Searching for Side Effects Achy? Dizzy? Tired? Maybe a Prescription Is Making You Sick
from Wall Street Journal, 1/31/12 You're taking a new medication and have dry mouth and feel dizzy. Want to know how many other people have reported those side effects—and how your drug compares with similar drugs? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has millions of such "adverse event" reports, ranging from fatigue to fatal heart attacks, for thousands of prescription drugs dating back to 1969. But the information hasn't been readily accessible—until now. A start-up company, AdverseEvents Inc., has streamlined the FDA's often impenetrable database and made it easy to search the adverse-event reports for more than 4,500 drugs, free and online. Another start-up, Clarimed LLC, has done the same for reports filed with the FDA on 130,000 medical devices, a far more complex group that runs the gamut from syringes to stents to tanning beds and diagnostic machines that could impact tens of thousands of lives. MORE- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203920204577193052426275904.html
OBSERVATION:
The plethora of prescription meds means more potentially negative interactions
+ greater transparency of those negative effects
= more pushback from many patients against taking Rx meds in general.
WellPoint (a MAJOR insurancer company) reported a 39% fall in profits from high medical costs for seniors, despite the trend of generally light costs seen elsewhere in the managed-care sector. Wall Street Journal 1/26/12
The analyst's takeaway: It's not a "disaster" since the company made adjustments to Medicare to fix the problem.
Weiniger's Observation: In preparation for Obamacare coming online in 2014, Insurance will continue to squeeze patients and providers, especially for older people.
Opportunity: Build perceived value past the insurance payment, as people will be paying for more care out of pocket.
A friend asked me "What tribe are you from?" in response to a quip on my part. His question hit a nerve because I've been a big fan of Seth Godin's book, Tribes, and Godin's insight into our changing interpersonal world and communications has significantly influenced on our continuing efforts to build a network of posture professionals.
Here's how I answered my friend's question:
I'm a member of a rather heretical tribe, a group of people who combine common sense and scientific insight with natural, minimally invasive therapeutics to restore motion and balance and help people heal and be well.
The New York Times (1/3/12) gave an even stronger headline to the story in today's blogpost about the Bronfort's study showing exercise and chiropractic gave better pain relief than pharmaceuticals:
