MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'big'. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:19:36 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3385458&cid=t_124536_129_f&fid=34869&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fdiet-blog%2F%7E3%2FmUkOMRNwkRg%2Fkraft_foods_slashing_sodium_by_10.php Media Bonnint If it comes in a box and is labeled "food," odds are it's loaded with salt. Salt is the great preserver. You want that powdered macaroni and cheese to last 100 years? Pack it with salt! Here's the problem. Salt isn't exactly a human's best friend, it raises our blood pressure. So that's why Kraft says it will cut the sodium in their products by 10% over the next two years. Continue reading... (Source: Diet Blog) Diet Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3385458 Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3385458 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3378509&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2010%2F03%2F18%2Fa-deep-and-abiding-respect%2F In the debate over how to make our EMS systems and ourselves better at what we do, there is an underlying danger that’s worth mentioning. After we’ve examined the research, explored the systems and best practices, fought to advance our scope of practice, supported competence, raised minimum standards and advanced ourselves as a profession, there is an underlying danger that we should mention. There’s a pitfall that we should take care to avoid. The danger is that we may begin to do our work for the sake of the work itself, instead of for a deep and abiding respect for life. Life in general and the lives we specifically serve. We strive for competence, not out of a misguided need to build ourselves, but out of an earnest desire to be capable of meeting the needs of the pa... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3378509 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:00:01 +0100 3378509 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3374317&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2Fc1De80F8vSM%2F In a brilliant piece entitled Big Data Is Less About Size, And More About Freedom, Bradford Cross talks about about the democratization of analyzing data at scale. As he so correctly points out, the data age has a lot to do with the cool things we can do with data today. Yes data sizes are getting large, but large is relative. I heard numbers today that make the output from many genomics centers sound like a walk in the park, but for the average lab, the average startup, increasing amounts of data are still only in the range of terabytes, not petabytes as some of us (like yours truly) like to talk about. Brad talks about trends in computing and software that have allowed data-driven companies like Flightcaster to get to market faster. He breaks down these trends into three chunks Storing ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3374317 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:00:40 +0100 3374317 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3374386&cid=t_124536_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Frecoveryissexy.com%2Fa-vision-for-you-2%2F ‘A vision for you’ is the title of chapter 11 of the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book. This phrase is often used to refer to the last three paragraphs of chapter 11 and is sometimes read at AA meetings. “Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. The Higher Power will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us. Abandon yourself to Higher Power as you understand Higher Power. Admit your faults to Him... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3374386 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:01:57 +0100 3374386 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3370683&cid=t_124536_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FRecoveryIsSexycom%2F%7E3%2FiNXOZa5ypII%2F ‘A vision for you’ is the title of chapter 11 of the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book. This phrase is often used to refer to the last three paragraphs of chapter 11 and is sometimes read at AA meetings. “Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. The Higher Power will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us. Abandon yourself to Higher Power as you understand Higher Power. Admit your faults to Him... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3370683 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:01:57 +0100 3370683 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3370395&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FznpnOqIMtPM%2F By Daniel J. MitchellIn this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a Swedish economics student makes three important points. Sweden became a rich nation in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s by relying a free markets and small government.   Growth deteriorated beginning in the 1970s after the imposition of high tax rates and a big increase in the burden of government spending. For the last 20 years, Swedish lawmakers have been trying to restore prosperity by lowering tax rates and adopting pro-market policies. So if Swedes have learned from their mistakes and are now trying to reduce the size and scope of government, why are American politicians determined to repeat those mistakes? This is something to keep in mind with a looming vote on a giant expansion of ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3370395 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:37:30 +0100 3370395 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3370603&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FTkV3ISv4aFk%2F Times change. Last week I was at a local science event and the speaker talked about their data being in Seattle and their compute literally being diagonally across the country in Florida (something that sort of happened for various reasons). That is quite the distance for data to travel. It’s even more for a lot of data to travel. As I commented when asked about solutions to that problem, my answer was “don’t move the data”. Well it’s true. Even with companies out there that help you move large quantities if data, the only good solution for data at this scale is to keep the data in one place and move the compute around. Cheaper, more efficient, and a better use of the network. IMO, the days of moving data sets over the wire are long gone. You can move slices a... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3370603 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:35 +0100 3370603 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3366216&cid=t_124536_99_f&fid=34593&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fscienceblogs%2FAyaJ%2F%7E3%2FIsWlN07Copw%2Fthe_headline_you_didnt_see_roc.php I've had occasion to remark a number of times how much of what is reported as "science news" is just warmed over press releases from university media departments or company flacks. I read them anyway, often sucked in my a headline that turns out to oversell the case. Now I'm becoming aware headlines can also (deliberately) undersell the case. Consider two press releases that came out on virtually the same day, one from Big Pharma Pfizer, the other from biotech player, Genentech, owned by Big Pharma's Roche (maker of Tamiflu). Pfizer, first. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: Effect Measure) Effect Measure blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3366216 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:14:31 +0100 3366216 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3366438&cid=t_124536_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FRecoveryIsSexycom%2F%7E3%2FbKboQXuS1pw%2F Seek and yee shall find These Ten Pointers are a summary of the lifesaving directions to recovery from alcoholism given in ‘How It Works’, chapter 5 of Alcoholics Anonymous – the AA Big Book. Completely give yourself to this simple Program. Practice rigorous honesty. Be willing to go to any lengths to recover. Be fearless and thorough in your practice of the principles. Realize that there is no easier, softer way. Let go of your old ideas, absolutely. Recognize that half measures will not work. Ask a Higher Power’s protection and care with complete abandon. Be willing to grow along spiritual lines. Accept the following ideas: that you cannot manage your own life; that probably no human power can restore you to sanity; that A Higher Power can and will if sought. See also 12 Sp... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3366438 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:04:28 +0100 3366438 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3363772&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F2zc50UROtzQ%2F Dan Koboldt has a great post on the state of sequencing in 2010 (can we drop “next-gen” now?), and beyond I guess. It’s certainly getting crowded out there, and it did look like that the major players were essentially fighting for the same space and share of the market, but based on what Dan says, that seems to be changing. I should add that I am not in the trenches, and my interests lie on the data management, analysis and infrastructure side of things, so can’t comment on individual technologies per se. It’s interesting to see how various players seem to be positioning themselves, although where folks end up and who survives will depend on all kinds of factors. The scientific market is fickle and quite honestly, the factors that define success are not alway... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3363772 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:19:29 +0100 3363772 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3363699&cid=t_124536_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F13%2Fjon-hanson-on-situationism-and-dispositionism%2F Situationist Contributor was recently interviewed by Big Think.  Here is his answer to the following questions: “What is wrong with our legal system’s notion of human behavior?”; and “What led you to study the link between law and cognition?” * * * * * * For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Hanson’s Chair Lecture on Situationism,” “Legal Academic Backlash – Abstract,” “‘Situation’ Trumps ‘Disposition’ – Part I,” and ““Situation” Trumps “Disposition”- Part II.” (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3363699 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:38:40 +0100 3363699 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3362490&cid=t_124536_129_f&fid=34869&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fdiet-blog%2F%7E3%2FAVJ_iP8FVV8%2Fdominos_pizza_scores_big_profits_with_recipe_change.php Fat Wallet Looks like Domino's new advertising strategy paid off - no pun intended - the maker of non-pizza more than doubled its fourth quarter profits. Sorry, unless it's made in New York by a big Italian guy named Gino, it's not really pizza! But Michigan-based Domino's Pizza is now raking in the cash since addressing customer complaints and changing their recipe.Continue reading... (Source: Diet Blog) Diet Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3362490 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3362490 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3354257&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=34595&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnhsblogdoc.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F03%2Fhealth-police-are-back-cholesterol.html Yet another mendacious headline from the biased BBC, this time slagging off GPs for "failing to give correct cholesterol targets".  It's the usual nonsense that results when medically untrained journalists misunderstand a bit of research, and want a cheap headline. And it does not come cheaper than the daily knee-jerk knocking of GPs in which a certain sort of journalist revels.Few journalists are medically trained and so, when they come across a health problem, they have to research it. Because they did not about it before, they automatically assume that that the main cause of the problem is that British family doctors did not know about it either. Medical journalists do not expect GPs to know about anything, because they think that the 40,000 + GPs in the UK are all incompetent. Hos... NHS Blog Doctor blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3354257 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:15:00 +0100 3354257 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3346523&cid=t_124536_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2010%2F03%2F09%2Fpersonality-and-retirement%2F Who retires gracefully, who adjusts to retirement easily and who doesn’t. Which personality traits play a part in successful retirement? The five factor model of personality or the Big Five can be used to see how personality traits are linked to how people adjust to retirement. It has been done in the past for other life transitions. The researchers not only used the Big Five but also the Satisfaction with Life Scale and questionnaires devised to measure reasons for retirement and the quality of experiences in retirement. These questionnaires were all part of an online survey on which 365 individuals responded, of whom 86 were close to retirement and 279 were already retired. From this research extraversion was found to relate to life satisfaction while still at work but not during r... Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3346523 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:15:46 +0100 3346523 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3346425&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=34867&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thediabetesblog.com%2F2010%2F03%2F09%2Faustin-freeman-diagnosed-with-diabetes%2F Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Daily NewsGeorgetown guard Austin Freeman has developed diabetes, which shouldn't affect his basketball career, but has made the junior's status questionable for today's start to the Big East tournament in New York City. Regardless of when he begins playing, his physician, Stephen Clement, head of the Diabetes Center at Georgetown University Hospital, will be on hand to help the Hoyas' leading scorer manage his condition. Clement told reporters at a press conference that it may take up to a month to determine which type of diabetes Freeman has. Type 1 diabetes, which occurs when the pancreas stops producing insulin, afflicts five to 10 percent of all diabetics. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body can't use the insulin that is produced. Freeman had felt ill... The Diabetes Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3346425 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3346425 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3331272&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFoQ8oiiqrq0%2F By Daniel J. MitchellPresident Obama and many other politicians in Washington are big fans of pay-as-you-go budgeting, which means they want any new spending or tax relief offset (or “paid for”) with tax increases or spending cuts from other parts of the budget. Or at least that’s what they claim. But when Senator Bunning took them at their word and blocked a $10 billion spending bill because his colleagues were unwilling to make some tiny changes elsewhere, he was treated like a leper. Even his Republicans colleagues largely disapproved of his actions (so much for having learned any lessons from the drubbings they took at the polls in 2006 and 2008). Attacked from all sides, Bunning eventually relented in exchange for an offset vote (which was defeated, of course). What ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3331272 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:45:25 +0100 3331272 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3326967&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fw5QEdLg-b7g%2F By Daniel J. MitchellSenator Jim Bunning of Kentucky may be the most unpopular man in Washington right now. And, as you may surmise, this means he is doing something admirable (envision Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and you’ll have the right context). Republicans and Democrats want to rush through a bill to spend more money on everything from highways to healthcare to joblessness. Senator Bunning is simply saying that the new spending should be financed by reallocating some of the unspent money from the so-called stimulus. For this modest proposal, Bunning is being treated like a porcupine at a nudist camp, with both Republicans and Democrats expressing irritation that he is making it harder for them to buy votes with other people’s money. I am delighted that S... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3326967 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:35:56 +0100 3326967 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3314638&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2010%2F02%2F26%2Fpassion-counts%2F If you’re going to design a ski resort I imagine that you don’t need to really like skiing, but I bet it helps. I imagine the same is true for most jobs. I would guess that a movie buff would run a better movie theater, a salesman would perform better if he was a true believer in his product, a car detailer would be more successful is she loved cars and a fitness trainer would be far better is he had a burning desire to improve people’s health. For jobs that require skill, insight and good judgment (Like our job does.) passion counts. Passion is important. For jobs that require artistic expression (Like our job does.) passion is essential. No artist ever became great without passion. Without it you may master the skill set, but you’ll never be great. You may get t... