Image by Jo Panuwat DOPINION – Each breast cancer patient has their own story. For some of us, breast cancer runs in our family and we’ve had family discussions about our risk. For others, the diagnosis comes out of left field and there’s nowhere to turn.
Patient advocate image by d.ee_angeloOPINION – The Whole Child Model seeks to address the entire body of needs that affect a child’s well-being.
A pre-school girl and her therapist. (Photo: ABO Photography, via Shutterstock)Mental health services are crucial to our well-being. I think that most people will agree with me. As I write, mental health clinicians employed at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California are beginning week three of a strike over work conditions. As these essential workers see it, their employer’s rules are harmful to them and their patients. Count a young family member of mine among the latter. What follows are my reflections on his experience with Kaiser clinicians.
An ophthamologist looks through a surgical microscope. (Photo: Dragon Images, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Summer travel is back in full force. But would you get on an airplane if you knew the pilot’s only training was practicing in a simulator for a week or so and then completing a few test flights with an instructor? That is essentially what AB 2236 would require with regard to an optometrist doing eye surgery in California if the bill became law.
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.
Photo illustration of money and medical care. (Image: ShutterstockProfessional, via Shutterstock)OPINION: If passed, SB 958 would severely limit specialty pharmacies’ ability to deliver lower cost medications to patients, while also making it even easier for hospitals to markup the cost they charge patients for critical medications, and in the end, we would see higher health care premiums for California’s employers and individuals.
An artist's photo illustration depicting a mental illness. (Image: Triff, via Shutterstock)OPINION: As I have shared throughout my career I, like many people, have a mental health condition. I have anxiety and bi-polar depression. I am also in recovery for alcoholism. I regularly see a psychiatrist, therapist and I take medication.
Prescription medication available through hospitals and pharmacies. (Photo: Andy Dean Photography, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California is committed to the health of its residents. Nearly a quarter of Gov. Newsom’s state budget for 2022-2023 is allocated to health care expenditures. Amid their focus on improving health care access and affordability, however, policymakers should also reexamine existing programs that are failing to properly protect vulnerable California communities.
An ophthalmologist performs eye surgery on a patient. (Photo: PRESSLAB, via Shutterstock)OPINION: “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!” proclaims an elderly woman in a 1980’s commercial for LifeCall, a home system that summoned emergency care, but became the subject of derision and perhaps a bit of schadenfreude over time, spawning parodies. Of course, it might seem funny until it’s you or a loved one, perhaps the victim of a fall due to poor eyesight.
Evangelina Padilla-Vaccaro’s medical team gathers around her on the day she received her gene-therapy stem-cell transplant. (Photo: Padilla-Vaccaro family, via UCLA Health)A London-based biotech firm has given up its life-saving treatment for the bubble baby disease and turned it over to California’s $12 billion stem cell agency and UCLA, where it was developed with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.