First Pill to Prevent HIV

As reported by ABC News and others, the FDA approved Truvada to prevent HIV infection.  Truvada is not a new drug.  What is new is that there is now a primary prevention (healthy people take this) for HIV infection. One controversy is the potential of creating resistance, but the FDA felt that risk was outweighed by the benefit of preventing HIV in serodiscordant partners.

The Health Care Handbook

Have you been confused about our health care system? It's large and complex, and even though you may in it, you may still not understand how it works.  This is a common experience for medical students.  Fortunately, two medical students have written an book called "The Health Care Handbook."  They were featured in Pauline Chen's NY Times Article. The book will be in paper back soon, but is currently available on Amazon as an e-book.  I would highly recommend this to medical students.

Did the 2011 Match Really Show an Increase in Primary Care?

According to many reports, the 2011 match saw increases in students matching to primary care fields.  Though technically true, the fact is that there were more students (do to a few new medical schools) in this years match than last years.  If you look at the percent of students choosing primary care, it's really about the same.  I discuss further on my blog. 2011 Residency Match NOT Good News for Primary Care

The Blockbuster Drug Comes to an End

On the Forbes Health and Medicine Blog, Matther Herper discusses how The Blockbuster Drug Comes to an End.

Most ACOs may lose money initially

Here's a piece from the AMA News about how Acountable Care Organizations or ACO's loose money in the first 3 years.

First POM3 Session Comming Soon!

Looking forward to seeing you on July 29th, 8:30 in Ross 101

Great Primer on the US Health Care System ... from the Brits!

If you have not been following the health care debate, or are too bogged down in details to understand it, the BBC News just came out with an excellent explanation of our health care system and the proposed legislation to fix it. This is an extremely easy read, and pretty much boils down everything as it stands today. It does not explain extremely important issues like why health care costs continue to rise or the primary care crisis. However, the current proposed legislation does little to address this either.