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3314638 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:50:37 +0100 3314638 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3294578&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtLqhcv2fpMk%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThere were many reasons to oppose last year’s so-called stimulus legislation. But perhaps one of the most compelling reasons is that politicians and bureaucrats inevitably do really stupid things because the federal budget is a racket designed to funnel the maximum amount of money to powerful interest groups. Here’s a great example from a story linked on Kausfiles.com. A city in New Hampshire wanted to stick its snout in the trough in order to subsidize a water treatment plant, but eventually decided to reject the money because the local government’s out-of-pocket costs would increase – primarily thanks to corrupt rules designed to line the pockets of union bosses, but also because of protectionist requirements and a mind-boggling $100,000 of p... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3294578 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:35:34 +0100 3294578 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3287719&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FOrHZNStS1Ds%2F By Daniel J. MitchellWhile admitting that spending restraint is the ideal approach, Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution asks whether a value-added tax (VAT) might be the most desirable of all realistic options for dealing with an unsustainable budget situation. Read his post for yourself, but I think a fair summary is that he is basically saying that a) there will be a crisis if we don’t do something about future deficits, b) a crisis will result in very bad policy, and c) if we support a VAT now, we will at least be able to extract concessions from the other side. I have no idea whether there will be a future crisis, but I think the rest of Tyler’s argument is wrong. But before explaining my position, let’s start by stating what I assume to be our mutual objective, which ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3287719 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:39:45 +0100 3287719 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3279956&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fy_O6FXCUE8o%2F By David BoazBruce Caldwell, editor of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek and Director of the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University, writes in today’s Washington Post about the booming interest in Hayek: Friedrich Hayek, Nobel-prize winning economist and well-known proponent of free markets, is having a big month. He was last seen rap-debating with John Maynard Keynes in the viral video above, (in which Hayek is portrayed as the sober voice of reason while Keynes overindulges at a party at the Fed). His 1944 book, “The Road to Serfdom,” provided the theme for John Stossel’s Fox Business News program on Valentine’s Day. Hayek, who died in 1992, is also reemerging as a bestselling author. A new edition of Hayek’s seminal book, &#82... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3279956 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:12:25 +0100 3279956 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3273059&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D2162 LGBT ally Rep Diane Watson will not run for re-election by Karen Ocamb February 11, 2010 Longtime LGBT ally Congressmember Diane E. Watson (D-CA) formally announced Thursday that she is not seeking re-election. She wants Karen Bass, the outgoing Speaker of the California Assembly and another pro-LGBT ally, to replace her representing California’s 33rd Congressional District. Watson’s openly gay legislative deputy Charles Stewart describes below how his boss told her staff she was retiring. But first something about Watson. I first met Diane Watson in the early 1990s at AIDS activist Phill Wilson’s house for a meet and greet with the California State Senator, where she’d been serving since 1978. First thing that struck me was how tall she was – statuesque and elegant and smart. Tu... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3273059 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:26:33 +0100 3273059 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3269702&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2010%2F02%2F13%2Fcredibility-and-redundancy%2F I’m going to make an important point and I need you to pay attention. That sentence, the one I just wrote. The one about saying something important. That was a redundant statement. And it undermined your sense of my credibility as a blogger and an EMS educator. No really, it did. Not in a huge way. Not like if I had said something that you knew to be completely false, or got all wishy-washy, namby-pamby about some critical issue regarding your patient care. But it made you doubt my sincerity just a little. Somewhere in your subconscious you thought, “If it’s important, why not just say it?” You questioned why I felt the need to preface my important thought with a statement declaring my own thought important. It’s as if I doubted my own credibility. So why shou... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3269702 Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:00:30 +0100 3269702 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3266889&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fj5XsHa47BeU%2F By Daniel J. MitchellIf you want to get depressed or angry, the New York Times has an article celebrating the effort by politicians at all levels of government to lure more people into the food stamp program. New York City is running ads in foreign languagues asking people to stick their snouts in the public trough. The City is even signing up prisoners when they get out of jail. The state of New York, meanwhile, actually set up quotas for enrolling new recipients. And on the federal level, there apparently is a program that gives states “bonuses” for putting more people on the dole. No wonder one out of every eight Americans is receiving food stamps. By the way, this is not just the fault of Democrats. The ranking Republican on the Agriculture Committee is a big defender of th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3266889 Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:04:46 +0100 3266889 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3262837&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D2148 Researchers find ‘broad spectrum’ antiviral that fights multitude of viruses By Enrique Rivero February 01, 2010 Compound could be used against HIV-1, Nipah, Ebola and other deadly viruses Viruses are insidious creatures. They differ from each other in many ways, and they can mutate — at times seemingly at will, as with HIV — to resist a host of weapons fired at them. Complicating matters further is that new viruses are constantly emerging. One potential weapon is a small-molecule “broad spectrum” antiviral that will fight a host of viruses by attacking them through some feature common to an entire class of viruses. For example, there are two categories of viruses: lipid-enveloped and non-enveloped. Enveloped viruses are surrounded by a membrane that in effect ... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3262837 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:05:14 +0100 3262837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3262838&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D2145 Scientists say [they've] crack[ed] HIV/AIDS puzzle for drugs By Kate Kelland January 31, 2010 Study solves puzzle that eluded scientists for 20 years * Finding should help development of new HIV/AIDS medicines * Allows scientists to see how Merck and Gilead drugs work LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Scientists say they have solved a crucial puzzle about the AIDS virus after 20 years of research and that their findings could lead to better treatments for HIV. British and U.S. researchers said they had grown a crystal that enabled them to see the structure of an enzyme called integrase, which is found in retroviruses like HIV and is a target for some of the newest HIV medicines. “Despite initially painstakingly slow progress and very many failed attempts, we did not give up and our effort w... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3262838 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:10:53 +0100 3262838 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3259184&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.latalkradio.com%2Fimages%2FTerry-013110.mp3 Terry LeGrand’s The Alternative Internet Radio Channel 1Sunday nights 6:00-7:00 http://www.latalkradio.com/ chers— click below to listen or download the audiofile namaste —rk Broadcast date: Sunday, January 31, 2010 Guests Richard Kearns, a poet, journalist, activist, organizer for the LA Grassroots Elder HIV/AIDS Advocacy Summit, and long time AIDS survivor, and Elliott Katz discussed LA Grassroots Elder HIV/AIDS Advocacy Summit along with a special visit from LATalkRadio’s Greg Rempe discussing BBQ. Please click this sentence to Play audio recording of show Please click this sentence to Download audio recording of show Terry Le Grand transfers his show “The Alternative” from KTLK 1170 Los Angeles to LATALK Radio. Terry Le Grand, has been a GAY activist fo... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3259184 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:59:28 +0100 3259184 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3262757&cid=t_124536_129_f&fid=34869&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fdiet-blog%2F%7E3%2FUpH8AfibD18%2Fpoll_jillian_michaels_sued_for_false_claims.php The Biggest Loser loud mouth, Jillian Michaels, has sure been riding the fame train that the popular show has brought her. Some feel that Jillian is exceeding her qualifications by delving into the world of nutrition and supplements.Continue reading... (Source: Diet Blog) Diet Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3262757 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3262757 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3259262&cid=t_124536_150_f&fid=38374&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2F1Oq_auNP_-c%2Fepharma-summit-2010-interview-straight.html (Source: ePharma Summit) ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3259262 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:53:00 +0100 3259262 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3248663&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FTvnl_7QU6hU%2F I’ve written about the distributed self and science data platforms. A lot of the former was around the notion of pubsub, and pushing data to various places. Now imagine a scenario where you are using data from a variety of scientific repositories and you’ve built applications that use APIs to collect data. What if your data sources would update you everytime there was a change, so that your systems could automatically fetch any updates and rebuild anything that needed to be rebuilt, do any pre-computing that needed to be done. The model that Anil Dash talked about in his classic Push-Button Web post is relevant here as well. We have the tools to do this today. Real time, asynchronous messaging is part of distributed computing, and the variety of data repositories out there sho... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3248663 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:05:03 +0100 3248663 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3239750&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F__bk0ve1EoE%2F An Introduction to JavaScript Map/Reduce in Riak from Basho Technologies on Vimeo. Riak is a non-relational datastore with a cool API and nifty Map/Reduce features. The new features in version 0.8 are described here (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3239750 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:09:22 +0100 3239750 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3235972&cid=t_124536_129_f&fid=34869&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fdiet-blog%2F%7E3%2FfxHIE2GzPAM%2Fwhat_if_advertisers_couldnt_lie.php I saw the movie "The Invention of Lying" recently. Very brief synopsis: the movie takes place in a world where everybody tells the truth, all of the time. There is one part early in the film where the main character (Ricky Gervais) is watching a Coke commercial. This is how it transpires: Hi I'm Bob, I'm the spokesperson for Coca-Cola. I'm here today to ask you to continue buying Coke.... It's just brown sugar water... they haven't changed the ingredients around lately so there's not much new I can tell you about that... we've changed the can around a bit though and added a polar bear (so kids will like us)... Coke is very high in sugar and like any high calorie soda can lead to obesity in children and adults who don't sustain a very healthy lifestyle. Continue reading... (Source: Diet ... Diet Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3235972 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3235972 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3227720&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3sNsaUG-6i0%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThe Office of Management and Budget has released the President’s FY2011 budget and the Congressional Budget Office has released its semi-annual Budget and Economic Outlook. Much of the coverage of these documents has focused on deficit numbers. This is not a trivial concern, particularly since the Bush-Obama policies of bigger government have dramatically boosted red ink. But the most important numbers in the budget documents are the estimates of what is happening to government spending. The good news is that burden of government spending is projected to decline over the next few years from about 25 percent of GDP to less than 23 percent of GDP. That’s the good news. The bad news is that federal government outlays only consumed 18.2 percent of economic out... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3227720 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:06:27 +0100 3227720 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3208690&cid=t_124536_150_f&fid=38374&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2FxoaJBTSCs2k%2Fny-governor-patterson-pushes-for-pharma.html (Source: ePharma Summit) ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3208690 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:54:00 +0100 3208690 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3208336&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Frj_BJDzEg5o%2F By Daniel J. MitchellAs reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Obama Administration will propose a three-year freeze for a portion of the budget known as “non-defense discretionary” spending. Many critics will correctly note that this is like going on a drunken binge in Vegas and then temporarily joining Alcoholics Anonymous. Others will point out that more than 80 percent of the budget has been exempted, which also is an accurate criticism. Nonetheless, even a partial freeze would be a semi-meaningful achievement. But don’t get too excited yet. It is not clear whether the White House is proposing a genuine spending freeze, meaning “budget outlays” for these programs stay at $447 billion for three years, or a make-believe freeze that applies only to “b... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3208336 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:48:27 +0100 3208336 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3204840&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Ff2PsNEkFQuA%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThis new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity explains how last year’s so-called stimulus was a flop – and also reveals why politicians are pushing for another big-government spending bill. Interestingly, since last year’s stimulus was such a disaster, the redistributionists in Washington are calling their new proposal a “jobs bill.” But as I say in the video, this is akin to putting perfume on a hog. For further background, here is a video explaining why Keynesian economics is wrong and another predicting (in advance!) that last year’s stimulus would be a mistake. And just in case anyone actually wants the economy to grow faster, here’s one about policies that actually increase prosperity. (Source: Cato-at-liber... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3204840 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:11:28 +0100 3204840 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3205129&cid=t_124536_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FRecoveryIsSexycom%2F%7E3%2F5tNJs81mRJ4%2F  The title of chapter 11 of the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book. This phrase is often used to refer to the last three paragraphs of chapter 11 and is sometimes read at AA meetings. "Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. The Higher Power will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us. Abandon yourself to Higher Power as you understand Higher Power. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3205129 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:24:43 +0100 3205129 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3200465&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2010%2F01%2F23%2Fbrotherhood%2F The Good Lord saw fit to grant me but one sibling, a brother. He’s a good brother. He calls, he Skypes, he visits me half way across the country for road trips and family outings. He’s in nursing school right now so I get to listen to him yammer on about how nurses are the greatest thing in all of medicine. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, he’s not even out of school yet and he’s learning how to be patronizing to us EMS folk. He’s going to make a really good nurse. Sometimes I wonder if my brother wouldn’t be irked if he knew how many people I refer to as brother. Honestly, he’s the only one with clear rights to the title. He was the one defending me at the school lockers in junior high. He was the one that had to sacrifice the video game... