Hospital medical staff checking a patient's records. (Photo: Stokkete, via Shutterstock)OPINION: It’s never a good idea when insurers cut costs by interfering in the decision-making process between patients and their doctor. But during a national pandemic, it’s a particularly bad idea. I am thinking specifically of an insurance strategy called step therapy.
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.
A young cancer patient stares out a hospital window. (Photo: Solid photos, via Shutterstock)OPINION: In the many years we have been treating patients, the hardest conversations to get through were always revealing a person’s cancer diagnosis to them for the first time. But like everything else in our world today—that has changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robert Klein at a November 2017 meeting of CIRM directors. (Photo: California Stem Cell Report)The man regarded as the father of the $3 billion California stem cell agency is thinking about changes in the program to help win voter approval of another $5 billion for the research program. They include a stronger requirement to make state-backed, stem cell therapies more affordable and accessible and to provide more cash for creating a greater stem cell work force in the Golden State.
A photo illustration of opioid addiction. (Photo: Kimberly Boyles, via Shutterstock)OPINION: A key focus of this year’s California legislative session is the nation’s opioid crisis, and rightly so. According to the California Healthcare Foundation, an estimated 2,000 Californians died of an opioid overdose in 2016. The opioid epidemic confronting California and the rest of America is a growing public health crisis from which no state is immune.
A Liquid Nitrogen bank containing a suspension of stem cells. (Photo: Elena Pavlovich)The California stem cell agency this week approved nearly $33 million for clinical stage research projects testing treatments for type 1 diabetes, arthritis of the knee, ALS and an immunodeficiency affliction.
A young cancer patient sits by a hospital window. (Photo: Sasa Prudkov)OPINION: It’s pretty rare nowadays to meet someone whose life hasn’t been affected by some variety of cancer. Whether you’ve been diagnosed yourself or know someone who has, the impacts can be devastating.
Throat cancer patient Karl Trede, who was treated with the "eat me" protein therapy. (Photo: California Institute for Regenerative Medicine)In an emotion-choked session, the mother of a six-year-old girl thanked California’s stem cell agency for saving the life of her daughter. “Thank you for keeping my family complete,” said Alysia Padilla-Vaccaro, her voice cracking as she spoke to the governing board of the $3 billion California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is formally known.
Examining a liquid nitrogen bank containing suspended stem cells. (Photo: Elena Pavolvich)You might say it is a case of “self-control” involving the test of a stem cell therapy for an infamous and terrible disease. Not self-control in the usual sense, but in the sense of controls during a clinical trial for a treatment prior to its release to the general public.
Photo illustration: Stephen FinnOPINION: California is long overdue to take steps, large and small, to address its homeless crisis. No other state has a problem of this magnitude; a problem that disproportionately affects the mentally ill. According to the office of Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, California accounts for 22 percent of the nation’s homeless total.