"Health & Medical News"

One physician’s faxed order to discontinue hydrocodone, marketed as Anexsia, was misread by the pharmacist as an order to discontinue Arixtra, an anticoagulant. Another doctor intended to electronically order clonidine, an antihypertensive, but accidentally ordered the sedative clonazepam because both appeared as “CLON” on the computer screen.

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The University of California, Los Angeles, has started a one-of-a-kind program that may start a trend among medical schools serving large Hispanic populations, experts said.

The pilot program prepares international medical graduates who speak English and Spanish for family medicine residency by coaching them through the multistep U.S. Medical Licensing Exam and giving them clinical observerships.

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Barack Obama has acknowledged using marijuana and cocaine as a young man, but interviews with old friends and classmates find few who remember the presidential candidate as much of a drug user, the New York Times reported Feb. 9.

Former classmates from Obama’s high school and Occidental College, which he attended between 1979 and 1981, described Obama in mostly positive terms, with some saying he occasionally smoked marijuana but none recalling any cocaine use.

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Washington — Programs that reward employees for exercising or not smoking sound logical. But they could violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act if employers do not offer alternatives for workers unable to participate because of health factors, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor.

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Buried in clinical guidelines and buffeted by the latest published research findings, what’s a physician to do when faced with a patient and a 15-minute treatment window? Begin to sort through the conflicting guidelines or analyze the latest research studies?

A Jan. 24 Institute of Medicine report suggests a way to bring order from the chaos that surrounds conflicting clinical guidelines and questions about how to choose the best available diagnostic, treatment or preventive service — but Congress would have to create a federal program to make it happen.

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A California appeals court dealt another blow to health plans over their policy cancellation tactics.

The 4th District Court of Appeal unanimously said insurers have a responsibility to make sure patients’ policy applications are complete and accurate before issuing coverage — not after expensive claims come in the door. Judges said plans cannot revoke patients’ policies unless they fully investigate pre-enrollment forms up front or insurers show patients intentionally misled them.

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By Bob Curley

The Recovery Community Services Program (RCSP) — a grant program that funds peer recovery support services for individuals with alcohol and other drug problems –? could be on the chopping block, and advocates for addiction recovery are mobilizing to convince the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to continue funding the program.

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As baseball faces a major scandal over steroid use, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) are joining forces to create the Partnership for Clean Competition, an antidoping research program, the New York Times reported Jan. 11.

The sports groups are joining forces with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to create the new body, contributing $750,000 each annually for four years in an effort to find effective but less expensive ways to detect and prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

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A controversial program in Pierce County, Wash., that referred drug-court offenders to the Prometa treatment regimen has been shut down over concerns that claims of treatment success had been exaggerated, MSNBC reported Jan. 11.

For example, program officials didn’t account for no-shows and dropouts, and declared patients “drug free” simply if they did not test positive for drugs in the 60 days prior to the end of the program.

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Rheumatoid arthritis Comprehensive overview covers signs, symptoms and treatment of this inflammatory arthritis. … There’s no cure for rheumatoid arthritis. …

Dr. Mehmet Oz: ‘The Arthritis Cure’
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