Viewpoints: There Are Pitfalls To Pharma-Funded Research; Is American Health Care On The Verge Of Collapse?
Opinion writers discuss these public health issues.
Stat:
Corporate Support Cannot Make Up For Threats To The NIH Budget
This story offers an important lesson during this fraught time in research, as threats to NIH funding have dramatically upended life for researchers working to understand the mechanisms of disease or discover better ways to treat them: Pharmaceutical industry support cannot replace public funding for research. (Jerry Avorn, 10/22)
The Wichita Eagle:
Are Doctors Funding Their Own Extinction?
As a retired vascular surgeon and leader of a large multispecialty surgical group, the existing American health care system has me distraught. Doctors are witnessing its collapse firsthand as decisions are increasingly made with little regard to patient care. Doctors have given up control to health insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, device manufacturers, brokers, lobbyists, hospitals, fake research, private equity, and so on. (Dr. Alex Ammar, 10/22)
Stat:
Neurology And Psychiatry Should Be A Single Discipline
The brain is the seat of the self. When it breaks, it doesn’t just wound, it distorts, erodes, and often erases. I’ve spent a lifetime witnessing that erasure, not with clinical detachment but in the intimacy of family meals, dark hospital corridors, and my own internal unraveling. (Shaheen E. Lakhan, 10/23)
Los Angeles Times:
When Surviving Cancer Isn't The End Of The Fight
When you hear the words “you have cancer,” your world tilts on its axis. I know because I’ve heard them twice. I am grateful to be a breast and ovarian cancer survivor, but surviving cancer did not mean my fight was over. In the aftermath of my treatments, I developed a chronic and often misunderstood disease that I will live with for the rest of my life. (Kathy Bates, 10/23)
Undark:
Misinformation About The End Of Life Is Harming Organ Donation
In August, The New York Times reported that President Donald Trump’s administration was “cracking down” on the organ transplant system, which the newspaper attributed, in part, to its own investigative report from July suggesting that U.S. patients had nearly been killed for their organs. The Times reported that a woman was still alive when surgeons began working to remove her organs. ... The article also alleged that “signs of life” were ignored in patients being considered for organ donation. (Jedediah Lewis, Hedi Aguiar and Adam Schiavi, 10/23)
