnesium, iron, omega 3 supplements, eleuthero and licorice for women in their 30s; black cohosh, probiotics, flaxseed and vitamin B12 for those in their 40s; and vitamin D, Replens, hawthorn and zinc for women in their 50s.

All of those promotional claims without one single shred of evidence or data to back them up.

But the story did include costs of most of the products – although it didn’t explain the cost per unit – how much money for how much product.

Nonetheless, the overall cost of the products promoted totaled $207.37.

Time, Inc. – keep sending me your news releases. I’m not likely to subscribe. But I sure want to keep current on these bargain cures each month – these “cures I need now.”

I don’t usually read HEALTH magazine, but a Time, Inc. PR person sent me a news release promoting the October issue.

The article headlined “NATURAL CURES YOU NEED NOW” jumped out at me.

But when I read the article, evidence – data – did not jump out at me.

The article promoted calcium, magnesium, iron, omega 3 supplements, eleuthero and licorice for women in their 30s; black cohosh, probiotics, flaxseed and vitamin B12 for those in their 40s; and vitamin D, Replens, hawthorn and zinc for women in their 50s.

All of those promotional claims without one single shred of evidence or data to back them up.

But the story did include costs of most of the products – although it didn’t explain the cost per unit – how much money for how much product.

Nonetheless, the overall cost of the products promoted totaled $207.37.

Time, Inc. – keep sending me your news releases. I’m not likely to subscribe. But I sure want to keep current on these bargain cures each month – these “cures I need now.”

A new protein identified as critical to insulating the wiring that connects the brain and body could one day be a therapy target for divergent diseases, from rare ones that lower the pain threshold to cancer, Medical College of Georgia scientists say. They report this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition that in the peripheral nervous system that controls arms and legs, the protein erbin regulates the protein neuregulin 1, stabilizing and interacting with the ErbB2 receptor on Schwann cells so they can make myelin, which insulates the wiring……..