That’s painful.
This afternoon, a judge released the verdict (paywall – WSJ) of the first of many trials determining whether Johnson & Johnson specifically contributed to the Oklahoma opioid crisis. The state of Oklahoma asked for as much as $17 billion in fines from J&J, claiming it would cost that much to recover from the damage done.
While the judge found J&J liable, the fine was set at $572 million, which is about 3% of what Oklahoma asked for. And of course, since the fine for Johnson & Johnson wasn’t as big as expected, the stock shot up around 3% immediately after the news broke. The company will appeal the decision, too.
That’s not all.
This court case is the second of many trials taking place around the U.S: Purdue Pharma settled for $270 million, and Teva Pharmaceuticals settled for $85 million, also in Oklahoma. We’ll probably be seeing some more drug makers coughing up big bucks here before too long.
After all, there are almost 2,000 opioid related lawsuits out there right now, and almost all of them have consolidated around a federal court house in Ohio. Keep an eye on that case, which is slated for October.
In Monday’s other inflamed news story…
Amgen announced their plans Monday to buy the highly successful, lucrative anti-inflammatory drug Otezla from Celgene for a whopping $13.4 billion deal (keep in mind that Celgene is getting acquired by Bristol-Myers-Squibb).
A Win-Win Deal.
As the WSJ points out, this deal was pretty much a huge win for BMY since the drug maker was required by the FTC to sell Otezla anyway. Amgen is a fan of the deal too, since patents on the blockbuster drug don’t expire until 2028. It’s the latest deal in the usually highly active biotech space, which hasn’t been too active since January of this year.
Secret’s out.
Tensions are rising inside Apple’s health division personnel. The highly secretive health operation has seen executives departing for other healthcare firms and ventures after growing frustrated with Apple’s progress in disrupting healthcare along with its various healthcare philosophies.
Apparently, while Apple is focusing more on bigger picture, general population health and incremental progress, individuals were hoping to solve more specific problems within healthcare at a quicker pace with more focus. That issue, coupled with more philosophical problems, led to the departure of quite a few employees.
My thoughts..
I’m all for the ambition, but the healthcare industry as a whole moves as slow as molasses to adopt any new technology AS IS. Some practices still transfer data via fax. I’ve even heard of one physician who had no clue what Microsoft Excel was. (FYI – the CNBC article linked above also has some interesting insights into Apple Health’s operations and structure, if you’re into that sort of thing).
In other Apple healthcare news…
The tech giant just announced a strategic partnership between Allscripts and Apple Health Records. According to the release, Allscripts will now let any patient using the platform access their personal healthcare data via iPhone – even if using several providers.
Sticky.
As if you haven’t heard enough about climate change, NPR published an article this week highlighting the negative health effects that come along with rising temperatures. The story details how health problems and mortalities rose drastically during summer heat waves in various cities.
Don’t forget though, that some may stand to gain from rising temperatures. Since diseases spread more easily in higher heat environments, Axios pointed out in January that warming global temperatures could be a huge boon to Big Pharma and drug development/sales to counteract the potentially higher occurrence of diseases if temperatures continue to rise.
Widespread critics are speaking out against the administration’s Public Charge Ruleexpected to take effect in October.
What’s the Public Charge Rule?
Basically, the administration is looking for more ways to control immigration. As a way to deny people from receiving green cards, the admin created a rule that limits immigrants from receiving public benefits for more than 12 months.
For instance, if said immigrant were to use Medicaid, which is a designated public benefit under the Public Charge Rule, for more than 12 months within a 36 month period, that individual would then be denied a green card.
How does this affect healthcare?
Since Medicaid is listed as one of the public benefits, healthcare providers (including the AHA) and state officials alike have warned the admin, saying that Medicaid enrollees would plummet as a result of the rule.
Lower levels of Medicaid enrollees would lead to higher percentages of un-insured populations, which means providers would potentially be faced with much higher levels of uncompensated care, worse health outcomes in their population, and worse financial outcomes that they and the state would eventually have to pay for, anyway.
As you can imagine, several states are suing and we’ll see where all of this ends up.
In other policy news…
Democratic Senators aren’t fans of Medicare for All policies. Instead, according to Politico, both representatives in battleground states and incumbents alike favor supporting the healthcare rhetoric already floating around: expansion of Medicaid at the state levels, and adding public insurance options to states. But they’re shying away big-time from touting Medicare for All.
Thanks for reading!
