… at the College of American Pathologists, where I started a position Monday as senior editor for a monthly magazine the college publishes, CAP TODAY. The publication focuses principally on clinical issues in pathology, laboratory medicine and laboratory management. So, I have a lot to learn. The job is out in the suburb of Northfield, so I had to buy a car to make the daily commute. It’s interesting work so far and, hey, free coffee! I will, as I’ve done with all my previous jobs, post links to my articles. Given the audience at which the publication is aimed, however, these stories may be less accessible to the general reader than most of my previous work.
Author: Kevin B. O'Reilly
FDA Refuses to Set Dosage, Duration Limits on Opioid Labels
After more than a year of research, public hearings, and consideration of nearly 3,000 comments filed by physician organizations, patients, and others, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September altered the labeling of extended-release and long-acting opioid analgesics to place a greater emphasis on the medications’ safety risks. The action falls far short of the strict limits on the dosage and duration of opioid therapy for patients’ noncancer pain that were proposed by advocacy groups last year.
My latest, published in the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s Pain Medicine Network newsletter. Read the whole shebang.
I found my pen
At least for now. This one can seemingly do everything. It’s the Cross Tech 3+.
Simply twist the barrel to switch from black ink, to red ink, to mechanical pencil. Blue ink also is available.
And there’s the plus part, which is that the bottom end includes a nib that smoothly glides across the touch screen on any smartphone or tablet computer.
Which can be unscrewed to reveal an eraser for when the pencil is used. Of course!
Update: Another thing this pen can do, apparently, is become useless fairly quickly. The coating on the stylus nub that made it glide smoothly across the screen started peeling off within a week or two of use. Soon enough, the nub started getting stuck when dragging across my phone’s screen, making it difficult to use. In addition, I had trouble getting the mechanical pencil to remain functional. Every other time I tried to use it, normal writing would push the lead back up into the barrel and I’d have to replace it. Alas, the search for my pen continues.
Views from Washington Island, Wis.
Elizabeth and I took a trip up to Wisconsin a few weeks ago, leaving the morning after my last day on the job at American Medical News. What better way to celebrate unemployment? Here are a few photos from the trip. See more.
Who you lookin’ at, turkey?
Near the Northport Ferry Dock; Door County, Wis.
Schoolhouse Beach; Washington Island, Wis.
Ted’s Trail; Washington Island, Wis.
In childhood obesity battle, BMI-tracking by schools is losing policy
As schools around the country wrap up their first month back in session, parents soon may start receiving the first reports on how their children are shaping up — literally.
Public schools in 19 states now track students’ body mass index numbers and report the fat metrics back to parents. There may, indeed, be more schools tracking students’ BMI than there are schools teaching kids the arithmetic needed to do such calculations on their own. To some, this would seem like the prudent step to take given that childhood obesity has nearly tripled since 1990. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about one in five American children is obese, and one in three is overweight or obese.
There are only a couple of problems with this increasingly popular nanny-state tactic: There’s not much evidence that BMI-tracking reduces obesity, and it may harm the very children it’s meant to help.
My latest, for the R Street Institute. Read the whole shebang.
Health care reads for Sept. 16, 2013
In Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, Peter Frost reports that Illinois is way behind other states in getting the word out about buying insurance under the Affordable Care Act:
At the Minnesota State Fair last month, state employees handed out thousands of paperboard fans bearing pictures of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox to promote Minnesota’s health insurance marketplace.
Over Connecticut beaches this summer, airplanes flew banners emblazoned with “Get Covered!” as teams below distributed free sunscreen packets as part of the state’s campaign to get more of its residents insured under the Affordable Care Act.
In Colorado, Oregon and a handful of other states, radio and TV spots have been running for weeks encouraging the uninsured to seek health coverage starting Oct. 1.
In Illinois so far? Mostly silence.
The whole shebang.
And in New York magazine, Jonathan Chait attempts to explain — at length — why Obamacare “continues to drive many Republicans to madness.” He begins:
The Republican party has voted unanimously against establishing the Affordable Care Act in the Senate and then in the House of Representatives, then voted some 40 times to repeal or cripple it; it has mounted a nearly successful campaign to nullify it through the courts and a failed presidential campaign that promised to repeal it; and it has used its control of state governments to block the law’s implementation across vast swaths of the country, at enormous economic cost to those states. Yet somehow, in the wake of all this, the party is consumed with the question Have we done enough to stop Obamacare?
The whole shebang.
– 30 –
Today marks the cover date for the final print edition of American Medical News. Here’s what the front page looks like.
As the concluding quote to my valedictory story says: “With this issue we close an old friend who has served well.”
American Medical News ceases publication after 55-year run
A dramatic drop in medical-publishing revenues has resulted in the closure of American Medical News, effective with this final edition of the newspaper.
Published for more than five decades, AMNews was hit hard by industrywide trends. The newspaper’s revenue fell by two-thirds during the last decade, said Thomas J. Easley, senior vice president and publisher of periodic publications at the American Medical Association.
“Over a 10-year period of time, we were not able to generate an operating surplus for AMNews,” Easley said. “For some of those years, we were closer to break-even, and in others, we were further away. The last three years saw us get further and further from reaching break-even.”
My very last article in American Medical News. Read the whole shebang.
Confronting bias against obese patients
Medical educators are starting to raise awareness about how weight-related stigma can impair patient-physician communication and the treatment of obesity.
My last feature article in American Medical News. Read the whole shebang.
Study details how primary care diagnoses get delayed
Lack of care coordination, poor teamwork, miscommunication, patient no-shows and bureaucratic mix-ups are the leading factors contributing to months-long delays in diagnosis and treatment, said a review of 111 outpatient cases analyzed by the Veterans Affairs National Center or Patient Safety.
My latest. Read the whole shebang.
Patients improve test compliance by considering health impact
It is impossible for physicians to diagnose and treat patients who are unwilling to get recommended screening tests because they are scared of what the results might mean. Yet such behavior, which experts dub health-information avoidance, is common. Previous research has found, for example, that as many as 55% of people tested for HIV never return to learn the results.
A combination of factors drives this self-defeating behavior, health psychology researchers say. This “defensive avoidance” comes about because patients fear that test results would threaten their sense of self, make them feel bad or require lifestyle changes. But new research shows that prompting patients to first think about the potential implications of learning their risk of disease can improve their willingness to follow through with testing by about 50%, according to a study posted online July 10 in the journal Psychological Science.
My latest in American Medical News. Read the whole shebang.
Small doctor groups using IPAs to deliver care management
As physician payment increasingly shifts away from fee for service toward pay for improved quality outcomes, pressure is growing on small, independent doctor groups to keep pace with health-system owned practices.
One way to do that, suggests a study published in August, is for smaller practices to join together and pool resources for chronic disease-management services that can help doctors deliver better care for their patients.
My latest in American Medical News. Read the whole shebang.
Care for back pain out of sync with medical guidelines
Use of imaging, narcotic painkillers and referrals to other physicians has skyrocketed in treatment of patients with acute back pain, despite clinical practice guidelines urging doctors to take a conservative approach to such cases. This trend in back-pain care is getting worse with time, said a study of nearly 24,000 spine-related visits between 1999 and 2010.
My latest. Read the whole shebang.
kboreilly.com 
You must be logged in to post a comment.