Wednesday, November 4, 2009
QD: News Every Day--health care reform's 'sunshine provision'
ACP Internist's daily digest of news and events continues with findings that N95 respirators weren't all they were cracked up to be, and a look at disclosing more about doctors' financial ties with industry.
H1N1 influenza
Authors retracted findings that N95 respirators were better than surgical masks at preventing flu, causing a stir at the Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting, where the retraction was announced. Reviewers questioned the study, and re-analysis resulted in the findings being no longer significant. The original study spurred guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Institute of Medicine on using the masks.
Blogger Gerald O'Malley, DO, says that he's not getting vaccinated. Hospital administrators are pressuring him, he sees flu patients in emergency wards and his two kids have it. But he's not budging. Neither are college students. (Physicians Practice, The Washington Post)
"Presenteeism" could exacerbate flu's spread, public health leaders said, since 39% of all private-sector workers do not receive paid sick days, (Bureau of Labor Statistics figure). They also send their sick kids to school because they have to work. (New York Times)
Health care reform
Legislation in the U.S. House could get a vote as early as Friday night, But in the senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid isn't making any promises to pass legislation this year, which could frustrate the White House if it delays health care reform until 2010. (The Hill, CBS News, AP)
One aspect of health care reform legislation includes "sunshine provisions" intended to disclose the financial relationships between the medical industry and doctors and hospitals. It's been tried before, though, and bioethicist Bernard Lo, FACP, argues that sunshine provisions don't go far enough. It needs to include other health professionals, and academic research. A survey in Health Affairs found that 53% of academic research faculty in the life sciences at top schools reported financial ties to industry. (New York Times, Wall Street Journal)
Labels: ethics, H1N1, health care reform, QD
ACP Internist hosted Grand Rounds on June 16, wrapping up the best of the medical blogosphere. Click here for the complete wrap-up.
Contact ACP Internist
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Blog log
American Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, ACP Member, associate program director at New York University Medical Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news, commentary and more.
db's Medical Rants
Robert M. Centor, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating medicine and the health care system.
Everything Health
EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.
Getting Better with Dr. Val
Getting Better is the continuation of Dr. Val Jones' previous blog at Revolution Health. It is devoted to helping people understand health issues from a balanced, scientifically sound perspective.
HealthHombre
A roundup of health policy news drawn from a database of hundreds of Web sites.
Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news of the day.
Kevin, MD
The alter ego of Kevin Pho, ACP Member, is the closest thing to royalty in the medical blog world.
LSUHSC-S Medical Library Evidence Alert
Major guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and/or major reviews by national and international organizations.
PLoS Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by a doctor.

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