Are Your Frail Loved Ones Safe? An Important New IOM Report.

Mike Magee The Institute of Medicine this week released a new report on elder abuse. As they state, “The Institute of Medicine Forum on Global Violence Prevention convened a workshop in spring 2012 …. Although little discussion took place regarding violence against the elderly, some elements of the framework could apply to elder abuse.”(1) I […]

IOM Live Chat Today With CDC Leader

Obesity is common, serious, and costly, and it affects every region of the U.S. During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States This complex and growing epidemic is confronted in “Weight of the Nation”, a four part series airing now on HBO. The documentary was developed […]

Obesity Prevention: HBO, IOM, CDC, NIH and The White House Go Public May 14 and 15.

Mike Magee Health Commentary has been focused on the challenge of obesity for over a decade. The facts have been clear. But the will to deal effectively with this crisis has been spotty at best. The costs are rising – in financial, human, social and cultural capital – and weighing us down in a thousand […]

Will Nurse Practitioners Fill The Primary Care Gap?

Mike Magee The air has been thick in the past few weeks with articles about an impending doctor shortage – especially primary care doctors. But for leading nurse practitioners, the current conditions spell opportunity not threat.(1) Take Patricia Dennehy RN NP for example. She is the director of GLIDE Health Services in San Francisco and […]

Paying The Price For Poor Food Choices

Mike Magee A new study published in this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine had this headline finding: “Better access to supermarkets” does not “improve people’s diets.” The study tracked thousands of people in several large cities for 15 years. Specifically, researchers wanted to know if citizens ate any healthier if supermarkets were placed in their […]

Eliminating Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Guideline Development—Is it Possible?

Judy Salerno A variety of professions offer ripe environments for conflict of interest, and most every field these days is considering conflict of interest policies to mitigate the appearance or actuality of a problem. In the medical profession, there is a critical need for conflict of interest policies, and rigorous standards generally, around the development […]

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