medicine

When it comes to buying medications prescribed by a doctor in the United States, many Americans rely on insurance to cover the cost. Drugs can get quite expensive in the USA, and healthcare insurance coverage of the cost is often vital for low-income and middle-class citizens. As an NPR poll showed this week, when a doctor prescribes medication and that medication isn't covered by a patient's health insurance, nearly half of those patients "simply don't fill the prescription."

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This January of 2020 an auction is set to take place with a set of artworks from several artists, one of whom is Damien Hirst. Of interest in this auction is a relatively old Damien Hirst artwork by the name of "Bodies", originally sold in the year 1989. The artwork is one of the first 4 medicine cabinets that'd eventually make a suite of 12, and it was purchased for a sum of £600
- converting that amount in 1989 to dollars hits around USD$1k.

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A group of researchers led by Esme Fuller-Thomson of the University of Toronto showed some good news on anxiety and GAD. GAD is generalized anxiety disorder, the subject of Fuller-Thomson's mental health study that worked with a sample of more than 2,000 people. Each of these study subjects had a history of GAD.

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The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved of an Ebola vaccine for the first time in history. This announcement was made just weeks after a similar approval by the World Health Organization. The vaccine goes by the name of Ervebo, and it's already been "assessed in approximately 15,000 individuals in Africa, Europe and North America." This vaccine's approval process, though rigorous, was done in relatively short order thanks to the efforts of the FDA and associated medical and scientific groups due to the urgent need for this vaccine as outbreaks continue to occur.

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Using the System Usability Scale (SUS) in a major study published this week, Mayo researchers found modern Electronic Health Records (EHR) to be less user-friendly than Microsoft Excel. EHR got an SUS score of 45, which also ranks below GPS (maps), Amazon, and ATMs. At the top of the scale - Google search.

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The FDA posted their latest updated guidance for "Influenza (Flu) Antiviral Drugs and Related Information" for public awareness, current for the tail end of the year 2019. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) noted that there are "a number of drugs" of which they approve of for "the treatment and prevention of influenza" but that NONE of them are "a substitute for yearly vaccination." They might stop your cough, but the FDA still recommended (and continues to recommend) that all people get their yearly flu vaccine ASAP.

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Amazon today announced that Alexa is getting some new medication management features. These features not only include reminders to take your medicine - something that was already doable with Alexa's capabilities - but also the ability to request refills for your medication. The launch of these features is starting out on a small scale, but we should see it expand in the near future.

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Ebola is now officially preventable and treatable. Today the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalified an Ebola vaccine for the first time in the history of the world. The Ervebo vaccine is now recommended by the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) as a key tool in treating Ebola, as it's been officially shown to be effective in protecting humans from the Ebola Zaire virus.

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Since last year, the FDA has been looking into the presence of impurities in various types of medication, leading to multiple drug recalls over past months. In the latest announcement on this matter, the agency reports that some units of a popular heartburn and antihistamine drug called ranitidine may contain low levels of a cancer-causing impurity, though it isn't ordering a recall of the products at this time.

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Part of maintaining a healthy heart and reducing one's risk of developing cardiovascular disease is keeping cholesterol and triglyceride levels in check. Triglycerides are a type of fat that can be found in the blood, high levels of which may increase the risk of heart troubles later in life. A new study has found that taking daily omega-3 fatty acid pills may substantially lower triglyceride levels, but it comes with a big warning.

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Brand name drug Relpax, a tryptamine-based medication in the triptan class of drugs, has been voluntarily recalled by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer over the potential risk of 'microbiological' contamination. The FDA detailed the recall this week, explaining that migraine sufferers who consume a contaminated pill may be at risk of potentially serious infections, as well as other issues like an upset stomach.

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A report released this week showed newly discovered gut-colonizing bacteria that "protect against obesity." These bacteria were connected directly to metabolic disease and the "diverse communities of intestinal bacteria." These communities of intestinal bacteria, also known as microbiota, "can influence whether obesity develops or not" in the human body.

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