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Adults are notoriously lax when it comes to getting vaccinated. Now, disease experts and health officials are calling for a national program to make immunization as routine a part of health care for adults as it has been for kids.
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THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE By BENJAMIN BREWER, M.D.
Doctors Reluctant to Reach Patients OnlineIn some parts of the country doctors are using e-visits and electronic communication with patients to good effect. But at Dr. Brewer's small practice, the expensive Web site that no one uses is scheduled to come down .
Aggressive Type of Cancer Gets New TestsMonogram Biosciences said it will begin offering a new test next week to diagnose patients with a very aggressive form of breast cancer. Separately the FDA approved another new test for aggressive breast cancer called the SPOT-Light test.
Drugs' Ties to Suicide Risk Draw ConcernFederal regulators are about to expand the number of drug warnings for suicide risk, escalating worries for consumers and fueling a debate about whether the FDA is overreacting or properly alerting the public of risks it long ignored.
Cardinal Formalizes RestructuringCardinal Health will cut 600 jobs, or about 1.5% of its work force, as it reorganizes operations into two segments.
Scam on Medicare Used Dead DoctorsThe federal government paid scam artists nearly $100 million for claims of wheelchairs, canes, prescription drugs and other items submitted under the names of dead doctors in recent years.
Eli Lilly Buys SGX PharmaceuticalsEli Lilly signed an agreement to buy SGX Pharmaceuticals for $64 million. SGX shares soared after hours to $3, matching Lilly's offer price.
New Ways to Diagnose Autism
![[go to article]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-BU215_autism_20080707225635.jpg) | | Yale University
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Researchers are targeting new technologies to help detect autism at ever-younger ages in hopes of reversing some of the disorder's worst symptoms.
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Pricey Drugs Put Squeeze on Doctors![[go to article]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-BU219_toxic__20080707230707.jpg)
The rising prices of cancer drugs are undermining the ethos that prevents doctors from factoring costs into treatment decisions, disrupting relationships with patients, and causing health care providers to go into debt.
Novartis Wraps First Step in Alcon DealNovartis has concluded the first step of its $39 billion purchase of U.S. eye-care company Alcon, a deal that gives the Swiss pharmaceutical firm greater access to the fast-growing market for eye treatments.
HEALTH JOURNAL By MELINDA BECK
Hard-to-Shed Weight
![[Go to article]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-BU206_health_20080707204217.jpg) | | Corbis
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Scientists have found that the hormone leptin may be the cause of hard-to-shed weight. Health Mailbox | Forum
Obesity in China Becoming More CommonOver 25% of adults in China are overweight or obese and the number could double in the next 20 years, a study said.
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Jul 8,
4:42 pm Old doctors barely know what the Web is. Baby docs just out of residency would rather take a job in the Arctic than get rid of their Facebook page. And all of them are likely to get Googlestalked now and again by creepy patients.
That's what a couple of Harvard psychiatrists say (albeit somewhat less glibly) [...] Jul 8,
12:52 pm “I've been hit, I've been kicked and spit on,” a psychiatric nurse says in this morning's New York Times. “I've had a knife pulled on me. I love what I do and many of the patients I work with, but I don’t love the conditions I work in.”
Apparently, this sort of thing happens all the [...] Jul 8,
12:10 pm A 15-year-old boy who needs a new liver has been taken off a hospital's waiting list because of his unstable home life, the Miami Herald reports.
The boy, who isn't named in the Herald story, is a developmentally disabled foster child; his mother was a crack addict.
Shands, a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of [...] Jul 8,
9:52 am A surgeon accused of performing hundreds of unnecessary operations just got sentenced to 10 years in prison, the Orange County register reports.
William W. Hampton was convicted of health-care fraud last year in federal court. Prosecutors said he operated on patients who were paid to come in for surgeries they didn't need, often a procedure used [...] |
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