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It's an epiphany to me. The US health system's most fundamental problem is monopolistic practices by healthcare providers who profit from high barriers to market entry--basically a choke hold on the supply of healthcare, causing fantastically high prices (contributed to by debt-ridden doctors).
What if we used government not to run the system, but to break the supply choke hold? We could convert our disaster of a VA into a network of teaching hospitals for government-subsidized physician training.
What would the consequences be?
I tend to have stomach aches during school and I was wondering if there is any way to digest food quicker?
I help with the marketing at a wellness center. They sell prepaid services but are having some struggles keeping track of patient use of their services. For instance, vitamin infusions are often sold in 10 packs. As patients use their pre-paids the client is looking for the best way to track how many of each pre-paid each patient has used.
I've just started looking at tools like Mindbody, SimplePractice and TheraNest but am not sure if these are the right direction. The client has Infusionsoft and that is my area of expertise, but I feel that using it for this is a bit of a square peg in a round hole.
The practice is small-ish with about 20 on staff.
Not sure if this is the right place to post this buuuut...
I drank some spoiled milk by accident. I didn't even drink a full mug, and it was mixed with ovaltine. I'm worried because I have something to do tomorrow and having food poisoning isn't exactly on my list of activities.
So i didn't know where to post this but i was kind of curious about the Job of a Health Educator (There were many others i thought of but i just want to get a feel for what people say about their experience in their profession)
i asked these same questions on r/biology
1: What is a normal day for you usually like
2: What kind of place do you work in (Lab, Research center, Hospital, doctor office etc)
3: How long have you been doing the job
4: Do you feel appreciated for your work
And last but not least:
5: Are you going to stay in that one job or are you planning on moving onto something bigger.
You don't have to answer all of them but these were the ones i had in mind
Thank you for your time.
I've been reading up on neem oil. I started using it as pest control for my roses and veggies but found out how great it can be for the hair and skin. The smell is not favorable though. I've added some to a bottle of conditioner that I've added coconut oil to and my hair feels great. Has anyone else used neem oil for their hair or skin? What did you do to combat the smell? What other products did you mix with it for added benefits?
Hi Again!
A while back I asked about what people's thoughts were about building an EMR for hospitals. I've had a bit more time to think, and I'm back for more feedback if you guys are willing. I've decided to try and build this out module by module.
I'm thinking of starting with messaging applications. I know of at least one hospital in Canada that doesn't have one, and doctors turn to other means. I'm trying to contact them to see why they don't have one. I know there are a few on the market right now.
A few key things I think would be required
Device management. The ability to remotely wipe the local database of the application for either a specific device or all apps for a user.
Authentication with a single sign on service. I hope hospitals use one, and I would try to integrate with their service.
Secure messaging and file sharing. Everything is encrypted at rest and in transit.
Auditing. Have an admin portal where a hospital administrator can monitor chats.
A few things that I think would be useful to a hospital
Having a single space to message or call the on call doctor. The app would integrate with a scheduling system to figure out who is on call for any department at any moment and be able to send a regular or urgent message, or call them.
EMR integration to share a patient chart for a patient that's about to transfer to someone else and you want to give them a heads up, or to get a second opinion from a colleague.
Group/Department chats. Be able to start a group message around a patient, or have a single room for an entire department.
So what I know this is kinda a bare feature set. What do you guys think?
What would be one feature that you would start a campaign for your hospital to switch?
What kind of system does your hospital use?
Thanks for your time everyone. I greatly appreciate it!
I’ve seen the definition of smile lines debated a few time, so for context what I have are small creases, almost like wrinkles on either side of my lips. I noticed them when I was 14, and am currently only 17.
When I try to search for solutions to this issue, all I find are solutions intended for older women who have very pronounced wrinkles and Botox. I’m not sure what to do about them.
They are more pronounced when I wear makeup, and get worse throughout the day so I know they’re caused from my facial expressions. I have recently started drinking more water and applying a stronger moisturizer as to hydrate my skin, but I would love to hear if any of you have any possible solutions. here is kind of what mine look like, just more people obvious
Hi, I have joined other beauty related communities on Reddit. I have to notice that people suggest products containing both petrolatum, silicones, parabens and other ingredients not environment-friendly.
Most of the people claim that those ingredients are safe for the skin (that is debatable as they are safe only according to some restricted rules), but they don't seem to care at all about the environmental concerns.
Why is that? Have you noticed the same?
My school (in N.Y.) offers health insurance, but it is $2360 for a year and paid out in in 5 months, so almost $500 a month. This is too much. Is there a way I can get health insurance in new york as an OOS student?