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3200465 Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:21:51 +0100 3200465 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3197689&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2010%2F01%2F21%2Fthe-nonconformists-guide-is-here%2F I’ve gone live with the book and newsletter sign up and it appears that everything is running smoothly. I’ve already had a half dozen sign-ups and the link has only been posted for a few minutes. Thanks for your patience. This writing project took me nearly six months to finish. I had an idea of what I wanted this book to be and I wasn’t willing to stop until I’d succeeded. The result is The Non-Conformists’ Guide to EMS Success. This is no pamphlet or power point slide show. This is 48 pages, almost 16,000 words, and chapter after chapter of compelling ideas designed to challenge the way you think about your job, your leadership, your life, and your role in EMS. And it’s all free. If you’re ready to stop listening to me talking about it and get... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3197689 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:09:17 +0100 3197689 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3171875&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FxARilHuwfH0%2F By Chris Moody Nat Hentoff: If you’re looking for reform in Cuba, don’t rest your hopes on Raul Castro. Tim Carney, author of Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses gives the inside scoop on why big government is good for big business. The Patriot Act: What should go, and what should stay? Dear Poor People- “Please remain poor.” Sincerely, Obamacare. Podcast: “Obamanomics in Health Care” featuring Tim Carney. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3171875 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:36:53 +0100 3171875 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3171922&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2010%2F01%2F14%2Fthe-e-book-is-coming%2F OK, I can’t keep this to myself any longer. It’s time for the big announcement. With the final draft still in the mail from my editorial team and the final design still lacking a few details, it would probably be best to just keep this under wraps for a few more weeks, but I can’t wait. My first E-book is scheduled for release on January 21st, one week from today. The e-book will be free and it will be available right here at The Spot. The Book is called The Non-Conformists Guide to EMS Success. This book is the culmination of two decades of EMS experiences, mistakes, failures, trials, and errors that lead to my ultimate success. My goal was to write something that would be useful to EMTs at any stage in their career. And I didn’t hold anything back. This is my r... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3171922 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:00:39 +0100 3171922 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3172205&cid=t_124536_150_f&fid=38374&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2FozrjAMKOYxQ%2Fpfizer-offers-no-strings-attached-grant.html (Source: ePharma Summit) ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3172205 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:32:00 +0100 3172205 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3167450&cid=t_124536_150_f&fid=38374&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2FozrjAMKOYxQ%2Fpfizer-offers-no-strings-attached-grant.html (Source: ePharma Summit) ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3167450 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:32:00 +0100 3167450 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3163977&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FhPNIq8hQG5Q%2F I have written about TrendingTopics before. Pete Skomoroch gave a talk on how to build a data intensive web app using Hadoop, Hive and Amazon EC2 at Hadoopworld and the video is now available Building Data Intensive Apps with Hadoop and EC2 from Cloudera on Vimeo. Please see this disclaimer (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3163977 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:52:56 +0100 3163977 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3167431&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Ffda_warns_lilly_over_false_misleading_cymbalta_ads.html The FDA has issued a warning to Eli Lilly concerning print ads for its anti-depressant Cymbalta. I've not been able to find the letter but have seen multiple press accounts. Here's what the FDA apparently said. "'The print ad is false or misleading in that it presents efficacy claims for Cymbalta, but fails to adequately communicate the risks associated with its use,' the FDA said. 'The Blue Book Message is false or misleading because it overstates the efficacy of Cymbalta and minimizes the risks associated with the drug.'" Risks associated with an anti-depressant? A pharma company downplaying risks? I've never heard of such a thing! (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3167431 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3167431 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3157623&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FYk77IaRONdw%2F In a recent editorial (sub might be required) talking about next-gen sequencing and cloud computing, Nature Biotech makes an all to familiar error. It remains unclear, however, whether the cost of routinely renting time on the cloud would be cost effective in the long term, particularly if a user intends to analyze billions of base pairs of genome sequence on a regular basis. What’s more, if the wide uptake of sequence analysis on clouds depends on the availability of user-friendly, debugged software, bioinformaticians might not be willing to spend the time to familiarize themselves with hadoop, the open source program needed to process large data sets on a cloud—especially when their jobs focus on developing algorithms for their own local computer clusters. The context for that... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3157623 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:09:35 +0100 3157623 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3156614&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FqmRZhyipCJ0%2F In an article on TechFlash, a VC, talking about trends in 2010, had this to say while talking about increased IT needs in cleantech and biotech Both areas are generating terabytes of data and it is no longer just about science — it is about digesting mountains of data. For some reason that statement scared me. Digesting mountains of data is all about the science. If we forget that, we are in big trouble. Yes, from a pure technology perspective it is about digesting mountains of data, but (a) that has to be looked at in the context of science (sense-making?), and (b) the digesting is a necessary pre-requisite to getting to the science. You really don’t have much of a choice, but if you forget about the science, you will end up with noise, a whole lot of it. My advice to all ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3156614 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:16:39 +0100 3156614 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3145951&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FYzgHWs1zuds%2F By Chris Moody Nat Hentoff reports on racism in Cuba. Federal judge dismisses charges against Blackwater guards over the killing of 17 in Baghdad. David Isenberg: “The fact that the Blackwater contractors are not getting a trial will only serve to further increase suspicion of and hostility towards security contractors. It is going to be even more difficult for them to gain the trust of local populations or government officials in the countries they work in.” New report shows state and local government workers have higher average compensation levels than private workers. Podcast: “Televising and Subsidizing the Big Game” featuring Neal McCluskey. “Everybody should watch the National College Football Championship because whether you’re interested or... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3145951 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:51:56 +0100 3145951 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3145958&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FZD-eVeJSTKk%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThe late George Stigler, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, is famous in part because of his work on “regulatory capture,” which occurs when interest groups use the coercive power of government to thwart competition and undeservedly line their own pockets. A perfect (and distasteful) example of this can be found in today’s Washington Post, which reports that the IRS plans to impose new regulations dictating who can prepare tax returns. Not surprisingly, the new rules have the support of big tax preparation shops such as H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, which see this as an opportunity to squeeze smaller competitors out of the market. The IRS and the big firms claim more regulations are needed to protect consumers from shoddy work, but this is th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3145958 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:56:46 +0100 3145958 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3146190&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Feffexor_has_87_percent_profit_margin.html A very interesting bit from a very smart financial analyst who went and somehow figured out which drugs had the largest pre-tax profit margins. Topping the list was Effexor with an 87 percent pre-tax profit margin. Even more astonishing is that more than half of the drugs the analyst looked at had pre-tax margins of 70 percent or greater. Here's the list via Pharmalot: 1 - Effexor (Pfizer) 87 percent 2 - Arimidex (AstraZeneca) 85 percent 3 - Femara (Novartis) 84 percent 4 - Detrol (Pfizer) 84 percent 5 - Gemzar (Lilly) 84 percent 6 - Xeloda (Roche) 82 percent 7 - Lipitor (Pfizer) 82 percent 8 - Zometa (Novartis) 81 percent 9 - Plavix (Bristol-Myers/Sanofi-Aventis) 81 percent* 10 - Taxotere (Sanofi-Aventis) 80 percent * - for the total brand, ignoring profit splits (Source: Furious Seaso... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3146190 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3146190 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3126747&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FK2eBlK77BAc%2F Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat have an updated MapReduce paper (doi) in the Communications of the ACM. The paper is a pretty strong rebuttal to some claims by Mike Stonebraker and others on the value of the MapReduce model. I am going to let you read the paper (as well as the original papers). What I wanted to talk about were some of the key aspects of the MapReduce model and how this way of thinking is relevant to the life sciences. The first point that Dean and Ghemawat talk about is heterogenous systems. The way I see it, the entire field of bioinformatics is full of heterogenous systems. Even data we generate in internal systems needs to be combined with data from other systems. In fact, I am pretty sure that as we improve delivery models and APIs for life science data resources, we wil... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3126747 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:15:08 +0100 3126747 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3106721&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FOJIqNAfpXes%2F By Daniel J. MitchellGerman politicians apparently have been hot on the trail of evil evaders who did not pay tax on coffee ordered over the Internet. To address this terrible crisis, the government spent 800,000 euro and tracked down 4000 dangerous criminals. Shockingly, a few cynics, including the folks at Reuters, are trying to diminish this triumph by pointing out that the government spent 30 times more than it collected: Germany spent more than 30 times as much collecting taxes on coffee beans ordered online from abroad than it received in the tax revenues, the accounting office said on Tuesday. Some 4,000 Germans who bought coffee over the Internet from other EU countries but failed to pay the coffee tax have been charged between a few cents to 10 euros ($14.81) in taxes and fees, sa... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3106721 Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:20:10 +0100 3106721 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3104997&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJPUOod4bfg0%2F By Daniel J. MitchellPat Michaels and others are working heroically to save America from global central planning for purposes of combatting global warming (or climate change, or whatever they’re calling it now). But let’s also be thankful this holiday season for our Founding Fathers, who wisely created a system based on separation of powers. If the United States had a parliamentary system, there would be no hope of derailing some of the statist schemes being discusssed in DC, even if Pat worked 24 hours a day. The secretary of state, for instance, is issuing pronouncements about putting American tapxayers on the chopping block to help finance $100 billion per year of new “climate change” foreign aid. This money can only be squandered, however, if the House and Sen... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3104997 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:44:29 +0100 3104997 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092934&cid=t_124536_150_f&fid=38374&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2F33SKyv-Ksp4%2Fsenate-rejects-dorgans-plan-to-import.html (Source: ePharma Summit) ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092934 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:07:00 +0100 3092934 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3089309&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F12%2F15%2Freasons-why-you-should-be-a-better-emt%2F Sure, this site isall about being a better EMT, but perhaps you’ve asked yourself, “Why?” OK, granted, it was probably one of your more cynical moments. Perhaps you had a bad day, a couple of frusrating calls or a less than optimal interaction with a patient, your partner, another agency, your boss … or perhaps all of the above. Then you went out and threw down your stethoscope. Or maybe you didn’t throw it down because you remembered it was a Litman and a gift from your aunt, but you raised it over your head and thought about it. And while that stethoscope dangled over your head in your clenched fist you thought, “Why? Why do I work so hard to try to be better at a job that pays so little and offers so little in return?” “Why?” We&#821... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3089309 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:02:52 +0100 3089309 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092910&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fglaxo_releases_list_of_payments_to_doctors.html GlaxoSmithKline has become the latest pharma company to go transparent with its payments to doctors and others to shill for its products. The company has released a 121 page document detailing such payments to US health care professionals in the second quarter of 2009. I've skimmed the list for some of the usual suspects, but didn't see any. Someone will inevitably find something tasty in this list, however. (Via Pharmalot.) (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092910 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3092910 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3089531&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fwebmd_depression_screening_test_brought_to_you_by_eli_lilly.html Some of you have likely seen a depression screening ad that WebMD is running on TV. Designed to push you to the website, it features a woman complaining of being left by her husband one year before and how she can't cope and a voiceover declares that WebMD's depression screening test is just the place. When you head on over to said test, you find that it's "brought to you by Lilly" and there's the Lilly logo in the top right corner. Lilly of course makes Prozac and Cymbalta (and Zyprexa and Strattera). Well at least they are being honest, but at some point I think we all get more than a little tired of seeing these kinds of hand-in-glove relationships. Not that WebMD is a paragon of journalistic independence. Back in the early years of this decade, I was a reporter in Portland, Ore., wher... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3089531 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3089531 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3089533&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Ftake_the_nami_survey_on_pharma_influence.html A reader passed along to me a link to an online survey being conducted on behalf of NAMI National. It's testing public sentiment on the group's funding by pharma companies and gives respondents room to provide commentary as well. It took me about 10 minutes, so if you've got 10 minutes to spare, go give NAMI a piece of your mind. The survey is anonymous. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3089533 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3089533 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3084963&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Freport_glaxo_paid_out_1_billion_to_settle_paxil_lawsuits.html Doing some good old-fashioned reporting and document sleuthing, reporters at Bloomberg have totaled up all the payouts and settlements made by GlaxoSmithKline over the years involving Paxil and they find the total to be $1 billion. That's a stunning amount--Lilly's total legal payouts for Prozac are rumored to be about $50 million--and one GSK has kept quiet for a long time. It should be a huge red flag to doctors who continue to prescribe this drug as if there are no risks attached to its use and to patients who willingly take the drug. It would also make Paxil the anti-depressant whose maker has been forced to make the largest legal payouts to settle claims, as far as I know. The Paxil lawsuits have fallen into three areas: suicide, birth defects and withdrawal. Yes, there's something e... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3084963 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3084963 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3079319&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FO_tvrkpNPYg%2F By Daniel J. MitchellLegislation being considered on Capitol Hill would create a supposed deficit reduction commission. If politicians were bound by truth-in-advertising, this proposal would be called a tax increase commission. It creates a mechanism that will — at best — replicate the 1982 and 1990 budget summits, both of which were fiscal disasters from the perspective of those who favor limited government. The inevitable result of a “bipartisan” process is a 50/50 deal of “spending cuts” and “tax increases,” but the spending cuts are off the “baseline” (which assumes spending goes up), so even if the changes are real (and they rarely are), they are merely reductions in increases. The tax increases, meanwhile, are real and come ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3079319 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:40:03 +0100 3079319 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3079548&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fdsm5_release_delayed_one_year.html The American Psychiatric Association yesterday announced that it has delayed the release of the forthcoming DSM-5 to May 2013, one year later than its previously scheduled release of 2012. In a press release the APA stated: "'Extending the timeline will allow more time for public review, field trials and revisions,' said APA President Alan Schatzberg, M.D. 'The APA is committed to developing a manual that is based on the best science available and useful to clinicians and researchers.'" The APA also said that the delay would allow the DSM-5 to dovetail better with ICD-10-CM codes, developed by the World Health Organization, which will be adopted by Medicare/Medicaid in late 2013. While I don't want to read too much into this delay, it's clear that the DSM-5 process has become a real pol... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3079548 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3079548 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075709&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F4w3p-VKmQbg%2F Image by dullhunk via Flickr In a great blog post at Code for Life, Grant Jacobs writes By contrast, early bioinformatics work was almost invariably founded on biological concepts from the onset. A biological issue was raised and then a technique to address that issue was presented. That is, theoretical biology was the foundation on which [early] bioinformatics was built. I fear this is being lost in the mass-data and technology-hype driven bioinformatics. It seems to me that unless companies and research groups are careful many will waste time and money “stamp collecting and cataloging”. Certainly the organized data is useful, but only if it is applied with biological principles Grant writes this in the context of the early days of bioinformatics, a time when there was a lot of the... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075709 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:43:17 +0100 3075709 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3079550&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Flilly_stock_going_down.html For those of you interested in the stock markets, one of the big stories out there today was that Lilly's stock dropped about 3 percent today--a sizable move for a fairly stable stock. Reportedly, Lilly CEO John Lechleiter gave a speech before analysts in New York and offered little hope for how the company will fare financially in 2011 and beyond as Zyprexa and, then, Cymbalta come off-patent. What no one has picked up on in the financial press so far is that Lechleiter also isn't saying a thing about Lilly's experimental compound, LY2140023, which failed a major clinical trial earlier this year. The company does have an ongoing safety study of the compound, so they are pushing ahead, but it's likely Lilly's revenues will take a huge hit in 2011. Unless the company has some trick up its ... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3079550 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3079550 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075485&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FVt8wKpaQGQs%2F By Tim LynchYesterday, Michael Dreeben, the attorney representing the U.S. government, tried to defend the controversial “honest services” statute from a constitutional challenge in front of the Supreme Court.  When Dreeben informed the Court that the feds have essentially criminalized any ethical lapse in the workplace, Justice Breyer exclaimed, [T]here are 150 million workers in the United States.  I think possibly 140 [million] of them flunk your test. There it is.  Some of us have been trying to draw more attention to the dangerous trend of overcriminalization.  Judge Alex Kozinski co-authored an article in my book entitled “You’re (Probably) a Federal Criminal.”  And Cato adjunct scholar, Harvey Silverglate, calls his new book, Three Felonies a Da... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075485 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:28:50 +0100 3075485 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071448&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fsen_grassley_goes_after_dozens_of_medical_advocacy_groups.html Earlier this year, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) demanded that the National Alliance on Mental Illness reveal details of its funding by pharma companies. Now, the senator has gone many steps further and has demanded similar disclosures from 32 medical advocacy groups and, drum roll, TeenScreen. Among the groups are DBSA, Mental Health America, Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Screening for Mental Health Inc. I congratulate Sen. Grassley and his staffer Paul Thacker for continuing to go after this issue. If I can note this without sounding too self-congratulatory, it was yours truly who suggested to Thacker, after the blast of news around NAMI, that the senator also put similar requests to DBSA, MHA and CHADD. Not that that Thacker couldn't have figure... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071448 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3071448 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3067286&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fpristiq_soon_to_be_for_menopausal_women.html I caught an item on a stock market website yesterday that seemed worth passing along. "Wyeth is also conducting a late-stage trial evaluating Pristiq for the non-hormonal treatment of vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause. The FDA, which issued an approvable letter for Pristiq in July 2007, has sought additional data regarding the potential for serious adverse cardiovascular and hepatic effects associated with the use of Pristiq for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. The requested clinical trial that is underway is expected to be completed in the first half of 2010." Indeed, there are several trials for such purposes registered online. Pfizer's not finding much of a market for Pristiq as an anti-depressant I guess. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3067286 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3067286 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3063379&cid=t_124536_129_f&fid=34869&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fdiet-blog%2F%7E3%2FPbu07it4SjE%2Fslim_fast_recalls_ready-to-drink_cans.php Unilever, the company that makes Slim Fast products, is announcing a voluntary recall of over 10 million cans of it's ready-to-drink beverage. Testing on the product found that it was contaminated with a bacteria called B. cereus, which can cause a mild case of stomach upset or vomiting. Continue reading... (Source: Diet Blog) Diet Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3063379 Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3063379 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056866&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=35436&url=http%3A%2F%2Fseroxatsecrets.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F04%2Fdrug-industry-spends-at-least-20-5-billion-a-year-on%2F …research and development? You must be joking, it’s on marketing – and this is just in the USA! Of course the way some drug trials are rigged and the data ‘interpreted’ then many would argue that these costs should be included in the marketing spend as well. This from the Wall Street Journal: Despite all the job cuts for drug reps, despite the endless stream of TV drug ads, the pharma industry still spends most of its U.S. marketing money the old-fashioned way: Paying salespeople to call on doctors and other health-care providers. Drug companies spent “at least $20.5 billion in marketing” in 2008, the  CBO said in a research brief published yesterday. (That figure doesn’t include the value of free drug samples companies give to docs, by the way.) The b... seroxat secrets... blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056866 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:50:29 +0100 3056866 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056859&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Ffda_issues_major_birth_defects_warning_for_depakote.html Depakote, Abbott's widely-used anti-convulsant for epilepsy and bipolar disorder, today was the object of a major FDA warning. "The FDA notified health care professionals and patients about the increased risk of neural tube defects and other major birth defects, such as craniofacial defects and cardiovascular malformations, in babies exposed to valproate sodium and related products (valproic acid and divalproex sodium) during pregnancy. Healthcare practitioners should inform women of childbearing potential about these risks, and consider alternative therapies, especially if using valproate to treat migraines or other conditions not usually considered life-threatening. "Women of childbearing potential should only use valproate if it is essential to manage their medical condition. Those wh... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056859 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3056859 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056858&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fseveral_items_worth_noting.html AstraZeneca has inked a deal with Targacept for its anti-depressant compoud known as TC-5214. It's a neuronal nicotinic receptor modulator. The wonderful Dr. Bonkers has gone and translated a disgusting Swedish pharma brochure telling kids who to swallow their ADHD meds the "coool" way. Big Pharma spends $20.5 billion a year marketing its drugs. The Wall Street Journal breaks down the numbers. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056858 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3056858 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3052370&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Flilly_wins_partial_zyprexa_court_victory.html In a fairly surprising setback, US District Court Judge Jack Weinstein yesterday granted summary judgement--or dismissed--a major portion of the State of Mississippi's lawsuit against Eli Lilly. That would be the part of the suit contending that the company was negligent in marketing Zyprexa. The ruling lets stand the portion of the state's case claiming the company bilked the state's Medicaid system. I'd expect the state to appeal the judge's ruling, one of Lilly's first substantive victories in more than four years of settling various Zyprexa cases for about $2.8 billion. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3052370 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3052370 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3035994&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F-Qsax7tnpv8%2F At SC09, in my Systems Biology talk, I spoke about platforms for data. The idea is hardly original, since I’ve written about this before, and my ideas borrow heavily from Jeff Hammerbacher and Matt Wood among others. But I wanted to add some more meat to it in writing. Today we live in a world where we generate data from instruments, various experiments or simulations. These data can be used to provide us insights, and we want to add these insights to our data, capture those insights in the context of the data they represent and then keep track of the data and metadata for future changes. We do this in a world where data is generated by different people, different people care about different pieces of the follow on insights and information and perhaps a third set try and put this all... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3035994 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:12:58 +0100 3035994 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3015298&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2F21%2Fdont-be-a-jerk%2F I didn’t draw the graph at right. It was made by a woman named Jessica Hagy over at www.thisisindexed.com. Jessica is not in the medical profession. She draws her observations about the world on index cards and posts them online. She also has a long and growing list of blogging awards from around the world. Mostly due to her brilliantly irreverent style and her ability to make social observations that resonate with people. Like this one. It’s a sad but true observation. For some reason, it seems like many medical personnel have an interesting combination of helpfulness and jerkiness. Why do you suppose that is? I’ve thought a lot about that over the years. I think a friend of mine, Steve Brien put it best when he said, “Some of us still have a lot of us still in u... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3015298 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:28:03 +0100 3015298 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3015387&cid=t_124536_129_f&fid=36038&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.everydayhealth.com%2Fblog%2Ftrevis-life-with-multiple-sclerosis-ms%2Fneuropathic-pain-from-multiple-sclerosis%2F Multiple sclerosis can hurt! Pain is a real part of life with MS for over half of us. Pain can come in several forms and affect several areas of the body.  The pain I’d like to proffer for our consideration in this post is called neuropathic pain or neuropathy. This is a pain which is caused by a dysfunction of the peripheral nervous system (PNS).  Owing to the fact that we have a disease of the central nervous system (CNS), many of us may not be familiar with the PNS. These are the nerves which connect the limbs and organs to the CNS. While there is not suspected demyelination of the PNS, the stripping and scaring of neurons and axons in the CNS is thought to cause misfiring of signals from the PNS, which then tell the brain that we are feeling pain in an uninjured part of the body. I... Life with MS blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3015387 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:11:58 +0100 3015387 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3012609&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fbritish_national_health_service_goes_after_american_website.html A few of you likely know of Dr. Bonkers, the Bonkers Institute and its website. Bonkers--aka Ben Hansen--has tirelessly catalogued pharma ads for psych meds for four years and recently posted some National Health Service brochures he obtained that are alarming. In them, children, teens and young adults are basically told to shut up and take their meds--Zyprexa, Risperdal and Strattera (links are to the brochures). In making them publicly available, Hansen has apparently angered the NHS which contact him and asked him to edit out much of the brochure from his website. Hansen refused (see the exchange below). Some of the language in the brochures is interesting. I'll focus on the Zyprexa brochure. "Your Medicine is called Olanzapine. Pronounced 'o-lan-za-peen.' "Many children, teenagers a... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3012609 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3012609 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3012564&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2Fq88HQWLeZ2I%2F Up on slideshare Talk given at "Cloud Computing for Systems Biology" workshop View more documents from Deepak Singh. Masterworks talk on Big Data and the implications of petascale science View more documents from Deepak Singh. All talks can be found here (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3012564 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:53:19 +0100 3012564 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3012611&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Facademic_researchers_fail_to_report_conflicts.html An article today in the New York Times simply blows my mind. I'll just quote from it: "Few universities make required reports to the government about the financial conflicts of their researchers, and even when such conflicts are reported, university administrators rarely require those researchers to eliminate or reduce these conflicts, government investigators found. "In a report expected to be made public on Thursday, Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, said 90 percent of universities relied solely on the researchers themselves to decide whether the money they made in consulting and other relationships with drug and device makers was relevant to their government-financed research. "And half of universities do not ask their faculty m... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3012611 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3012611 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3004039&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D2049 D.A. chides L.A. council, says he’ll target pot dispensaries Steve Cooley insists sites that sell marijuana are violating state law and will be prosecuted. Of the City Council’s effort to pass an ordinance, he says: ‘Quite frankly we’re ignoring them.’ By John Hoeffel November 18, 2009 With the Los Angeles City Council poised to take up a medical marijuana ordinance after two years of contentious debate, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley warned Tuesday that he intends to prosecute dispensaries that sell the drug even if the city’s leaders decide to allow those transactions. “The L.A. City Council should be collectively ashamed of their failure to grasp this issue,” Cooley said, arguing that state laws do not allow medical marijuana to be ... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3004039 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:46:19 +0100 3004039 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3004043&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D2041 boxer We are honored to have Senator Barbara Boxer share with Courage Campaign members her commitment to strip the horrific Stupak Amendment from any healthcare reform bill and pass true health care reform. Her message is powerful. We need to show her — and the nation — that thousands and thousands of us stand with her by signing the petition. –Rick Jacobs, Chair, Courage Campaign Dear Friend, Ten days ago, the House passed the Stupak Amendment, which would be one of the biggest setbacks to women’s health in recent decades - unless we stand together and stop it. That’s why we are launching a petition at FightForWomensHealth.com, because women must not be denied access to safe and legal medical procedures. Will you join us? Click here to stand with us t... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3004043 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:49:37 +0100 3004043 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2999503&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtD7llCcsjvk%2F “My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy,” President Obama complained to George Stephanopoulos back in September. And I responded: Not every sector. Just health care energy local schools banks insurance companies automobile companies compensation at financial firms newspapers the internet And now check out the lead story in Sunday’s Washington Post: Federal Oversight of Subways Proposed The Obama administration will propose that the federal government take over safety regulation of the nation’s subway and light-rail systems, responding to what it says is haphazard and ineffective oversight by state agencies. Not everything. But more and more. So much that even the growing opposition can’t keep up with it all. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2999503 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:48:22 +0100 2999503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2999700&cid=t_124536_129_f&fid=34869&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fdiet-blog%2F%7E3%2FtBtDi7ePobw%2Fburger_king_sues_burger_king_for_1.php Serious Eats Selling cheeseburgers for $1 sounds like a good idea, especially for the consumer! After all, maintaining giant thunder-thighs isn't cheap. So no doubt, in the eyes of the customer, cheaper is better. But Burger King's $1 double cheeseburger is no good for Burger King franchises. That's why the franchises are now suing their corporate overlord, claiming the $1 special is forcing them to sell cheeseburgers at a loss.Continue reading... (Source: Diet Blog) Diet Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2999700 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2999700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2999860&cid=t_124536_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Frecoveryissexy.com%2Fa-b-c-of-recovery-from-alcoholism%2F The ABC’s of Recovery From a portion of Chapter 5 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas: a) that we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives; b) that probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism; c) that God could and would if He were sought. See also 12-Step Speaker Tape Links The Dry Drunk Spiritual Health Blockages Related Reading: (Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com) Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2999860 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:10:07 +0100 2999860 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2999834&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fbig_pharmas_sneaky_trick.html An excellent piece in today's New York Times lays out how Big Pharma has been promising to cut costs of its drugs (to the tune of $8 billion a year) to help make health care reform happen while at the same time it's going around raising the prices of its drugs to the tune of $9 billion a year. That's such typical behavior by the drug companies that I'm hardly surprised. They are a truly brazen bunch. You just had to know that with Big Pharma openly supporting health care reform and alleged cost-cutting that something funny had to be going on. Now, we know what it was. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2999834 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2999834 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2993910&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D2018 Medical marijuana gets a boost from major doctors group The American Medical Assn. changes its policy to promote clinical research and development of cannabis-based medicines and alternative delivery methods. By John Hoeffel November 11, 2009 The American Medical Assn. on Tuesday urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research. The nation’s largest physicians organization, with about 250,000 member doctors, the AMA has maintained since 1997 that marijuana should remain a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive category, which also includes heroin and LSD. In changing its policy, the group said its goal was to cl... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2993910 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:37:16 +0100 2993910 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2992681&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2F14%2Fthe-ultimate-ems-protocol%2F I don’t handle the card much anymore. It stays inside a plastic sleeve in my planner. The edges are worn and the words are faded. It wasn’t printed on kind of paper that travels well in a wallet for twenty plus years. But it’s been worth carrying. It is, quite simply, the ultimate EMS protocol. I don’t read it often. I’ve read it enough times over the past two decades to have it pretty well memorized. It’s my STAR CARE card. I got it back when I was a paramedic student at Baystar Ambulance in San Mateo California. It was 1992. I always believed the original author was none-other-than EMS guru Mike Taigman. Mike had signed on to be the quality care guy at the fledgling service and I knew the cards had originated in his office. The idea was simple. We can&... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2992681 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:00:08 +0100 2992681 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2989356&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D2015 [tuesday, November 3, 2009] good morning president garcetti, distinguished council members. i have given the clerk copies of my prepared remarks. my name is richard kearns. i am a 58-year-old gay man with AIDS, a long-term survivor & activist, a medical cannabis advocate, a poet & journalist. i am here this morning to suggest a plan B for medical cannabis in LA please empower a special high-speed ad hoc medical cannabis team, who, starting with the text of the city’s legislative analyst submitted to the plum committee september 25th can finish translating the whereases to section numbers inside a month (sort of like going from iambic pentameter to dactylic hexameter) & not to “correct” them, but to produce a good faith medical cannabis ordinance, one that spells out fees... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2989356 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:49:10 +0100 2989356 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2995850&cid=t_124536_129_f&fid=34869&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fdiet-blog%2F%7E3%2FMdRZa5amtns%2F5_is_the_new_it_word_in_fast_food.php Photobucket: Minda33 "Five...five dollar foot longs." You've probably had Subway's catchy little ditty stuck in your head--ALL DAY--at least once by now. Granted, it's not as nagging as Chili's "I want my baby back, baby back, back," but its pretty hard to shake, which might be a good thing. Turns out, $5 is the latest win-win in fast food gimmicks. Subway raked in $3.8 billion with it, and now other restaurants are giving it a try too.Continue reading... (Source: Diet Blog) Diet Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2995850 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2995850 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2989292&cid=t_124536_129_f&fid=34869&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diet-blog.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2F13%2F5_is_the_new_it_word_in_fast_food.php Photobucket: Minda33 "Five...five dollar foot longs." You've probably had Subway's catchy little ditty stuck in your head--ALL DAY--at least once by now. Granted, it's not as nagging as Chili's "I want my baby back, baby back, back," but its pretty hard to shake, which might be a good thing. Turns out, $5 is the latest win-win in fast food gimmicks. Subway raked in $3.8 billion with it, and now other restaurants are giving it a try too.Continue reading... (Source: Diet Blog) Diet Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2989292 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2989292 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2989358&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D2007 chers— this is my favorite essay on the term “namasté,” which belongs in the mix before we go too much further along. i make no claims about divinity here, because nothing can really be verifiably known about divinity. but we all share & perceive & express greatnesses whose roots reach into an inner invisible realm of spirit. namasté —rk . . . while we are singing the praises of namasté, it should be observed how efficient a gesture it is in an age of mass communication. A politician, or performer can greet fifty thousand people with a single namasté, and they can return the honor instantly. In such a situation a handshake is unthinkable . . . “Shake hands and come out fighting.” It’s the referee’s final counsel to two pugilists ... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2989358 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:17:18 +0100 2989358 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2977336&cid=t_124536_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2F10%2Fthe-big-5-model-of-personality%2F If you’ve taken a college psychology course or have any interest in personality, you’ve more than likely come across the term “Big Five” personality dimensions or personality traits. These have been gathered through the result of decades’ worth of psychological research into personality. While they don’t capture the idiosyncrasies of everyone’s personality, it is a theoretical framework in which to understand general components of our personality that seem to be the most important in our social and interpersonal interactions with others. Decades of research on personality has uncovered five broad dimensions of personality. These so-called Big Five dimensions are called: Extraversion (your level of sociability and enthusiasm) Agreeableness (your l... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2977336 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:41:09 +0100 2977336 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2977618&cid=t_124536_180_f&fid=38619&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FALifeCoachsBlog%2F%7E3%2FD6AERw5ecqY%2F I have lots of free money to give away, would you like some? Yeh, of course you would, it’s a no brainer, who doesn’t like free money, but how much do you want? $10 million, $50 million, $100 million maybe? Or perhaps you don’t want to appear greedy and you’re prepared to settle for a couple of million, just to keep the wolf and the IRS from the door. There is however, one small catch to this magnanimous offer. I want to know what you want the money for and if you can’t tell me to my total and complete satisfaction, the deal is off. Maybe you’d confidently inform me it’s to pay off your mortgage, buy a fancy car or even a fleet of fancy cars, retire early, put the kids through college or start your own business. But if you gave me any answers like that I’d smile benignly, s... Life Coach Blog: The Discomfort Zone : blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2977618 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:01:41 +0100 2977618 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981340&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fill_just_do_a_round_up.html I'm in no mood to write today. My headache is gone, but I got yet another reject email from yet another media organization I'd applied to and I am simply not in the mood to put too many sentences together. The NY Times has an op-ed today arguing against lumping together Asperger's syndrome and autism in the forthcoming DSM-5. It's interesting that the paper would choose to highlight that issue since it's been fairly quiet on developments around the new DSM. I wonder why. The Chicago Tribune and ProPublica have a piece out on a Chicago psychiatrist who was prescribing tons of Clozaril to his patients (almost unheard of these days) as well as Seroquel. I was a source for the ProPublica reporter on this series (part two runs tomorrow and is allegedly "eye popping") and it's deeply ironic t... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981340 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2981340 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2974158&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D1987 ViiV vows joint venture will help fight HIV By Andrew Jack November 3 2009 The new head of the pioneering HIV joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline andPfizer predicts his company can operate for at least five years without fresh funding from its shareholders. Dominique Limet, chief executive of ViiV Healthcare, which was formally launched on Tuesday, says it will generate £1.6bn a year in sales to finance its own research and would begin paying a dividend to its two owners in 2011 as it sells new products. A woman infected with HIV prepares her medicines in Indonesia. She could be one of thousands who would benefit from more effective treatments EDITOR’S CHOICE Novartis to expand Chinese research labs - Nov-03 French crackdown on parallel drugs trade - Nov-02 Interactive grap... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2974158 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:10:49 +0100 2974158 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2974159&cid=t_124536_135_f&fid=35246&url=http%3A%2F%2Faids-write.org%2F%3Fp%3D1984 Larger Merck says merger will actually increase R&D efficiency pharmatimes.com 05 November 2009 The new Merck & Co has opened its doors for business, and the company has been laying out its plans for future growth now that Schering-Plough has been added to the group. Chief executive Richard Clark says that “our integration teams prepared us well for a strong start…with thorough plans designed to ensure a seamless transition”. The new entity now has more than 15 late-stage candidates “spanning critical therapeutic categories” and has 106,000 employees in more than 140 countries. That figure is expected to be reduced by 15%, or some 15,000 jobs, as Merck has set itself a target of cost savings of $3.5 billion annually beyond 2011, “which are expected to co... aids-write.org blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2974159 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:11:25 +0100 2974159 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2971926&cid=t_124536_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2F08%2Fnot-so-brady-4-rules-for-staying-together-when-you-remarry-with-kids%2F There’s a story … of a lovely lady … who meets her prince charming and the two of them with their six combined children live happily ever after. NOT! Having been Cindy Brady myself — if you changed my stepsister into a boy and fused my twin sister and I into one girl, then you have it: the perfect Brady family — I know that there are bigger problems in the house than Jan’s inferiority complex to Marsha, Peter’s near death experience with a tarantula in Hawaii, and Greg getting a tad chilled in the meat freezer at Sam’s Butcher Shop when he gets locked in there. (Yes, I watched a lot of TV as a kid.) The real issues? Peter hates Carol. He totally resents her because ever since she and her big hair came to stay, his dad isn’t around to ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2971926 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:45:14 +0100 2971926 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2967302&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2F05%2Ften-things-you-cant-learn-about-ems%2F                                         From Your Computer        As you might imagine, I’m a big fan of E-learning. I also have a soft spot for the social media craze. But there are still a few things that you just can’t learn staring at a computer screen. OK, there are a LOT of things you can’t learn staring at a computer screen. Here are ten:         1.) You can’t learn pattern recognition. If you’ve ever wondered about how experienced EMTs and medics can figure out exactly what’s wrong with the patient two steps inside the front door, it’s not magic. It’s pattern recognition. When you’ve seen what CHF looks like a hundred times, you can pick out the pattern almost instantaneous... