One of every five kids and 9 of 10 older Americans took at least one prescription drug in the previous month, says a survey taken in 2008. MORE...

One new study estimates the percentage of workers at firms with 50 or fewer employees offered health insurance will rise to 86% from 60% after health-care overhaul is implemented. MORE...

"Dream Lover" Bobby Darin   Every night, I hope and pray a Dream Patient will come my way   “My insurance plan requires me to fill certain prescriptions by mail order, but I’d rather you fill them even if I have to pay more.  You take good care of me.”   “We do our best, Jane.”   Jane laughs, “It is more money, but I like it that my pharmacist knows every pill that I am swallowing and why I am taking it.  You even gave me a few pills to hold me over while MORE...

It’s end of summer/back to school time which means many things for pharmacies (stock up on the lice stuff). Between various friends and family who work at different types of jobs I feel like I’ve heard a lot about ‘retreats’ lately — you know, where a bunch of people from a company or department go off somewhere for a day and talk about their goals, their mission, their overall plan for the upcoming year, whatever. Everybody hates these things with a MORE...

The latest on the egg recall: Companies are pointing fingers, the FDA has come back to the farms — and will customers forgive and forget? MORE...

Also: Price hike for last-resort insurance in California; potential warfarin replacements line up; dialysis deal reached in Atlanta; U.S. asks judge to allow embryonic stem cell research to proceed. MORE...

Flesh Eating Bacteria Cause Horrific Damage Being eaten alive by flesh-eating bacteria sounds like a plot for a science fiction movie. But what’s happening isn’t science fiction. It’s a grim reality for a growing number of unlucky individuals suddenly infected by bacteria called Necrotizing Fasciitis (NF). These bacteria don’t really eat flesh. They produce enzymes and toxins that attack soft tissue and fascia, the tissue that covers muscles. After being attacked, skin begins to MORE...

Does Your Teenager Say What All the Time? Almost every time I say something to my teenage daughter, she replies with “what?” I think she hears me and says that just to annoy me. Sometimes I think that, like a typical teenager, she likes to tune out most of what I say because I’m a parent. But I just came across this study that made me wonder if she says “what?” all the time because she’s one of the 20% of adolescents in the U.S. who suffer some degree of hearing loss. That’s the MORE...

Our Baltimore, Maryland pharmacy error injury lawyers have been following the results of a recent Consumer Reports Health Poll, that found that 65 percent of most Americans feel that drug makers have too much influence on doctors, and that doctors are too quick to prescribe drugs instead of exploring other non-drug options to manage health conditions. The poll also found that as patients, many Americans have a strong desire to acquire more drug information and safety details to prevent MORE...

At the Minnesota State Fair, families can sign up to give DNA samples for a research study. MORE...

Public hospitals are being sold amidst a general boom in hospital M&A activity. MORE...

Addiction Drugs May Aid Weight Loss A lot of people struggling with excess weight say that their addiction to food led to their weight gain. And that claim might be what led scientists to wonder whether drugs used to fight other addictions could help in the weight loss battle. Results from a recently completed study suggest that scientists may be onto something. The intriguing results were published in July in the online version of Lancelet, a well-respected medical journal. This newest trial MORE...

We have just started offering this valuable professional service and CVS treats it like popcorn Just when you think that grocery stores (the bottom of the professional ladder) have done their worst, a major drug store company diminishes your professional standing with this. The perception that pharmacists provide a valuable professional service has been diminished, if not outright killed, by all of these bargain Rxs and give-away Rxs.  Now, CVS is attacking another professional service MORE...

Thanks to Marilyn Mann, I was directed to this article by John Fauber on MedPage Today Orthopedics:http://www.medpagetoday.com/Surgery/Orthopedics/21908 (Regular readers will recall that we’ve seen Fauber’s excellent investigative reporting previously with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.) The story is a complicated one and I refer interested readers to the full report. A couple of medical device companies have manufactured some stuff that makes the body grow new bone wherever it MORE...

The Dangers Lurking in Dietary Supplements Anyone currently taking supplements or thinking about taking them needs to read the September, 2010 issue of Consumer Reports right away. Inside is an alarming report about the dangers associated with twelve supplement ingredients. Whether or not supplements are safe has been fiercely debated since the products first came to market. Now after this report, the debate is hotter than ever. Supplements are meant to enhance your health by providing in MORE...