Johnson & Johnson has appointed a nationally known bioethicist to create a panel that will make decisions about patients’ requests for potentially lifesaving medicine, responding to an emotional debate over whether companies should allow desperately ill people to have access to the drugs before they are approved. Aaron Kesselheim, associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
Lesbian, gay and bisexual adolescents are more likely to be bullied and victimized throughout elementary and high school than heterosexual students, according to new research. Mark Schuster, William Berenberg Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, is the lead author of the study.
When the FDA approved a drug called Colcrys to treat acute gout attacks, the move came as part of an agency initiative to regulate medicines that had never been formally approved, but were on the market when the FDA received authority to oversee the drug approval process. In this instance, Colcrys was the brand name given colchicine, which was sold for decades by several companies and cost 9 cents a pill. URL Pharma won FDA approval – and seven years of marketing exclusivity – by running a small study that gauged the effectiveness of different dosages. URL sued other colchicine makers and, by early 2011, marketing exclusivity took hold. And Colcrys cost $5 a pill. Now, a new study says the approval was not worth the effort, at least for patients. Aaron Kesselheim, associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a study coauthor.
The accidental death of Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, led to predictable follow-up stories on the dangers of exercising on treadmills. Eddie Phillips, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and Aaron Baggish, assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, are quoted.
When 911 dispatchers get a call that someone has collapsed and stopped breathing, they quickly notify first responders. In hundreds of communities across the country, they also send out alerts via smartphone, summoning everyday citizens who have been trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Carlos Camargo, professor of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
Harvey Makadon, professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, authored this article about health care for LGBT people and those living with HIV.
A personalized method for interpreting blood tests identifies more ovarian cancer cases than a generalized approach, a new study suggests. Steven Skates, associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is a coauthor of the research.
