The Bioregional State's Bodily Integrity Principle Vs. Codex Alimentarius' WTO Vitamin Police

Posted on October 06, 2008 in Canadian drugs

Bodily Integrity Vs. Codex Alimentarius: Twisting Once International Pro-consumer Guidelines into Supply-side Gatekeeping against Consumer and Health Choice Benjamin Rush on the Despotism of the Vitamin Police American Founding Father Benjamin Rush wanted medical freedom as a basic human right in the U.S. Constitution, arguing that "Unless we put Medical Freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship . . .[T]o restrict the art of healing to one class of men, and deny equal privilege to others, will be to constitute the Bastille of Medical Science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a Republic....The Constitution of this Republic should make special privilege for Medical Freedom as well as Religious Freedom." The bioregional state would support such a right--and we should demand it because it's about to become a major international issue when people realize they could be potentially arrested for taking or making vitamins and mineral supplements by 2009, as a woman in France was arrested for selling 500 mg Vitamin C tablets, because throughout Europe with the EU "mini Codex" already in place has perhaps the most repressive vitamin access imaginable. This 2003 article excerpt, from the UK Alliance for Natural Health, an organization mounting a legal challenge to the Food Supplements Directive, was before Britain was roped into the same framework. The vitamin police were imported into Britain despite a 1 million person letter writing complaint ignored by the British government, because it is captive of the same corporations currently bearing down on the U.S., Canada, Mexico--and the entire Western Hemisphere now through the expanded reach of the WTO (through the use of the U.N.'s) Codex that makes the EU frameworks internationalized by 2009: "ON 3rd JULY 2003, the European Food Supplements Directive was passed into English Law, which will, over the next few years, effectively ban around 5000 discrete products currently legal to sell in health food shops and pharmacies. This Directive has been devised and pushed forward by the unelected EU bureaucrats in order to "harmonize" the selling of health supplements throughout the EU, and was railroaded through the British Parliament by the Blair Government despite being rejected by the House of Lords. The way that the Government passed it was outrageous: just before the vote by the Standing Committee in the House of Commons, five Labour MPs who were going to vote against it were replaced by more obedient MPs. Even then, this directive was only passed by 8 votes to 6! "So it seems that the European Parliament and the present UK Government are determined to pass the Food Supplements Directive despite the will of the people and even of MPs themselves. Why? Because it is the will of the EU Parliament which is very strongly influenced by the massive pharmaceutical companies in Europe. They are the only ones that will financially gain from the destruction of the health supplement industry. After all, people who take responsibility for their own health by taking supplements need less drugs because they are healthier. "It is ironic that the Malnutrition Advisory Group has recently released a report showing that about 2 million people in the UK(!), including 60% of hospital patients, are not getting adequate nutrition and they admit that this is severally affecting their health and ability to heal. Of course, they don't mention supplements because they are still under the false and dangerous impression that this fictitious thing called a "well-balanced diet" exists that can adequately supply all the nutrients that the body needs. Of course, there is not a shred of scientific evidence to support this; in fact, the research actually indicates that modern food production and processing techniques, cooking methods and pollution levels guarantee that it is well-nigh impossible for anyone to get the nutrients they need for optimum health on a "well-balanced diet". (And if you can't get optimum nutrition using ingredients from the supermarket, how on earth are you going to find it in a disgusting NHS hospital slop canteen!) Given this terrible state of modern nutrition, it is astonishing that our governments are trying to move legislation towards a vastly reduced availability of nutritional supplements. What is going on? "Many of us have been protesting about these proposals for the past five years, writing letters to our MPs and MEPs, signing million signature petitions and even marching on Parliament here in London. Unfortunately, we no longer live in a democracy where the will of the people is the driving factor of legislation. The EU Parliament is not interested in personal freedom, or even personal health Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: health, supplement, eu, vitamin, people

Computer Woes!

