The Class of ’65: Aging in Place.

Mike Magee This weekend, I’ll be joining classmates for a 50th reunion of our high school. A half century ago, 1965, in the epicenter of a turbulent American decade, we graduated together. On the whole, our group has been pretty resilient, facing a range of challenges, including for many of my classmates, Vietnam. From the […]

Suicides in Black Boys and America’s “More Perfect Union”.

Mike Magee The results broadcast in a JAMA report this week on childhood suicides so shocked the researchers that they doubled back to check their facts. The shocker was that suicides in black boys, which had always been markedly less common than in white boys, had suddenly reversed the historic trend. Specifically, the study on […]

Note to FDA: Get On-Label Use Right, Before Liberalizing Off-Label Use.

Mike Magee “At my own medical center we have banned pharmaceutical reps from coming because we don’t think they are a good source of information. You don’t ask the barber if you need a haircut.” Dr. Rita Redberg, editor, JAMA Internal Medicine. What Dr. Redberg is protesting is the possibility of liberalizing the prohibition on […]

Medicare Part D Transparency: Are We Healthier or Simply Poorer?

Mike Magee This has been a week focused on drugs – not illegal drugs, prescription drugs. If you like health policy, and you like controversy, pharmaceuticals is the place to be. On the one side you find Americans, with all their ills, real and imagined, hoping for a “miracle cure”, a quick fix that avoids […]