Do they truly measure what they purport to measure? Are they accurate, reproducible, and can the data generated be concordantly interpreted by all users of the same data? Can the results be prospectively applied yielding desired outcomes? Advances in mammographic and other radiological technology are outpacing our ability to interpret and effectively use the data that it yields.

Horse-shaped shadows at a hundred yards may rightly be expected to be a horse in the U.S. However, misinterpreted microcellular appearance of diverse healthy tissues is resulting in excessive, aggressive, prophylactic intervention to mitigate potential breast cancer because at such diminutive microscopic levels the horses are actually too small to distinguish. As such, is the newest mammography valid, that is, does it actually measure what it purports to measure? Assure that your mammography test and results are valid, interpretable, and reproducible by both the team who performs it and if evaluated by another team of radiologists; ask how they validate their interpretations.

Contact us with questions and opinions.

Annually, we could all provide a complete medical history (update) and participate in a comprehensive physical examination, laboratory testing and personal habits/lifestyle documentation to fully assess our current health/disease status and disease risk status for the purpose of risk pool assignment to a single, nationally defined and managed, tiered insurance premium plan for national health care. Is such a program a right for citizens?

Aug 10, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – “The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) today declared the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity has returned to typical seasonal patterns and many people have immunity to the virus.

‘The world is no longer in phase 6 of influenza pandemic alert,’ said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan in a press briefing from Hong Kong. ‘We are now moving into the post-pandemic period. The H1N1 virus has largely run its course.’

But she cautioned that the virus has not gone away and bears continued watching, commenting, ‘We expect the H1N1 virus to take on the behavior of a seasonal influenza virus and continue to circulate for some years to come’.”

The WHO reported an initial expectation of over 1,000,000 post-exposure deaths, but fewer than 20,000 cases actually occurred. The markedly lower than projected numbers of deaths is evidence that the virus is not nearly as virulent as was initially anticipated. Hopefully, they’ll let the distributors of the vaccine know so they can stop flooding television with commercials about vaccination and the upcoming flu season.

Contact us with your questions and comments.

Did you know that the FDA has no explicit guidelines regarding when to allow a drug to come to the market, stay in the market versus be removed or to be allowed to return to the market? They simply try to assess benefit/risk ratio, frequently based upon work performed by the product manufacturer. Moreover, the FDA allows more severe side effects with medications applicable to more severe disease . . . . .

I don’t know a single person who is unfamiliar with the phrase “ambulance chaser.” The term has long been applied to the unscrupulous practice of attorneys who advertise on/in all conceivable media to find potential clients amongst the injured and ill. Now pharmaceutical companies have joined the fray via direct marketing their products to commercial television audiences, disease mongering.

If all the commercials’ information were shared at the same rate of speech, you would see that they actually spend more time on disclaimers regarding side effects of the products compared to the purported benefits of the products. Even more disturbing is that if they concurrently manage to work their way into doctors’ offices, they would at least bring lunch, treats and samples to their audience. Whereas on television they make you pay with your time and cable/satellite bill to watch them.

While some people may be rightfully encouraged to seek needed help by this approach, most others are simply being coerced into using medicines not actually needed. Moreover, especially relative to the “ED” drugs, physicians seem be playing along with the popularity of the billion dollar markets that these drugs have created.

A person I recently met stated “I just hope that I don’t develop hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue; chest pain; fainting; fast or irregular heartbeat; memory loss; numbness of an arm or leg; one-sided weakness; painful or prolonged erection; ringing in the ears; seizures; severe or persistent dizziness; sudden decrease or loss of hearing; sudden decrease or loss of vision in one or both eyes while waiting for my four hour erection to subside,” as he read the package insert. He didn’t, but thanks to “big pharma” he is part of the population with the fastest rising incidence of new STD cases, senior citizens.

The U.S. is challenged regarding the health of its population by its lack of definition of good national health. If the country were considered a corporation and taking care of its population’s health considered a corporate health program, the U.S. would be both reprimanded by NIOSH and cited regularly by OSHA for its substantively greater attention to corporate profits versus taking care of its employees’ well-being.

Discussion for national health care reform would then be better directed at the following:

Humans are composed of approximately 55 to 75 percent water depending upon age, gender and percent body fat. Regular replacement of internal water is critical to our health. As such, one might state that the most important aspect of good healthcare is quality water consumption. When is the last time your favorite politician or clinician discussed water quality as an important issue in relation to your healthcare?

Have you ever gone online trying to assess health insurance products? There is no universal template that all insurers are required to complete to allow head-to-head product comparison. As such, it takes days to make partial comparisons and you are frequently asked a significant number of personal questions. The whole process is very invasive, challenging and inexpedient. Moreover, you are also obliged to independently determine the veracity and reliability of the claims about services provided by the insurer, a monumental task. However, if you are finally able to get insured, its now time to see a physician.

Health care service delivery by very large regional medical groups and service provider panels developed by insurance companies often results in significant losses of medical practice autonomy by individual clinicians. Primary care physicians are those most significantly affected. Practice content, style, setting and numerous other elements are increasingly so impaired that there is an escalating shortage of physicians in many areas of the country. Physician assistants and nurse practitioners are frequently substituted in these understaffed regions because the cost per provider to the systems and insurers is lower and such fits organizational budgets.

Head to head, when all of these practitioners were undergraduates, you can bet that the women and men now functioning as physicians academically outperformed their nursing and physician assistant peers. However, some of our governments, insurers and medical groups pursuing cost-containment will foist upon us the suggestion that there is comparable quality of knowledge, experience and care to be received via all of these clinicians. Moreover, they will use phrases like “as good as” or “delivered with increased sensitivity” while maintaining or increasing premiums and costs of ongoing services. If you do not demand the products and services for which you pay, don’t be surprised if in the future a “health care assistant” reading a computer algorithm supported by an insurance adjuster’s treatment guideline becomes your medical provider.

Additionally, new pharmacists are graduating from schools around the nation. Depending upon their degrees, Masters or Doctorate in Pharmacy, the students have just completed six to eight years of rigorous scientific training in combined undergraduate and graduate studies. A successful pharmacist needs to be knowledgeable in pharmaceutical biochemistry, physiology, computer science, small business management, and the multiple elements of insurance and health delivery systems. However, as health care delivery system models change and local drug stores become satellites of large chains, a greater number of lesser trained pharmacy technicians are being networked with a single regional pharmacist to lower the cost of product delivery.

So, now that you have fought through the maze of health insurance acquisition, I hope that it pays for a physician and pharmacist. Maybe you need to hire an agent.

We can make life easy for our bodies and minds to live and function or we may challenge our bodies by the way we live. A person who is in a state of ease should not be stressed, fatigued, and dysfunctional, in pain, overweight or otherwise often mechanically, physiologically, chemically, or mentally characterized by other than normal status. The prefix “dis” is defined by absence of, opposite of, deprived of, or removed. As such, living with dis-ease/disease is life with a body and/or mind that is absent of, or not in a state of ease.

Some diseases are associated with specific, identified, genetic markers. Hence, there is a specialty of medical genetics. Other diseases simply tend to occur in families, thereby the bothersome questions about your family’s medical history.

Just because the disease or health issue occurred in a preceding generation does not mean you are destined to develop the condition. Families also have histories of smoking, alcohol consumption, common nutrition/diet and fitness habits, living and working in proximate locations at similar jobs, and engaging in common pastimes and other behaviors that contribute to undesirable health outcomes. Break historically adverse contributors to health and yield an improved, contemporary health future.