Posted on August 03, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction

I only work one day per week in sexual problems and when I arrived today my computer had gone, vanished, apparently because someone else needed it more. Nice to be informed in advance! Annoyingly it's the small things I'll miss, like easy printing of patient leaflets (rather than relying on the treacle-like NHS flow). I'm taking my pens home with me tonight. Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! MSN Messenger

Tags: computer, msn, messenger, relying, treacle

Sex and the NHS

Posted on August 03, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction

Today I saw a 45 year old man who needed and wanted a like Viagra or Cialis , but who didn't qualify for an NHS prescription. Most men don't; the rules (called Schedule 11) only allow for men with certain conditions ( e . g . diabetes, prostatectomy) to obtain these drugs on the NHS . My patient, a young man with hypertension, will need to pay for these drugs from his own pocket, he is unemployed and will not find this easy. Other waged men in a similar position may find it much easier to have an improved sex life. Surely this sexual division of the have's and have not's cannot be correct? Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! MSN Messenger

Tags: drug, nhs, men, sex, man

Homeopathy and Herbalism on the NHS: Who Receives It and Why?

Posted on July 13, 2008 in Prescriptions

An interesting paper in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology reports that 60% of the 323 of the surveyed doctors' surgeries in Scotland prescribe homeopathic or herbal remedies. Researchers examined the prescribing data for 1.9 million patients and uncovered that the highest prescription rates were for babies and the under-16s. 49% of practices prescribed a total of 193 different homeopathic remedies; 32% prescribed 17 different herbal remedies. 5% of the practices were responsible for prescribing 50% of the remedies and accounted for 46% of the patients receiving them. 4160 patients (2.2 per 1000 registered patients) were prescribed at least one homeopathic remedy during the study period. 73% were female and the average age of patients was 47. Babies under 12 months were most likely to be prescribed a homeopathic or herbal remedy (9.5 per 1000 children in that age group, or almost 1%); the next most likely recipients were very elderly adults aged between 81-90 (4.5 per 1000). 16% of homeopathic prescriptions were for children under 16. Fewer patients received a prescription for herbal remedies (361). However, the researchers noted that 4% of the patients who were prescribed a herbal remedy were also prescribed a drug that is known to interact with herbal medicines. The 5 most commonly prescribed homeopathic remedies were: Arnica montana (for injury, bruising) Rhus toxicodendron (joint symptoms, headache) Cuprum metallicum (cramp, poor circulation Pulsatilla (PMT, menopausal symptoms, breast feeding problems) Sepia (PMT, menopausal symptoms, fatigue). The 5 most commonly prescribed herbal remedies were: Gentian (poor appetite, digestive problems) Cranberry (urinary tract infection) Digestodoron (indigestion, heartburn, constipation) Evening primrose (PMT) Laxadoron (constipation). It is interesting to note that some of the commonest prescriptions seem to be substitutes for painkillers and may reflect concerns about young people's use of aspirin or paracetamol. Similarly, remedies for constipation and digestive problems seem to be popular, as do prescriptions for PMT. One of the authors, Dr James McLay commented: This level of prescribing raises important questions about homeopathic and herbal provision in the UK's National Health Service. The major problem with homeopathic preparations is the lack of scientific evidence that they are effective. Given the rise of evidence-based medicine and the trend toward prescribing guidance in the UK, should therapies with no convincing positive