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2967302 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:16:58 +0100 2967302 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2970399&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Ffeds_investigating_abbott_over_depakote_marketing.html News is out that the federal Department of Justice is investigating Abbott Labs over questions about its marketing of Depakote, its anti-seizure drug that's also approved for bipolar disorder. It's not clear what the scope of the investigation is, so stay tuned. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2970399 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2970399 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2959062&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fpsychiatrist_explains_his_lilly_consulting.html Manoj Waikar, an adjunct psychiatry professor at Stanford who's also in private practice in Palo Alto, Calif., has made $74,850 for speaking on Lilly's behalf 51 times this year. So the New York Times smartly tried to find out what made him so sought after by Lilly and what services he provided. What fun that new Lilly database of its outside consultants has become. "In response to queries from a reporter, Dr. Waikar wrote in an e-mail message that he received fees for speaking to other health care professionals about disorders like schizophrenia and depression, which can be treated with the Lilly drugs Zyprexa and Cymbalta respectively.... "In an e-mail message to a reporter, Dr. Waikar wrote that although drug company presentations were standardized to comply with drug marketing regula... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2959062 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2959062 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2954528&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2F03%2Fdetails-matter%2F Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. ~Erma Bombeck            You know when you’re staying at a fine hotel. From the moment you check in at the front desk you know. You can tell while you’re brushing your teeth, ordering your breakfast and reading the paper. You can tell when you set your clock and lay your head down to go to sleep. You may not know how you know, but you know. Fine hotels, restaurants, theaters, cruise lines, resorts and just about everyone else in the service industry are painfully aware of this simple truth. Details matter.          “Coffee stains on the flip tray suggest to the customer that we do not service our engines properly.”                                      – Jan... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2954528 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:58:07 +0100 2954528 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2950938&cid=t_124536_134_f&fid=34841&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diabetesmine.com%2F2009%2F11%2Fcountdown-to-world-diabetes-day-get-ready-for-the-big-blue-test.html Hope you all had a fun Halloween weekend. Somehow the conclusion of that sugar-fest seems a great segue into National Diabetes Awareness Month, no? And the countdown begins to World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14, 2009. Where to begin describing all the activities planned around the web and around the world to “bring diabetes [...] (Source: Diabetes Mine) Diabetes Mine blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2950938 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:22:23 +0100 2950938 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2944101&cid=t_124536_150_f&fid=38374&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2FZ0VlZWYUzqQ%2Fagencies-partner-to-launch-social-media.html (Source: ePharma Summit) ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2944101 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:23:00 +0100 2944101 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2947113&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fnami_lies_in_nyt_letter_to_the_editor.html Today, NAMI National's executive director Michael Fitzpatrick penned a letter to the editor of the New York Times and objected to how NAMI had been portrayed in a recent article which outlined how the group had gotten about $23 million in pharma funding in recent years. The paper had claimed that represented two-thirds of NAMI's budget and Fitzpatrick wrote to claim it only represented 50 percent. Then he dropped this claim into the letter: "NAMI maintains strict guidelines that govern all corporate relations and does not endorse or promote any specific medication, treatment, service or product." That's a bald-faced lie. In December 2006, Fitzpatrick was quoted in a Janssen/J&J press release wherein he openly touted the company's new atypical antipsychotic Invega: "'We are pleased that... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2947113 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2947113 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2943808&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2F29%2Fwhy-do-bad-ideas-stick-around%2F I’ll confess. I like EMS blogger’s who rant about stuff. I know I don’t rant much here at The Spot. It’s not really my style and it doesn’t really fit with the mission of the blog. But sometimes we need folks to rant. Sometimes there’s just nothing quite as effective as someone who knows how to respectfully, intelligently rant. Sometimes we need folks like Rouge Medic, Buckman and Ckemtp who are willing to call us all out. A passionate, well thought out rant can inspire change. It can motivate, encourage and provoke the kind of thoughtful introspection that we need. We need someone to tell us when the emperor has no clothes. There are a lot of ideas floating around out there in EMS and many of them are just plain bad.  Let’s face it, we can co... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2943808 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:45:43 +0100 2943808 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2939486&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F0G7cq8m61qs%2F There are a select few people whose every word I try and absorb and chew on because I have great respect for their thinking and intelligence. Matt Wood is one of those people, and today he decided to tweet a manifesto. The whole series started with I’m starting a manifesto. There are no technical, political or funding reasons why an open data platform for science couldn’t excel He then followed that up with five tweets (Matt’s Twitter stream). I don’t know if that’s the entire manifesto, but I reproduce those tweets below, a series entitled Towards a science data platform Easy, flexible retrieval and reuse above all else A laser sharp focus on scientific productivity and progress Scalability and speed are not mutually exclusive Well designed, high quality pro... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2939486 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:37:13 +0100 2939486 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2939532&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fcongress_to_go_after_medicaid_fraud_why_not_fraud_against_patients_too.html The Wall Street Journal noted yesterday that Congress is planning to take steps to wipe out the estimated $60 billion a year in Medicaid fraud. "'The scale of health care fraud in America today is staggering,' Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) said at a hearing. 'Now, as health care reform moves through the Senate, I want to make sure we do all we can to tackle the fraud that could undermine efforts to reduce the skyrocketing cost of health care.'" That's all well and good and I wish Congress luck. A good amount of the fraudulent behavior comes from our friends at America's Pharmaceutical Research Companies (see Lilly, Pfizer, BMS, etc.). All of the billions in awards the feds have gotten out of these companies for ripping off taxpayers has also come at the expe... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2939532 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2939532 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2939276&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fw2gvp0KAmyY%2F Yesterday, I offered the Fordham Foundation’s Andy Smarick an answer to a burning question: What is the proper federal role in education? It was a question prompted by repeatedly mixed signals coming from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about whether Washington will be a tough guy, coddler, or something in between when it comes to dealing with states and school districts.  And what was my answer? The proper federal role is no role, because the Constitution gives the feds no authority over American education. Not surprisingly, Smarick isn’t going for that. Unfortunately, his reasoning confirms my suspicions: Rather than offering a defense based even slightly on what the Constitution says, Smarick essentially asserts that the supreme law of the land is irrele... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2939276 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:35:55 +0100 2939276 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2931217&cid=t_124536_134_f&fid=34841&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diabetesmine.com%2F2009%2F10%2Ftalking-to-pharma-online-and-offline.html There are so many great events around empowered patients and consumer-driven healthcare in the Fall. It also being soccer season, the kickoff of the school year, and time for nearly every existing Jewish holiday, I can’t possibly attend as many as I’d like to.  This makes me especially thankful to have some good D-blogger [...] (Source: Diabetes Mine) Diabetes Mine blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2931217 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:56:24 +0100 2931217 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2923453&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=35433&url=http%3A%2F%2F4thavenueblues.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Ftrain-of-morning.html I drove into West Point this morning hoping to see Big S.  I hadn't seen him in months and George had said he was hanging out at the shopping center across the river.   No Big S.  It was just too cold at 52 degrees.  I did notice the train signal had just turned yellow meaning a train was on the way.   I turned around, parked at the bank, and sat on the very same bench where Ferret used to sleep when he was homeless.  How he could get any sleep on that cold concrete I will never know, but he did.   Soon, a train came roaring through downtown.  This always perks me up and I get excited.  The train must have been a 100 cars long as it took forever to pass.  I always like the myriad of graffiti on the cars as they roll by.&#160... The 4th Avenue Blues blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2923453 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:31:00 +0100 2923453 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2920472&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fnami_got_23_million_from_pharma_companies.html The New York Times is out today with an article on just how much money NAMI has been getting from Big Pharma in recent years--a ton, three-fourths of its total fundraising. "The mental health alliance, which is hugely influential in many state capitols, has refused for years to disclose specifics of its fund-raising, saying the details were private. "But according to investigators in Mr. Grassley’s office and documents obtained by The New York Times, drug makers from 2006 to 2008 contributed nearly $23 million to the alliance, about three-quarters of its donations. "Even the group’s executive director, Michael Fitzpatrick, said in an interview that the drug companies’ donations were excessive and that things would change. "'For at least the years of ’07, ’08 and ’09, the pe... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2920472 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2920472 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2916422&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Flexapro_sales_stabilized_by_lexapro_sales_to_teens.html In a conference call with analysts on Tuesday, Forest Labs' COO Larry Olanoff noted slightly decreased Lexapro sales and credited the drug's recent FDA approval for use in adolescents as helping to stabilize Lexapro's sales. "Lexapro sales in the quarter totaled $566 million, a decline of 3.1% year-over-year. In March, we announced the FDA approval of our supplemental NDA for Lexapro, for the indication of acute and maintenance treatment of major depressive disorder in adolescence, 12 to 17 years of age. This additional indication is helping to stabilize the position of Lexapro in the market, and we have observed an increase in share for this patient population." I've got no guess as to how many kids are on Lexapro, but it's well-known that the company has been charged by the feds with i... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2916422 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2916422 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2916085&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FvG64SGU-Y8w%2F Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, has shocked the staid world of British banking by raising the possibility of breaking up the UKs big banks. Mr. King is no socialist, but a worried banking regulator. He is worried about “the sheer creative imagination of of the financial sector to think up new ways of taking risk.” Around the world, regulators and finance ministers are hoping that banks will grow their way out of their current mess. To do so, however, banks will in fact need to seek new ways of taking on risk. It is called going for broke: the upside goes to stockholders and managers, and the downside to taxpayers. Mr. King knows that it is a “delusion” that regulators can control bank risk-taking. Whether one agrees with his solution, at least he recog... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2916085 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:19:30 +0100 2916085 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2916423&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fcymbalta_sales_way_up.html Eli Lilly announced its third quarter results today. Cymbalta sales are way up: "Lilly's biggest drug, Zyprexa, posted sales of $1.2 billion, up 2.8%. Higher selling prices offset lower demand in the U.S. Demand increased outside the U.S. Sales of antidepressant Cymbalta rose 10% to $790 million." A 10 percent increase over the same quarter last year is pretty significant. While I'm not clear on whether Lilly upped Cymbalta prices in the last year (which would account for a portion of the revenue increase if they had), it looks as though more scrips for this tricky anti-depressant are being written. Whether they are for depression or for pain indications isn't clear to me at all. It looks like Cymbalta could top $3 billion in sales this year. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2916423 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2916423 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908871&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fastrazeneca_offers_buyouts_to_entire_sales_force.html I don't often comment on the ebb and flow of pharma corporate news, but via Pharmalot comes news that AstraZeneca is asking its entire US sales force--some 5,000 to 6,000 people--to "self identify" whether or not they want to accept a buyout from the pharma giant. Don't think that AZ is getting out of the drug business, but like a lot of pharma companies it faces several products going off-patent over the next few years (Seroquel, Crestor, etc.), so it's cutting costs where it can. Quite a few pharma companies (lilly, BMS, AZ) are facing a serious "pipeline problem" of not having new drugs forthcoming to market to the public. As a longtime critic of Big Pharma, I find it rather odd that there have been no new product introductions of "breakthrough" drugs in recent years after decades of s... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908871 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2908871 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2905091&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fglaxo_negligent_not_outrageous.html An article in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer is the first mainstream media piece to try and grapple with the implications of last week's court award of $2.5 million to the family of Lyam Kilker. His mother took Paxil while she was pregnant with him and he was born with several heart defects. The jury verdict was in some ways mixed. "Jurors linked Lyam's problems to Paxil and said Glaxo had been negligent in not properly warning David's doctor of the drug's risk, but they did not find the London company's behavior outrageous, which would have been necessary to award punitive damages.... "Kline said last week's jury verdict was a strong win because birth defects were fairly common whether or not a pregnant woman takes a drug. That can make it hard to convince a jury that a product cause... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2905091 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2905091 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2902767&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=34872&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blisstree.com%2Fhealthbolt%2Fgovt-sues-tobacco-companies-really%2F If this wasn’t such a serious topic, it would almost be funny. Farmers, who want to earn a living, grow tobacco for big tobacco companies. Big tobacco companies buy the tobacco to turn into cigarettes and chewing tobacco. Big tobacco companies spend millions and millions of dollars on salaries, production, advertising, and sales. Government rakes in millions and millions of dollars on income tax from tobacco company employees, sales (and other) tax on equipment purchased, gas employees use to get to work, and so on. Big tobacco companies rake in millions and millions of dollars in profit. Smokers get sick from using big tobacco company’s products. Smokers get very expensive medical treatment paid for by insurance companies or government programs (United States) or the governme... Healthbolt blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2902767 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 06:22:13 +0100 2902767 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2901648&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2F17%2Fthink-about-it%2F We do our job, and while we do our job we think about how we do our job. And we certainly decide what we think about our job. But we don’t often think about how we think about or job? Do you ever think about the way you think about your job? I think it’s important. What do you think?        (Source: The EMT Spot) The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2901648 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:00:20 +0100 2901648 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2901822&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fcourt_rules_astrazeneca_overcharged_ky_medicaid_program.html AstraZeneca yesterday was found liable by a Kentucky court of ripping off that state's Medicaid program. "AstraZeneca, maker of popular drugs such as Crestor, Nexium and Seroquel, must reimburse Kentucky $14.72 million after overcharging its Medicaid program between November 1999 and March 2005. "AstraZeneca lied when reporting its average wholesale price on a number of drugs, said George Galland, representing Kentucky in the civil fraud trial that ended Thursday. "AstraZeneca inflated its prices between 20 and 30 percent depending on the drug, Galland told the jury in his summation. "The average wholesale price is calculated by adding a percentage to the price wholesalers pay for the drug. The percentage, usually between 1 and 3 percent, represents a profit that the wholesalers get a... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2901822 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2901822 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2899177&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fmore_paxil_birth_defects_case_documents_available.html Bob Fiddaman of Seroxat (Paxil) Sufferers had done a fine job of getting his hands on various transcripts and depositions from the recently-completed Paxil birth defects case in Pennsylvania. He's now got up the deposition of Jane Nieman, a former GlaxoSmithKline employee. Go to his site to download the document. Although there have been a few smallish articles in the US press, news of the $2.5 million jury award sure hasn't shown up in the New York Times, Washington Post or LA Times. That's kind of weird, especially in light of the fact that GSK faces about another 600 birth defects lawsuits and also because it's very uncommon for a pharma company to lose a case involving an anti-depressant. GSK has announced that it will appeal the verdict. I look forward to seeing what legal argument... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2899177 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2899177 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2886448&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2F13%2Fwhat-makes-a-good-emt-part-2%2F Still struggling with the good EMT thing. I’m glad to be at your service. Grab a pen and answer these questions for yourself. What’s your internal bias toward dealing with patients and their challenges?  When patients have needs that don’t meet with your expectations how do you tend to react? Could you do that better? How? What’s it like to be your partner? How do people feel about you after they’ve run calls with you? Is that by your design? How do you handle it when you fail? When you have a bad call or things don’t go right? Are you willing to be fallible before your peers and own your mistakes? If you really felt that you were good at what you do, what would be the ideal way to address these inevitable errors? What is your tolerance for learning. A... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2886448 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:00:09 +0100 2886448 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2890913&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fglaxo_must_pay_25_million_in_paxil_birth_defects_case.html A Pennsylvania jury earlier today found GlaxoSmithKline liable for heart defects caused to a young boy whose mother was taking the company's anti-depressant Paxil while pregnant. The jury awarded the boy's family $2.5 million. Plaintiff's attorneys had argued that Paxil had caused the defects and had failed to properly test the drug and, while knowing of its ability to cause defects, had failed to warn consumers properly. This is a significant ruling because it's the first time GSK has been found liable in a birth defects case and because there are abut 600 more similar cases awaiting trial. GSK's lawyers said they would appeal the verdict. The company issued a statement: "'While we sympathize with Lyam Kilker and his family, the scientific evidence does not establish that exposure to P... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2890913 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2890913 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2881182&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2F10%2Fwhat-makes-a-good-emt%2F I get a bunch of E-mails from people just starting their EMT education who want advice on how to excel in their programs. “How should I prepare? What books do you recommend?” The questions vary but their is always the familiar flavor of enthusiasm and the same basic question, “How do I do this well?” Success in this field is fairly predictable. Use the right recipe and you’ll get there. I think the hierarchy of EMS success looks like this:            1.) Attitude 2.) Motivation 3.) Tolerance for repetition 4.) Goal orientation 5.) Strategy and tactics 6.) Performance              Attitude is at the top of the list for a reason. You need to start with an outward focused desire to serve others or you’ll always be fighting against... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2881182 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:29:33 +0100 2881182 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2879758&cid=t_124536_136_f&fid=36032&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.everydayhealth.com%2Fblog%2Flife-with-breast-cancer%2Fbig-pink-bus-battles-breast-cancer%2F Because of my blog a lot of people contact me to tell me about their efforts to promote breast cancer awareness or other initiatives to battle breast cancer. Actually most of them are worthwhile. I am always amazed by the devotion and dedication people have in helping others. I am even more amazed when I hear about a story like the one that was on my local news today. A woman in her 40’s was diagnosed with breast cancer just after leaving her job. She had no health care and no income. She actually did some research to look for a place she could go to die; there was no way that she was going to be able to afford treatment. With a little help from her local cancer society, she found a program that treated women with cervical or breast cancer that had no health insurance, it saved her l... Life with Breast Cancer blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2879758 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:39:52 +0100 2879758 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2876019&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFnqkMAr70nY%2F Speaking recently a Steamboat Institute conference, I explain that big government is America’s fiscal challenge, not whether the spending is financed with taxes or borrowing.   This issue is important because the statists are trying to create the conditions for a big tax hike. We got huge spending increases under Bush, and now Obama has picked up the baton and is racing in the same direction. Needless to say, the politicians don’t care about deficits when they are spending money. But when it is time to discuss tax policy, deficits suddenly become a giant threat to the economy and turning more of our money over to the political class is the only solution. The Q&A session also is interesting, as I pontificate about the financial crisis, Keynesian economics, the rule of law,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2876019 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:20:30 +0100 2876019 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2876362&cid=t_124536_150_f&fid=38374&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2FASXF3_LWyUU%2Fpharma-drops-search-advertising-after.html (Source: ePharma Summit) ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2876362 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:59:00 +0100 2876362 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2872005&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fseroquel_promoted_as_weight_neutral_when_company_knew_it_produced_large_weight_gain.html According to court documents released to Bloomberg yesterday, AstraZeneca pushed its sales reps to claim that Seroquel, the company's atypical antipsychotic, was "weight neutral" four years after the company had determined that there were "clinically significant" weight gains among users of the drug (and increased risk of diabetes). "AstraZeneca’s 'global strategy is to demonstrate to consumers that Seroquel has a weight-neutral profile,' Debbie Holdsworth, a marketing official, wrote in a 'dear colleague' letter dated May 14, 2001." Here's the BS explanation of the weight neutral claim by John Patterson, a former AZ executive: "'If you look at the population as a whole, some are below weight, some are average weight and some are above weight, so that taken together the effect of Sero... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2872005 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2872005 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2858642&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2F03%2Fthe-normalization-of-deviance%2F In the span of a generation, NASA has lost two spacecraft and 14 pilots in the collective disasters of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Can you tell me why? Trust me, it’s worth exploring. The space buffs in the crowed might recall that faulty O-rings in the Challenger’s solid rocket boosters failed and allowed supper heated gasses to escape. The result was a catastrophic explosion and a sullen announcement from my school principal in the middle of sophomore science class. In his quiet monotone, we learned that the mighty Challenger, moments before, had been destroyed and the crew was lost. Our teacher didn’t know quite what to say, and in the silence that followed, my sixteen year old world got a little smaller. More of you might recall that Challenger&#82... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2858642 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:01:50 +0100 2858642 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2855816&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fuk_girl_who_died_after_hpv_vaccine_injection_had_advanced_cancer.html For now, this settles questions raised earlier this week after a 14-year-old girl in England died soon after receiving an injection of Cervarix, an HPV vaccine. As it turns out, the poor girl had advanced cancer that had gotten into her heart and lungs and that's now being called her cause of death instead of the injection until full autopsy results are available. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2855816 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2855816 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2842775&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fpsychiatrist_turns_down_170000_to_promote_new_antipsychotic.html I think readers of this site are fairly well aware of the respect I have for Tufts University psychiatrist Danny Carlat, who's led the fight in psychiatry to clean up the APA and pharma-sponsored CMEs. My respect for him now goes up by $170,000, the amount Schering-Plough reportedly (scroll down to the bottom of the linked page) offered him to go shill for its recently-approved atypical antipsychotic Saphris and the amount which Carlat turned down. "In a letter to doctors, Schering-Plough says 'you must present the Schering-Plough approved materials provided to you.' The company offered one psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Carlat, a Tufts University Medical School professor, up to $170,000 over two years to give 125 45-minute talks in restaurants, in his office, and by telephone and the Internet.... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2842775 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2842775 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2842774&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2F60_massachusetts_docs_get_money_from_eli_lilly_to_promote_its_drugs.html News is out in the Boston Globe that Eli Lilly's recently-released list of payouts to docs includes 60 Massachusetts doctors, including some at Boston Medical Center--the main hospital for the Boston University School of Medicine. The university has ordered the docs in question to stop doing talks for industry. It's refreshing to see a university take these sorts of things so seriously and so promptly. How much money were doctors getting? What products were they promoting? "At Boston Medical Center, Dr. Brian McGeeney, a neurologist, received $30,000 during that period [first three months of 2009], and Dr. Elliot Sternthal, an endocrinologist, was paid $11,587.50, according to a faculty registry on Lilly’s website." McGeeney was promoting Cymbalta, Lilly's anti-depressant, presumably ... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2842774 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2842774 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2842776&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fuk_girl_dies_after_getting_hpv_vaccine.html This is alarming: The UK press is reporting that a 14-year-old girl died soon after being given GlaxoSithKline's HPV vaccine Cervarix. A few other girls at her school took ill after getting the vaccine. Cervarix is not yet approved in the US, but GSK has submitted it to the FDA for approval, which is expected later this year. What a terrible tragedy, exactly the kind of thing opponents of mandatory vaccinations for HPV feared could happen with Merck's Gardasil. Via Sexorat Sufferers. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2842776 Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2842776 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2836304&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FkYErcJwifaI%2F Image via Wikipedia Just read the transcript of what sounded like an excellent talk by Greg Pfister about the next 20 years of HPC. Here are some of the key points of his talk Computing will become cheaper, but not necessarily much faster per processor There will be democratization of at least some HPC. In other words with faster processors and accelerators, we might all have access to some sort of TeraFLOPS device Computing will be done all over the place, with a lot being done in the cloud. I am not quite sure I get what Greg was aiming at with his section on garbage computing, but my guess is that the cycles we’ll consume might not be the highest quality cycles but they’ll get the job done You will be billed by how much power and bandwidth your computation consumes, not ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2836304 Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:24:36 +0100 2836304 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832171&cid=t_124536_101_f&fid=38969&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheemtspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2F24%2Fthings-my-kids-taught-me-about-ems%2F I’m blessed with two kids. They are amazing. Kids change your whole perspective on the world. They re-frame your purpose. It’s wonderful, the way a few minutes with your kids can put an entire bad day in perspective. They also force you to evaluate some of your own behaviors. (If your lucky.) Here are a few of the more valuable lessons I’ve learned from my kids.           1.) Test Your Limits. Kids know this instinctively. The moment you create a boundary they begin testing it. There is no running in this area. How fast is running? Can we just walk really fast? What about jogging?  It’s like they just instinctively know that life is more fun when you’re testing the limits. Sure there are boundaries that we all have to live within but when was the l... The EMT Spot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832171 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:38:34 +0100 2832171 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832396&cid=t_124536_150_f&fid=34768&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpharmagossip.