Blacks Unaware of Kidney Trouble
The higher rate of kidney failure in African Americans is due in part to less awareness in that population of early stages of the disease, according to a study in the February American Journal of Kidney Diseases. Contributing to the problem may be that some physicians aren't adequately testing for chronic kidney disease, lead author Dr. Michael F. Flessner said in a statement. “Most physicians were trained in an era in which serum creatinine was used as an absolute indicator of kidney disease,” while proteinuria or reduced glomerular filtration rate is now considered a better test, said Dr. Flessner, director of nephrology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. The researchers interviewed and examined more than 3,400 African Americans who were part of the Jackson Heart Study. Overall, 20% of study participants were found to have chronic kidney disease, but fewer than 15% of those affected were aware they had it.
Group Pushes Swipable Cards
The Medical Group Management Association has launched an effort to persuade providers and health insurers to adopt standardized, machine-readable insurance cards by next January. The initiative, dubbed Project SwipeIT, would save an estimated $1 billion annually that is currently spent on “wasteful, redundant administrative tasks,” said William F. Jessee, MGMA president. For example, since most people's health insurance cards have no machine-readable elements, providers usually photocopy the cards and then manually enter the information into their computers, a process prone to error. Many health insurance cards also feature photos, illustrations, and shading that make legible photocopying difficult. Machine-readable cards would automatically enter patient information correctly and cost-effectively, according to MGMA. The organization has developed a Web site to promote the initiative at
VA Accepts POWs' Osteoporosis
Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs are proposing to extend benefits to former prisoners of war who suffer from disabling osteoporosis. In a proposed rule issued last month, the VA seeks to establish a presumption of service connection for osteoporosis that's at least 10% disabling in veterans held at least 30 days as POWs. Several studies have shown that POWs suffered serious bone loss following captivity because of dietary deficiencies during their imprisonment. Osteoporosis has not been a major health issue among former POWs until recently, according to the VA, because the condition doesn't typically emerge until late in life. Most former POWs are now in their 80s, according to the VA.
FDA Approvals Increase
The FDA approved 21 new molecular entities and 4 new biologic drugs in 2008, compared with 17 NMEs and 2 biologics in 2007. Four of the 2008 approvals came in December. In 2006, the FDA approved 22 new drugs and biologics. The agency has increased the annual number of novel therapies approved in recent years but is still failing to meet statutory deadlines for reviewing and approving products. The FDA said it did not meet the 2008 target of reviewing 90% of approval applications within the time limits set by law. The agency attributed many of the delays to resource constraint. There have been 800 new people hired by the FDA to review drug and biologic applications, which should help reduce delays, according to analyst Ira Loss at the firm Washington Analysis. But delays may persist for new diabetes therapies and opioids, he said, noting that the potential for cardiac toxicity and abuse hangs over those products.
E-Rx Systems Boost Savings
Electronic prescribing systems that allow doctors to select lower cost or generic medications can save $845,000 per 100,000 patients per year and possibly more, according to a study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The researchers examined the change in prescriptions written in community practices before and after two Massachusetts insurers launched e-prescribing systems. Although they found that the doctors prescribed electronically only 20% of the time—generally relying on traditional prescription pads—those who used e-prescribing with formulary support increased generic prescriptions by 3.3%. “Our results likely represent a conservative estimate of the potential savings,” said lead author Dr. Michael Fischer of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Physicians who wrote electronic prescriptions were slightly younger and more likely to be female than those who did not.
PhRMA Revises Ad Guidelines
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America recently advised drugmakers to state when actors portray medical professionals in direct-to-consumer drug advertisements and to acknowledge any compensation given to real medical professionals in ads. In addition, the new, nonbinding guidelines support the inclusion of “black box” warnings in the ads, and reinforce that companies shouldn't promote off-label uses. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) commended PhRMA for the new guidelines but noted that the organization hasn't endorsed a 2-year prohibition on such ads for newly approved drugs, as recommended by the Institute of Medicine.