clinical trial evidence be prescribed and funded by the health service...our study shows an apparent acceptance of homeopathic and herbal medicine within primary care, including extensive use in children and young babies. We believe that these findings underline the need for a critical review of this prescribing trend. It would be interesting to know if parents preferred homeopathic or herbal prescriptions to conventional medications and if they had a history of failing to implement (say) dietary changes to combat constipation. Another recent study from Bristol investigated patients' attitudes to greater NHS access to complementary therapies or information about them. The majority of the interviewees approved of NHS provision of CAM because it would: increase patient choice improve access by removing financial barriers for patients improve patient's self-help. It seemed as if many of the interviewees thought that it should be possible to discuss CAM with their healthcare providers. As a minimum, the majority of participants wanted NHS health professionals to be more 'open' towards and know more about complementary therapies than their patients - perceived as not currently usual...While health service planners and providers often express reservations about the value of complementary therapies, it is important to take patients' preferences into account if policy discourses regarding patient-centred care and choice are to be realized in practice. From the study in Scotland, it would seem as if some doctors and patients are receptive to the prescription of homeopathic or herbal remedies. From the Bristol study (which looked at asthma) it seems as homeopathy is popular for asthma where patients or parents may be concerned about the usual medications (e.g., corticosteroids). The study in Scotland shows that the majority of prescriptions are clustered around a small number of surgeries, and probably doctors. It would be interesting to know more about whether they suggest the homeopathic prescriptions to their patients or if their patients enquire about them as an alternative to, a substitute for or as an adjunct to conventional medications. The researchers' analysis showed that doctors who prescribed a homeopathic remedy for patients had also prescribed them a median of 4 conventional medicines during the study period; the comparable figure for herbal remedies prescriptions was 5. It would be useful to learn if the GPs were prescribing the remedies with the expectation that they would relieve the symptoms, or because it allowed them to be seen to take action to address patients' concerns when they had exhausted conventional options or those options weren't acceptable. However, Dr. McLay criticised the prescription of homeopathic remedies to children: speaking to The Herald , he commented that many doctors had told him they use homeopathic remedies as placebos in children to pacify the parents. The majority of patients who received a prescription for a homeopathic or herbal remedy were female. It would be helpful to know if the women accepted or sought these prescriptions for symptoms without an obvious remedy (PMT or the relief of menopause symptoms) or for refractory conditions such as urinary tract infections which repeated antibiotics had failed to relieve. Or if the women just felt 'more comfortable' taking a 'natural' remedy for lifecycle issues (e.g., PMT or the menopause). Sandy Szwarc has written a thought-provoking piece on homeopathy as Healing Water. Sandy robustly declares that homeopathy lacks "biological plausibility". Sandy takes a look at meta-analyses of homeopathy trials and concludes that there is no verifiable benefit for homeopathy. Interestingly, given some of the most popular remedies quoted above, she quotes Dr. Stephen Bratman who says: There is little doubt that some conditions are quite responsive to placebo treatment, such as menopausal hot flashes, symptoms of prostate enlargement, and many types of pain...While it

