Findings in a report issued last week by the Blue Shield of California Foundation demonstrate that an informed patient is an empowered patient: one who feels more comfortable asking questions of one’s healthcare provider, and making decisions about one’s own healthcare.
While this equation may seem obvious, the report puts numbers to the equation, marking the significant differences between the informed and uninformed patient. Most importantly, the patient population studied consisted of low income families with annual household incomes less than 200% of the federal poverty level, or about $46,000 for a family of four. Continue reading
A study from Denmark of almost 100,000 patients over a 12-year period has concluded that:
On May 17, less than two weeks from now, U.S. patent protection will end for Plavix (clopidogrel), the best-selling antiplatelet drug made by Bristol-Myers Squibb / Sanofi-Aventis. In 2010, worldwide sales of Plavix topped $6 billion (yes…billion!). For a typical stent patient, one 75mg tablet of Plavix a day costs more than $210 a month. Those with drug-eluting stents (80% or more of patients) must take Plavix for a year minimum. So the required medication actually can cost more than the stent itself. 
As I have written before, many, many times, our 
This is a picture of a patient, Nancy Vitale, who just had a blockage in her very complex, calcified and tortuous right coronary artery opened up with angioplasty and a stent. She is getting up off the cath lab table and walking to recovery, where she’ll be sitting up in a chair. For those readers familiar with angioplasty, you may be wondering why she is not lying flat on her back for four hours or more. The answer is “it’s all in the wrist”. 
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