Are government agency workers “here for the right reasons”?
Why the revolving door poses a serious problem for government agency regulation. More
Off-label, on-demand: The problems with drug delivery start-ups
New prescription drug delivery start-ups are bypassing the FDA's regulations on off-label marketing. More
Do you know how much your doctor receives from industry?
Two years after the Open Payments tool was launched, the vast majority of patients still don't know whether their doctor receives money from industry. Why? More
The unspoken rules of politics and medicine
In health care as well as politics, expectations of unethical behavior are often driven by unspoken rules, rather than explicit instructions. More
Outcome misreporting goes ignored by top medical journals
In the COMPare trial, researchers set out to find out how prevalent outcome reporting errors are in major journals, and how these journals respond to criticism. The results were not pretty... More
Esketamine nears FDA approval, prompting both excitement and concern
As the powerful depression drug esketamine nearly FDA approval, some researchers are concerned that the approval would be lowering the bar for clinical evidence. More
Conflicts of interest cloud stroke intervention guidelines
Do financial conflicts play a role in explaining the differences in recommendations for acute stroke interventions between specialty societies? More
Rising price has pushed insulin out of reach for some people
The cost of insulin has increased over 250 percent since 2007, according to the American Diabetes Association, and patients are looking to lawmakers for relief. Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute and co-chairman of the Right Care Alliance both based in Brookline, said a handful of drug companies create an “iron triangle” with insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers that has led to skyrocketing insulin prices. More
The moral price we pay for “innovation”
Our willingness to turn a blind eye to the profiteering of biotech is a moral failing, writes Dr. Vikas Saini in a Commonhealth op-ed. More
Shkreli awards for the worst actors in health care
Unbridled greed and disrespect for human suffering seems to be the driver of all award winners. More
As Drug Prices Rise, Is Boston’s Prosperity Based On A Moral Crime?
The week before Thanksgiving, in the freezing rain, a group of patients, nurses, physicians and activists, organized by the Right Care Alliance, marched on the Sanofi drug company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sanofi had been marking up its insulin products by as much as 4,500 percent over to the estimated cost of producing a single vial — and people with type 1 diabetes were starting to die. Led by grieving mothers, we carried the ashes of their children to the insulin manufacturer demanding it cut its prices. More
Are we over-regulating diagnostic tests?
Do FDA rules make it too difficult for new diagnostic tests to be approved? Or is it too easy? More
In pharmaceutical marketing, a little goes a long way
A new study shows that in pharmaceutical marketing, the number of doctors you target may matter more than the amount of money you give them. More
Why can’t we get real hospital prices?
Why can't we get better price transparency for health care services in hospitals? Because the "real" price doesn't exist... More
Greediest players in US healthcare “honoured” in awards
A drug company topped a list of the worst actors in US healthcare for the second year in a row, but other industry sectors—such as hospitals, physicians, and insurers—gained ground in the second annual Shkreli Awards.1 “This year we quite intentionally cast a wider net than just the well known and insane greed of the pharmaceutical sector,” said Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, an advocacy group that bestows the awards, in an email. “We wanted to make the point that profiteering has become rampant and is not confined to any one particular sector of the healthcare enterprise.”
FDA’s proposed reform for medical devices lacks teeth
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer explain why the FDA's proposed changes are unlikely to make a real difference in medical device safety. More
Health Care Industry Spends $30B A Year Pushing Its Wares, From Drugs To Stem Cell Treatment
“Whenever pharma or a hospital spends money on advertising, we the patients pay for it — through higher prices for drugs and hospital services,” said Shannon Brownlee, senior vice president of the Lown Institute, a Brookline, Mass., nonprofit that advocates for affordable care. “Marketing is built into the cost of care.” More
The FDA is still letting doctors implant untested devices into our bodies
Ten years ago, Kathleen Yaremchuk raced to the bedside of a patient inexplicably gasping for breath. Chair of the department of otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Yaremchuk performed an emergency tracheotomy on the woman, cutting a hole in her windpipe, inserting a breathing tube and saving her life. When Yaremchuk began getting more calls over the following months for mysterious cases of respiratory distress, she launched a study to figure out what was going on. More
A final HealthNewsReview.org report card from 3,200+ systematic reviews of health care news stories & PR releases
One of the things that I’m most proud of about my team’s work is that we didn’t merely grade performance. We offered constructive criticism intended to improve performance. More
Community benefit spending not well defined or reported, investigation shows
An analysis by Modern Healthcare finds that reported spending on community benefits by hospitals leave out important information, and vary widely between hospitals across the country. More