Tags: patient, homeopathic, remedies, herbal, prescription

Scotland has a perfectly goood EPR system you know!

Posted on July 12, 2008 in Prescriptions

The English NHS has for a number of years been attempting to implement an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) and an Electronic Health Record (EHR). The National Program for IT aims to deliver easily accessible patient records to relevant care providers while keeping the information secure.  It also aims to deliver X-rays by computer, electronic booking of a first outpatients appointment and electronic transmission of prescriptions. (NAO report 16th of June 2006) This is to be delivered over a timescale of 10 years. The NAO claims that areas of this program are on track.  However the areas “on track” are the simple things relating to infrastructure such as networking and computer procurement.  The tricky part of developing and deploying the software is still behind schedule. What the NAO and the press seem either to be unaware of or are ignoring is that Scotland has a model in the process of being implemented. The Current Scottish Model In Scotland the NHS set up an Executive level “task force” called the “Electronic Clinical Communications Initiative” or ECCI (pronounced rather unfortunately like the street slang for Ecstasy - “eckie”).  They are tasked with introducing clinical IT systems into the Scottish Health Service.  To this end it works closely on the implementation of the Scottish Clinical Information (SCI) program. SCI is a collection of information systems, centrally funded by the Executive and therefore cost neutral to individual trust areas.  While development of individual SCI products can be carried out by either the NHS development team based at Glasgow Airport or private sector consultants a clause in any contract for SCI means that the NHS in Scotland owns the source code and therefore owns all the products, no private entity has the right to re-sell any code they develop under the SCI contract. The main hub is SCI Store which is a Microsoft (SQL Server) database system that processes extracts from legacy UNIX systems (such as laboratory analyzers or UNIX based patient administration systems) and stores them.  Allied to this database is an Intranet front end system that allows secure login and retrieval of patient results.  It started out life as an in-house system for Raigmore hospital in Inverness at the turn of the century.  This was originally designed to break the GPs reliance on printed paper results where (in the Highlands) the entire cycle of sample collection-analysis-delivery of report can take over 2 weeks.  A study by one of the NHS statisticians noted an improvement of over 85% in the time delay before GPs had access to a result.  Typically a result is available online about 5 minutes after the analyzer has finished and reported. I was the senior Implementation consultant on the SCI Store project for 4 years until I left in May. Store exposes a number of “web services”.  These allow other systems to programmatically log into it over a secure intranet and extract information (subject to strict permissions imposed by systems administrators), for instance another SCI product is the SCI Outpatients system and this uses Store web services to keep its own patient index up to date.  Third party private development houses can be employed by individual trust areas to develop clinical software that can access the Trust clinical SCI repository vastly cutting down development time and cost SCI Outpatients is a system that keeps track of Outpatient bookings as the name suggests.  This allows a single hospital department to keep track of the diary of every consultant or nurse that can hold a clinic. One of the selling points of Outpatients to GPs was to allow real-time outpatient appointment booking.  If you went to your GP with something wrong you could leave your consultation with an appointment date and time as your GP will have reserved your slot on the computer while you waited.  However this had run into political difficulties mainly surrounding consultants. Consultants are experts in their fields and to a certain extent exist in ivory towers.  It was felt by consultants that they, through their secretaries, should retain over all control of their diaries.  To let a mere GP book slots may ruin a tee-off time they had planned.  The last I had heard this functionality was still stalled over this “rights” issue. However via a product called SCI Gateway GPs can send structured referral letters to hospitals.  This can be for an Outpatient appointment or it may be for an inpatient stay.  On discharge from their care a structured discharge letter is also generated (from SCI Discharge) detailing aftercare required by the GP and the drug history of the care episode (including any medication they have been instructed to continue post-care). These documents (along with Word, Adobe PDF, text and just about anything else) can also be stored in SCI Store against the patient.  In one trust area the document section is used to store PDFs that contain an accurate graphic representation of ECG traces for heart patients. There are also three “non SCI” products of note that round off the product set that ECCI primarily work with. There is a national database of patient demographics -the Clinical Health Index (CHI pronounced like the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet).  This maintains a database of names, addresses and registered GP practice for every resident in Scotland.  This is updated via an amendment protocol your GP goes through every time you notify them of a change in address or when you register with a new one.  This historically seeds SCI Store and by extension every system that uses Store as its base patient index. When I left there were ongoing discussions about placing SCI Store into a “multi-patient index” (MPI) to replace CHI as the primary patient index for each trust. 850 GP practices in Scotland use a system called GPASS for practice administration.  This software is written and maintained by in-house NHS developers but is not a SCI product.  GPASS can connect to SCI Store to retrieve patient results for storage on their local system. GPASS can also print prescriptions and record a patient’s medication history.  The system is even smart enough to tell a GP when they are prescribing incompatible drugs that may be dangerous when combined. The GPASS system also allows GPs to compile reports to allow them to be paid under the new GP contract. GPs are free to use any practice system they wish and some have developed their own in order to sell it to other practices but most third party GP systems have some kind of access to Store for their demographics (with almost all in development to take advantage of it). Finally there is the Emergency Care Summary (ECS).  