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fdesperate-pharmas-fight-for-new.html “Some of our competitors are desperate because they pay just an incredible price for some medicines. And if it’s a matter of life or death for them, then maybe it makes sense for them, but not to us. So sometimes we may lose some partnerships for financial reasons, which is frustrating.”Story (Source: PharmaGossip) PharmaGossip blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832396 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:41:00 +0100 2832396 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832382&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Ffan_pages_for_pharmaceuticals.html The Federal Trade Commission is going to hold public hearings on creating regulations so that pharma companies can use social media (ie, Facebook, Twitter, networking sites) to promote their drugs. Like they don't have enough promotion opportunities already. I'd assume the FDA will also have to get involved in this somehow since drug promotion is also its regulatory bailiwick. The folks at digidaydaily.com think it's a lovely idea--I don't--and have a suggestion: "Create Fan Pages: It’s in the company’s best interest to supervise and add some credibility to a Seroquel community for bipolar adults, or a Paxil community for depressed patients. If you don’t agree go on Facebook and look at the unsupervised version." Whomever wrote this is utterly clueless if he thinks Seroquel and Pa... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832382 Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2832382 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832381&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fpaxil_birth_defects_testimony_now_online.html By which I mean that Bob Fiddaman of Seroxat Sufferers fame has gotten pdfs of opening arguments and the testimony of psychiatrist David Healy and another plaintiff's expert witness and put them online right here. More will come later as the trial, which is taking place in Philadelphia, continues. This will include some never-seen-before documents regarding what GlaxoSmithKline knew and when it knew it about birth defects problems with Paxil. The opening arguments--both sides--are well worth a read. (Source: Furious Seasons) Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832381 Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2832381 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2824367&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FZ9-LJglzYaU%2F Today I got a chance to see a short pitch by Dhruv Bansal from Infochimps announcing the launch of “the world’s largest open platform for data”. I have talked about the Infochimps here before, but this announcement launches them as a marketplace for data, and they have kindly given me 50 invite codes. So if you use the code “bigbiodata” you can sign up for a beta account as well. Let’s get our data out there. Related articles by Zemanta Infochimps: Share and Sell Your Raw Data (readwriteweb.com) Infochimps Wants Folks to Monkey Around With Its Data (gigaom.com) DEMO: Infochimps lets users share and sell data (venturebeat.com) Since some of the data seta on AWS Public Data Sets come from the good folk at the Infochimps, please read this disclaimer (Sou... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2824367 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:27:38 +0100 2824367 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2824406&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fglaxo_defunds_cmes_while_funding_them_under_the_table.html On Monday, GlaxoSmithKline US announced that beginning next year it would no longer fund medical education companies to put on CME's for doctors, a practice that has come under increasing scrutiny by Congress, the press and physicians because the pharma-sponsored CME's are little more than advertisements for the company's drugs and leave docs with little information about competing products. GSK makes Paxil, Wellbutrin and Lamictal, although they likely do no CME's for any of the drugs since all three are now off-patent. But Danny Carlat, a Tufts University psychiatrist who's policed this issue harder than anyone else, has gotten GSK to admit that it's carving a huge loophole into its new policy by claiming that 20 yet-to-be-named academic medical centers will run the GSK-funded CME's but... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2824406 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2824406 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2814560&cid=t_124536_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fdyslexia-entrepreneur-lawyer-idealist.html “By rewarding me for the careful consideration of one idea instead of reading hundreds of pages of text, philosophy helped me conquer dyslexia." - Dov Seidman, CEO LRNDov Seidman struggled in school and was a classic dyslexic late-bloomer: "“My high school transcript boasted A’s: two of them, in Phys Ed and auto shop,” he joked, when he gave the commencement address at the UCLA in 2002. His SAT scores never topped 1000. Only later did he realize that he was dyslexic."Seidman managed to get admitted to UCLA, then stumbled into philosophy class because it wasn't full. "Philosophy and ethics became his passion, and he went on to earn a B.A. and an M.A. in philosophy from UCLA, a B.A. in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford (where he captained the Balliol college crew team) a... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2814560 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2814560 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2814678&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fgrassleys_sleuth_gets_press_in_nature.html Most of you are aware of a long-running campaign by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to ferret out undisclosed pharma company funding of academic researchers who also wind up taking federal research money. Well, it ain't the Senator who does all the digging that leads to him going after the likes of Emory University psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff and Harvard University psych researchers. Instead, it is Paul Thacker, a former journalist and an investigator for the Senator, who is making researchers' lives hell--and appropriately so. I've known this for a long time but have kept my yapper shut when writing about Sen. Grassley. Anyway, Nature has a nice article on Thacker and it includes Nemeroff himself basically apologizing for his mess and claiming he was in compliance with disclosure rules ... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2814678 Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2814678 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2809848&cid=t_124536_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FruD3vCSXd08%2F Over the next few months, I’ll be giving a bunch of talks about large scale data. I will be talking at Hadoop World about “Hadoop for Bioinformatics“, at a Cloud Computing for Hedge Funds and at Supercomputing. Thinking through what I want to cover at all these talks has my brain in overdrive these days. At the same time discussions with various people facing data-related challenged provides a reality check and reminds me that there is still a long way to go. The one concept that people need to start putting their head around is the relative location of compute and data. Many people still think along the “move data to the compute” paradigm. When our data sets were small, this was not a problem. As instruments provide more and more data, ever faster, that tends... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2809848 Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:33:17 +0100 2809848 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2803877&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9pPwTucFt0g%2F The ACORN scandal provides a good opportunity for citizens concerned about profligacy in Washington to explore some of the tools available to find out where their tax money goes. A good place to start your research is the Federal Audit Clearinghouse on the Census website. All groups receiving more than $500,000 a year from the government are required to file a report. Just type in “ACORN” as the entity and the system pops up the group’s filings. My assistant John Nelson summarized the federal programs and amounts received by ACORN in recent years: 2003 Housing Counseling Assistance $1,168,388 Community Development Block Grants $388,273 Home Investment Partnership $8,000 Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity $204,082 Fair Housing Initiatives Program $85,000 Total $1,85... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2803877 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:54:11 +0100 2803877 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2803885&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fe7l3bFEGGRA%2F This is from the Reagan administration’s deregulatory 1981 energy plan: “All Americans are involved in making energy policy. When individual choices are made with a maximum of personal understanding and a minimum of government restraints, the result is the most appropriate energy policy.” Many modern Republicans claim devotion to Ronald Reagan’s ideas, but they often seem to forget about the “minimum of government” thing. The following points are from Republican Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell’s “More Energy, More Jobs” plan: “McDonnell was the chief sponsor of legislation creating the Virginia Hydrogen Energy Plan.” “McDonnell also supported grant programs for solar photovoltaic manufacturing, tax ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2803885 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:42:09 +0100 2803885 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2807860&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fpfizer_got_nami_to_pimp_for_geodon_paid_for_docs_helicopter_flights.html This is a good get by Jim Edwards at bnet.com: one of the whistleblower lawsuits that was part of the recent $2.3 billion settlement between the feds and Pfizer over Bextra, Geodon and other drugs contains some eye-popping claims. Prime among them is that Pfizer funded NAMI as a "Trojan Horse" that then specifically promoted on its website off-label uses of Geodon in the elderly and, yes, children. Go read Edwards' posting to see what Pfizer and NAMI were up to. While it's not clear to me what constitutes promotion per se for NAMI, the reality is that NAMI is not supposed to promote specific drugs--although I've caught them promoting Invega in the past--and it sure shouldn't be promoting off-label uses of any drug. Yet here's this from NAMI's website: "While not approved by the FDA for ... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2807860 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2807860 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2804201&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fbigger_than_prozac.html There's a smallish buzz around a new drug called Valdoxan (agomelatine), an anti-depressant recently approved in Europe that's being touted as more effective than Prozac and other commonly-used anti-depressants and as having virtually no side effects. To whit, from the Mirror: "New research shows that agomelatine - the first antidepressant in over a decade - is more effective than Prozac in treating depression. And it is not associated with some of the common side-effects of antidepressant drugs such as weight gain, sleep difficulties and sexual problems. "A study found the £30-a-month drug, also known as Valdoxan, helped 77.7 per cent of people with severe depression compared with 68.8 per cent on Prozac. The data was presented at the European Congress of Neuropsychopharmacology in Ist... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2804201 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2804201 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2800367&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FCLSK4JSDpjQ%2F A front-page Washington Post story today notes that the cost of Obama-style health care reform will fall disproportionately on young adults. Younger workers are typically more healthy than the population at large, and a significant share of them quite rationally choose not to buy health insurance, as my colleague Mike Tanner explains in a recent op-ed. The major health care plans on the table in Washington would force them to buy coverage. As the Post story explains: Drafting young adults into any health-care reform package is crucial to paying for it. As low-cost additions to insurance pools, young adults would help dilute the expense of covering older, sicker people. Depending on how Congress requires insurers to price their policies, this group could even wind up paying disproportionate... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2800367 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:32:24 +0100 2800367 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2800674&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fglaxo_exec_suggested_hiding_negative_paxil_studies.html After the first day of a trial against GlaxoSmithKline for allegedly hiding birth defects data from users of its anti-depressant Paxil, Bloomberg reports: "An executive of GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the world’s second-biggest drugmaker, talked about burying negative studies linking its antidepressant drug Paxil to birth defects, according to a company memo introduced in trial. "'If neg, results can bury,' Glaxo executive Bonnie Rossello wrote in a 1997 memo on what the company would do if forced to conduct animal studies on the drug. The memo was read during opening statements in the trial of a lawsuit brought by the family of an injured child." There will apparently be many more documents--ones unseen by the FDA and Congress--introduced at this trial, so stay tuned. After several years of... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2800674 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2800674 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2796760&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fcourt_rules_glaxo_must_reveal_paxil_birth_defects_emails.html This from Bloomberg today in the first court case against GlaxoSmithKline over allegations that the company's anti-depressant Paxil caused fatal heart defects in a newborn child whose mother had taken the drug while pregnant: "U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner in Boston today refused to block William Seale’s family from reviewing e-mails and other communications between Glaxo and Boston University researchers over Paxil’s birth-defect risks. The 1-year-old Seale, whose pregnant mother took the antidepressant, died in 2004 after three surgeries to address heart defects, according to court filings. "Seale’s family contends officials at London-based Glaxo, which funded the birth-defect research, sought to influence the study’s results to help protect the company from lawsuits, Gertn... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2796760 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2796760 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2796408&cid=t_124536_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FslSQYwK3I5Q%2F Republicans made many big mistakes when they controlled Washington earlier this decade, so picking the most egregious error would be a challenge. But continued American involvement with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development would be high on the list. Instead of withdrawing from the OECD, Republicans actually increased the subsidy from American taxpayers to the Paris-based bureaucracy. So what do taxpayers get in return for shipping $100 million to the bureaucrats in Paris? Another international organization advocating for big government. The OECD, for example, is infamous for trying to undermine tax competition. It also has recommended higher taxes in America on countless occasions. And now it is suggesting that Iceland impose high tax increases – even thoug... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2796408 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:25:47 +0100 2796408 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2793399&cid=t_124536_140_f&fid=34843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furiousseasons.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Flilly_sponsors_fibromyalgia_website.html A new website, knowfibro.com, has popped up and interestingly its open and transparent about its sponsorship by Eli Lilly and the National Fibromyalgia Association, a California-based non-profit. NFA is in turn partially funded by Lilly, Forest Labs and other pharma companies. NFA claims that upwards of 10 million Americans suffer from the chronic pain condition, although fibromyalgia is controversial among some doctors who claim it doesn't exist. (I've got no opinion on that point.) So fibro sure could be big business for Big Pharma. Lilly's anti-depressant Cymbalta is approved in the US for fibromyalgia treatment, although it was rejected for that indication by European regulators. Whatever anyone makes of fibro and whether anti-depressants do much to address it, it sure is interesting ... Furious Seasons blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2793399 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2793399 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2790270&cid=t_124536_90_f&fid=36413&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dcscience.net%2F%3Fp%3D2222 In July 2008 I wrote an editorial in the New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ), at the request of its editor. The title was  Dr Who? deception by chiropractors.  It was not very flattering and it resulted in a letter from lawyers representing the New Zealand Chiropractic Association.  Luckily the editor of the NZMJ, Frank Frizelle, is a man of principle, and the legal action was averted. It also resulted in some interesting discussions with disillusioned chiropractors that confirmed one’s worst fears.  Not to mention revealing the internecine warfare between one chiropractor and another. This all occurred before the British Chiropractic Association sued Simon Singh for defamation.  The strength of the reaction to that foolhardy action now has chiropractors wond... DC's goodscience blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2790270 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:00:43 +0100 2790270