Kim's public health blog » Policy

Diabetes Rate May Double by 2034

kimros — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:44:16 +0000

In many newspapers today is this story that if nothing is done, the number of Americans with diabetes will nearly double in the next 25 years and spending on the disease will nearly triple, a new study shows. “A perfect storm is a good way to look at it, “says study researcher Elbert S. Huang, MD of the University of Chicago. “If things stay the way they are right now we will have massive increases in diabetes incidence in this country over the next two decades.” By 2034, as many as 44 million Americans will have diabetes, up from 23 million today, according to the new projections, published in the November issue of the American Diabetes Association journal Diabetes Care. Comment: So how is this going to affect the so-called health care reform bill which purports to lower costs of medical care.

Healthy People 2020 Objectives

kimros — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:11:53 +0000

The objectives for Healthy People 2020 are now available for review and comment. HHS encourages participation in review and comment at the 2020 Objectives Site. The site is easy to navigate, commenting is simple. I find many of the objectives grammatically convoluted and confusing. I hope the readers of this blog will visit and comment.

Governments look to community-level solutions for obesity.

kimros — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:47:08 +0000

The Wall Street Journal (11/10, Dalton) reports that some countries’ governments have stopped focusing on individual discipline to combat obesity, and instead are working to make entire communities more healthy by reducing the opportunities to live unhealthily. Laura Kettel Khan, an obesity expert at the CDC, says that “people are finally acknowledging that the obesity problem is so pervasive that it isn’t just because people are making bad choices.” The Journal describes obesity programs across Europe and in the US, noting that these initiatives are taking off because obesity has become too expensive a problem to handle on an individual basis.

US Patients Five Times More Likely To Spend Last Days In ICU Than Patients In England

kimros — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:44:04 +0000

Patients who die in the hospital in the United States are almost five times as likely to have spent part of their last hospital stay in the ICU than patients in England. What’s more, over the age of 85, ICU usage among terminal patients is eight times higher in the US than in England, according to new research that compared the two countries’ use of intensive care services during final hospitalizations.

Abortion And Unintended Pregnancy Decline Worldwide As Contraceptive Use Increases

kimros — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:19:32 +0000

A new report from the Guttmacher Institute identifies how improved access to family planning services has reduced the use of abortion services worldwide although problems if access to either opportunities varies widely among different countries, particularly in the developing countries..

Vaccinating Boys Against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Not Cost-Effective.

kimros — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:11:44 +0000

In a new study, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that if vaccine coverage and efficacy are high in girls, a universal recommendation to vaccinate young boys is unlikely to provide comparatively good value for resources, compared with vaccinating girls only. The study was reported in the BMJ October 9..

Quality Improvements.

kimros — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:10:26 +0000

The Commonwealth Fund just released its State Scorecard on Health System Performance. The scorecard points to substantial opportunities to improve. If all states could reach the level achieved by the top performing states:

•Twenty-nine million more people would have health insurance—cutting the number of uninsured by more than half;

•Nearly 78,000 fewer adults and children would die prematurely every year from conditions that could have been prevented with timely and effective health care;

•Nine million more adults age 50 and older would receive recommended preventive care, and almost 800,000 more children would receive key vaccinations;

•Five billion dollars could be saved annually by avoiding preventable hospital admissions and readmissions for vulnerable elderly and disabled residents.

FDA said to need more resources

kimros — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:51:54 +0000

In an op-ed in The Hill (10/8), former FDA commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach, now a senior adviser at the Center for Health Transformation, and Wayne W. Oliver, a CHT vice president, write that despite A plan to spend $5 billion of stimulus funds on government grants to increase medical research, “not one dollar of stimulus money will be used to enhance the capacity and capability of the FDA.” Despite “decades of neglect” the agency continues to have “a diminished capacity to embrace new scientific technologies and meet the demands needed to protect the public health.” Von Eschenbach and Oliver call for new resources and “the design and implementation of a 21st century regulatory framework” that will help the FDA “drive innovation, dramatically shorten the time between discovery and delivery, and allow Americans everywhere to have access to safe, effective and miraculous discoveries” Comment: In previous Blogs I have said the FDA was severely restricted by funds yet Congress keeps adding duties, including the most recent tobacco responsibilities.

Young Adults Visit Doctors Least At An Age When Risky Behavior Peaks

kimros — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:48:56 +0000

A study performed at The University of Rochester Medical School showed that when adolescents graduate to young adulthood, their preventive care tends to fall by the wayside. A recent study has found that young adults are much less likely to use ambulatory or preventive care, even though their mortality rate is more than twice that of adolescents. COMMENT: I have difficulty understanding why this should surprise anyone when the various insurance programs, including Medicaid fail to pay for counseling by primary care practitioners. Further once the individual reaches 18 years of age eligibility for Medicaid vanishes.

Economist estimates US spends up to $60 billion annually on defensive medicine.

kimros — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:31:59 +0000

In the New York Times (9/22) Economic Scene column, according to Harvard economist Amitabh Chandra, “$60 billion a year, or about three percent of overall medical spending, is a reasonable upper-end estimate” of what is spent on defensive medicine in the US. Leonhardt argues that the current “malpractice system does” indeed “affect the morale of doctors,” leaving “them wondering when they will be publicly accused of doing the very thing they’ve sworn not to do: harm patients.”