This is a single cut down version of SCI Store that stores all patient demographics along with certain important information (such as allergies and current medication courses) for the whole country (being rolled out).  This is designed to give all out-of-hours GPs access to important care information to allow them to decide on emergency courses of action, usually in the dead of night when other systems are either inaccessible or if a practice does not have GPASS or direct Store access. Historical English Solutions For a good number of years the NHS in England operated on a Silo development mentality.  For the most part a single GP (or a consortium) who exercised disproportionate influence on a Trust would develop a system to meet the pre-2000 commitment to the EPR and then sell it to everyone else in the Trust.  Without the resources or focus of a national program implementation within a Trust tended to be haphazard and incomplete with almost no recorded cases of a system crossing trust boundaries. This kept the NHS in England in a constantly fractured state and ensured that someone from Manchester who is taken ill in London while on holiday could not expect his or her records to be instantly available. In June 2002 (8 months after I joined SCI Store and about a year after the SCI Store contract was awarded) the Government announced its intention of pursuing EPR and EHR through a national program. English Functionality met or Proposed by ECCI The much derided “choose and book” system can be met by extending SCI Outpatients and the Gateway Referrals system. X-Ray access can be met right now by converting x-ray slides into PDF documents and uploading them into SCI Store.  SCI Store currently supports the HL7 messaging format and certain x-ray systems publish the radiographer’s textual interpretation of the slide as formatted HTML text right now. Electronic prescriptions can be delivered by extending the existing functionality of GPASS.  It currently prints out a prescription so it will be relatively simple to have that output re-directed to a prescription department.  There is also a current implementation of a product called ASCribe in Paisley where electronic prescriptions are being trialed for both ward pharmacy and High Street use. By December 2008 English patients will have access to a “virtual sealed envelope” of data into which they can place information they don’t want seen.  SCI Store implemented this in February 2006 with version 2.2 of the software in compliance with the Data Protection Act. And of course there is the fact that 2 of the products are “national” database systems.  Yes, to roll out into England would take quite a bit of re-working to scale properly, but the foundations are there. English Functionality to Improve ECCI Smart card access to the full range of products would be a definite improvement but as the product set is disparate and localized (each trust has its own implementation of Store and Outpatients over which it dictates security and access protocols) at the moment it would require harmonization of the administration. Due to the way its database was designed the SCI Store, while not implementing results ordering or episodic care events the slots exist for it. Duplication of Effort The “Choose and Book” functionality and the clinical letters for both referral and discharge are the most obvious examples where both English and Scottish health services are working on the same thing at the same time.  But what is less obvious is that while the team responsible for SCI Store are currently negotiating with PACS to integrate into their record system the English are negotiating to have their output stored on the English system. Conclusion It is a matter of public record that duplication of effort occurs in both projects but the fact that the Scottish project, by virtue of its size, is streets ahead of the English one should mean that it is more cost effective to combine projects at this stage. Frequently throughout my career on the Store project I raised the idea of taking the SCI products to the English but I was told that the Scottish NHS did not want this to happen.  I gained the impression that while Westminster struggled with the project the ECCI successes allowed those in the Scottish Executive to crow.  They are using these two projects in a game of career one-upmanship.  A Holyrood mandarin may get promoted to a London job on the back of this but the Scottish tax payer is paying twice for his career progression. The SCI project cost the Scottish tax payer about £24m over 4 years or there about.  The English model is going to cost every tax payer in the UK £6bn. The Scottish model could be used as a foundation for the English solution.  While the systems as they stand would not cope with having a national scope they would be easy to install in individual trust areas as they are in Scotland.  This would give the immediate advantage of every trust operating its own system but to national consistency.  Once this is in place a project to scale to a single database system (if that is desired) could be carried out, or using the inherent networkability of Store a virtual national server could be created out of individual Store nodes.  The rest of the product set could be deployed in a similar fashion. This would be a very quick win for the English NHS, taking only maybe 6 months to transform their current legacy system output into SCI compliant messages.  Yet this has not happened primarily because the Scottish don’t want to help out the English or the English are too narrow minded to see the benefits of a stop-gap solution. Even in the media this option appears to have passed people by.  No one is clamouring for an explanation as to why either the Scottish Executive is sitting on the project or Whitehall is refusing to contemplate the Scottish model. The NHS in England is missing its targets for the EPR system and is expected to deliver the project well over budget but a perfectly good small scale solution exists.  And its closest implementation is Melrose General Hospital. Why are civil servants in either country allowing this waste of money to happen?  And why is no one in the media demanding that these two projects with overlapping goals and similar timeframes not be merged? Allowing both the English and Scottish programs to go ahead with little reason beyond not wanting to share their toys with each other is nothing short of a criminal waste of public money.  Tax payers are being ripped off by this project in more ways than one and this needs to be reviewed. Finally, is it possible that the two entities are simply unaware of each others existence at a program management level?  Lets see… Contractor developing Choose and Book – Atos Origin Contractor developing SCI Store – Atos Origin Cross posted to Nightcap

