Posts Tagged: medication

Opinion

Critical, timely info on medications means better quality care

A doctor and her patient have a consultation over medical care. (Photo: Andrei_R, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: As health care delivery evolves thanks to advances in data sharing and technology, it’s important that health systems harness the availability of these new tools to improve transparency, information dissemination and communications between doctor and patient, allowing them to better work together to make vital health decisions.

News

Dangerous mix: Law enforcement and mentally ill suspects

A suspect in custody, handcuffed by police. (Photo: Boyfare, via Shutterstock)

Police response to mental-health calls often ends – again and again – in chaotic, noisy hospital emergency rooms, where staff is stretched thin, and a heart attack is likely to take precedence over someone in the throes of a mental-health crisis. “Traditionally, people would be dropped off at the ER, and the only option was to transfer them to a psychiatric facility,” says Dr. Scott Zeller, a nationally known emergency psychiatrist and former president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry.

Opinion

Kidney transplants: Correct the flaw in the sytem

A surgical team performing an operation in a California hospital.(Photo: Hernndorff, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: So after seven years of waiting, I finally received a kidney transplant in 2006. That same kidney has kept me alive, and I am grateful I have never had to go back to dialysis. Part of the reason I have stayed healthy is because my continuous health insurance pays for the medication to prevent my body from rejecting the transplanted kidney. But there is a flaw in our system that could prevent kidney transplant recipients from getting this kind of care.

News

New life sought for right-to-die law

A portrait of the late Brittany Maynard, who advocated for California's right-to-die law, is seen at a 2015 hearing of the Senate Health Committee. A Superior Court judge rejected the law as unconstitutional. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Deborah Kratter sat in her Half Moon Bay home, explaining her decision to move to Washington state to live, and then die with life-ending medication alongside family members when her terminal pancreatic cancer worsens. “My gosh, when the time comes and you can’t be who you are … I don’t see why you should have to lie in a bed and wait to die,” Kratter said.

Opinion

Costly drugs or access to health care: Should we really have to choose?

A physician flanked by the California flag. (Illustration: Niyazz, via Shutterstock).

OPINION: Prices for prescription drugs are rising precipitously, seriously threatening public and private healthcare budgets, and creating barriers preventing patients from accessing needed therapies. Pharmaceuticals now account for 19 percent of employer spending and Medicare spending on healthcare and, with a slew of approvals of new $100,000+ medications, there is no relief in sight.

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