It’s a slow day*, health policy wise, and vacations abound. To tide you over, here’s some of what we’ve been reading:
- The GAO released some findings on the doctors and the acceptance of Medicaid. The study found that children with Medicaid had more trouble finding a new doctor than children with private insurance. This difficulty was amplified when specialty care was needed. See posts by me and others for context.
- The Annals of Internal Medicine released a study saying that the age-based guide lines for mammography screening could better be replaced with ones that take into account a woman’s risk factors. More at the Los Angeles Times.
- The Archives of General Psychiatry published a study which showed a positive correlation between women who took selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors and childhood autism. This is a case-control study, and doesn’t prove causation. Moreover, we should weight the risks of this against the benefits to the mothers on the drug. Still, it’s worth looking into this further.
- The NYT reports that the FDA is finally announcing rules that will require manufacturers to clarify how well sunscreens work.
- Tara Parker-Pope commented on a story last week that limited the number of hours first year residents could work per shift. The hour limiting was put into place (in part) to help keep the number of mistakes from first year residents under control, especially when they are new doctors. Tara notes that few studies can find a correlation between the time of year when the residents first start and an increase in mortality rates.
*Of course, it must be a slow day because everyone is so excited about my book!