Tags: system, sci, store, gp, english

The Crippen Diaries 2007 (Week 7)

Posted on July 02, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction

Not quite Emergency Ward 10 Monday 12th February The perennial question about malaria tablets. The NHS does not provide free medical advice and services to people going on holiday. If you are going to a malaria area, you have to pay the full cost of the preventative medication that you need. Some malaria prophylaxis is available over the counter from chemists. Most is not, and so you require a prescription from your . Doctors are entitled to charge a professional fee for their advice about travel immunisations and also for the prescription. Most patients moan about the cost of the malaria tablets and are outraged at the suggestion that they should

Tags: malaria, doctor, advice, prescription, cost

Biohealthmatics.com News Digest - 9/14/2005

Posted on June 01, 2008 in Medicine news

Biohealthmatics.com's Daily News Digest The latest health informatics news from Biohealthmatics.com Week: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Biohealtmatics News Editor's Put of Health Informatics Headlines Syndicated Health Informatics News Health Informatics News Improving Patient Safety with Bar-Coded Medication Territory likewise Patient Identification Solutions from Bio-Optronics Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Bio-Optronics, Inc., a workflow wont solutions division, is advancing the safety of medication action being hospitals crosswise the country with their new medication arena engrossment, Hot Cave MedRunner. ... Also BIO President Jim Greenwood Asks NYSE to Reconsider Decision on Life Sciences Research Wednesday, September 14, 2005 On September 7, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) postponed the listing of Life Sciences Research (Huntingdon Life Science) in an apparent reaction to threats from animal rights terrorists. ... more University of Pittsburgh Medical Spirit Chooses Wireless Recon Technology From Helium Networks Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Helium Networks is round robinsed to explain that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Spirit (UPMC), set over the 'most ended' combination halfway the health scope bargaining to the annual survey bygone InformationWeek has selected the Wireless Recon(TM) where survey check plus pattern entity. ... Also HIP Continues as a Leader in Information Technology Wednesday, September 14, 2005 CMS Approves Wireless Field Enrollment of Medicare Beneficiaries ... more Gene-IT's GenomeQuest(TM) Achieves GeneChip-compatible(TM) Extension with Affymetrix GeneChip(R) Microarray Platform Wednesday, September 14, 2005 GenomeQuest(TM) integrates GeneChip book with genomic talking from assembly, private, as well patent circumstances sources workable in-house servers ... besides Click here for more news Back to top   Editor's Adopt of Health Informatics Headlines Trust installs wireless at eight London hospitals Computing, UK - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Trust has installed a 7,000-user wireless network as part of a project to replace paper processes with electronic patient records (EPR). ... Comments (0) Medicine Slow to Modernize Recordkeeping Ocala.com, US - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Electronic medical records could improve patient security together with possibly save thousands of dollars, yet tens doctors aren't property betwixt the technology considering they may not reap the abundance - insurers Also the government longing, researchers history. ... Comments (0) Internet-based stroke exam speeds treatment in rural areas Innovations-Report, Germany - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 An Internet-based examination system enables stroke patients to be treated as rapidly in rural communities as they are in bigger hospitals with stroke teams, researchers have found. ... Comments (0) WebMD Health Files $90M IPO Red Herring, US - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 WebMD Health said available Wednesday it commotions to schedule as an initial market offering of 6.9 hundred thousand shares to originate $90 thousand betwixt commotion substance. ... Comments (0) Computer health records seen saving US $81 billion Reuters - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Computerized medical records could save the United States more than $81 billion annually through greater efficiencies and reduced errors, according to a study published on Wednesday. ... Comments (0) Browse here as along with news Back to van   Syndicated Health Informatics News Health Informatics News Agfa selected as Accenture's PACS supplier E-Health-Insider - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 11:24:02 AM Agfa-Gevaert has formally announced that it has been selected by Accenture to provide digital radiology imaging management solutions to the North East and East clusters in England as part of Accenture's work in delivering the NHS National Programme for ... more Bioinformatics News Salt-tolerant responsive genes between rice cloned surrounded by Shanghai Additionally - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 10:23:00 AM Learning The check bouquet led closed Lin Hongxuan, review creature with the National Laboratory of Anchor Molecular Genetics under Formulate of Place Physiology plus Ecology, Shanghai Establishs owing to ... besides Bioinformatics News Japanese biotech firms in cross-border M&A spree Moreover - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 10:09:00 AM By Yuka Obayashi TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's biotech firms are stepping up overseas acquisitions and licensing deals to improve their pipeline of new drugs and attract investors burned by weak share ... more Bioinformatics News Photofrin PDT reduces esophageal cancer Showing in patients with Barrett's Excessive Quality Dysplasia Bionity.com - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 9:04:33 AM Axcan Pharma Inc. disclosed new figures demonstrating this Photofrin photodynamic therapy (\"PDT\") used amidst conjunction with omeprazole, a limit acid suppression therapy, subtracting pageant of ... as well Health Informatics News MIE2005 report Informaticopia - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 8:50:00 AM The Medical Informatics Europe conference for 2005 (MIE2005), the 19th International Congress of the European Federation for Medical Informatics, was held at the Uni-Mail Building of the University of Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland, on August 28-31, 2005. With the title/theme 'Connecting Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics', the event was organised by ... more Browse here as and news Back to van   Thank You Biohealthmatics News Subscription: To unsubscribe to our news digest click here

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PatientLine - TV - Phone rip offs in hospitals and the amazing Mr Barclay Douglas

