Public Health & Policy

Morning Break: ACA Gridlock, Big Pharma on Campus

Published: Oct 4, 2013 | Updated: Oct 4, 2013

By MedPage Today Staff

Welcome to Morning Break, MedPage Today's daily guide to what's new and interesting on the web for healthcare providers. Got a tip? Send it to us atMPT_editorial@everydayhealthinc.com.

In years past, medical students accepted pharmaceutical sales reps around colleges as the "norm." Even though medical schools and societies called for a change in that culture, Dr. Pauline Chen blogs in theNew York Times that "it's not been all thatclear that a transformation has actually occurred."

The National Institutes of Health today will again start enrolling patients in new clinical trialsafter having to stop because of the government shutdown. The agency was granted permission Thursday to recall furloughed workers to help enroll patients.

It's not just "high volume" that is snarling the Affordable Care Act's online marketplace -- there are software design problems at work as well, Kaiser Health News reports. The California exchange still lacks a doctor-search tool.

And as attention continues to surround those exchanges, the poorest of the poor in nearly half of states are finding they are left with nothing as their state has decided not to expand its Medicaid program.

The USA Today reports that some physicians' offices are charging their patients copays for preventive exams even though the ACA prohibits it.

Children who experience traumatic brain injury may develop long-term deficits in working memory, possibly through reduced structural integrity of the corpus callosum, according to areport in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

A new survey among members of the American College of Rheumatology on ethical challenges identified concerns with conflicts of interest, such as the overuse of infusion therapy and imaging, and the costs of modern treatment to both patients and society.

The FDA late Thursday approved bazedoxifene/conjugated estrogens (Duavee) to treat moderate-to-severe hot flashes related to menopause in women who haven't had a hysterectomy. Check MedPage Today later in the day for more coverage on the approval.

Tally another win for walking. A study in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Preventionindicated a lower breast cancer risk for postmenopausal women who took regular walks, as reported by Reuters, the BBC, and others

Can You Dx? The New York Times Magazine Think Like a Doctor column has a case of a man with a green heart.

Don't believe everything you read. The study of a fake cancer drug -- a treatment too good to be true -- was accepted for publication by 157 of the 255 open-access journals that said they would review it.

And finally a little satire from Gomer Blog. What happens when the anesthesiologist and surgeon can't agree on a patient's care? The hospital shuts down, of course.

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MedPage Today Staff

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