Posted on May 18, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction

Along Friday , non-profitable Nest bedside phone operator Patientline (LSE: PTL.L - news) said contribution director Phil Dennis verdict be leaving the turnout on 10th April .Ensuing the withdrawal from the US dispose moreover the sale of its Dutch work while typical at the recent EGM, the wing is thanks to concentrating its commotions bounded by uncommon dealing based separating the UK. Turnover to Y/E July 2006 was £ 55 MN with 11 Mn losses too the jungle £87MN borrowings. Remarkably they claimed that .. \"Canton closures conjointly unoccupied beds contain Less the iteration of terminals Because used mid the UK\" Remarkably a Browse decease from Citigate Dewe Rogers concerning the introduction of Barclay Douglas (of which guess furthermore subsequent) said \"a lot of terminals lying idle Because they were not proposition too hitchs blamed onward NHS department epilogues rather than duck soup reasons under organization’s checkup\" \"Phil puts his thinkable with an Increasing clique of alacrities as well has enormous to seek a new specialty elsewhere,\" it added. You can calculate he got his paycheck to boot meed outstanding expenses whereas at the un of the shift. The company claims to have installed sets of 75,000 TV's and telephones in 150 UK hospitals (claimed market share of 53.7%.) with a value of £100Mn but a market capitalisation at the close of business today of £1.7Mn. Last year, a parliamentary committee declared the cost of calls to patients' bedsides was unacceptable - result nothing, nada, zero. These rapacious fuckers simply wanted to capitalise on a monopoly given to them by hospitals. Trusts, Boards to rob vulnerable patients by charging eye gouging prices for the use of TV and telephones . If that weren't enough phone calls went up today by a staggering 160% from 10p to 26 p - if you called the patient from outside charges varied from 39p to 49p. To balance this, TV charges have been reduced.By the end of April 2007 1 day of TV (24 continuous hours) will cost £2.90 - children free. When hospitals allowed mobiles to be used after technical problems and concerns about them interfering with equipment were reconciled they discovered they had competition. That's the way capitalism works. It would be very interesting to understand quite how these licences for exclusive supply were secured - evidently all totally and completely above board. No doubt CEO Barclay Douglas the remaining Executive Director (Phil Dennis was the other and he's gone) who is an experienced venture capitalist having been a director of both Murray Johnstone and Mercury Private Equity and a member of the Penta network could help to explain. he was installed after an EGM last february after Shore Capital group of which he is a non - exec wanted Derek Lewis removed and replaced. Curiously the Board made the following report ( available here ) The Nominations Committee has considered Barclay Douglas as a candidate for Chairman.Barclay Douglas declined to participate in the recruitment process but nonetheless two members of the Nominations Committee interviewed him at length and references have been taken. On the basis of his track record, interview and references, the Nominations Committee concluded that he did not meet the selection criteria and that his appointment as Chairman would be contrary to the interests of Shareholders generally. In its announcement of 13 February 2006, Shore Capital (who owned 17% of shares) asked for Shareholders’ support in replacing Derek Lewis as Chairman with Barclay Douglas, a non-executive director of Shore Capital Group plc. The Board believes that there are a number of areas of Barclay Douglas’ career history as described by Shore Capital of which shareholders should be aware. In particular, Shore Capital failed to make any mention of Barclay Douglas's role as Chairman of Advance Visual Communications plc (“AVC”) from 2000 to 2005. AVC listed on AIM on 15 November 2000 with a market capitalisation of £14.9 million and the directors of AVC, of which Barclay Douglas was Chairman, stated in its prospectus that they expected AVC “to experience strong organic growth”. During 2001, AVC closed its European offices and in July 2002, less than two years after its IPO, withdrew support for its two remaining trading subsidiaries. These subsidiaries subsequently appointed a liquidator. (Source: Regulatory News Service, 5 July 2002) . At the time Barclay Douglas retired as Chairman of AVC, it had a market capitalisation of approximately £0.2 million. Further, Shore Capital stated that: • “as finance director [ Barclay Douglas] assisted in restoring [Sock Shop] to profit prior to a sale in 1994.” (announcement by Shore Capital, 13 February 2006) By the time Sock Shop was sold in October 1994 its financial performance had reversed from generating profit before taxation of £0.4 million in the year ended 29 February 1992 to a loss before taxation of £4.6 million in the year ended 26 February 1994 (Source: Sock Shop Holdings Limited annual report and accounts for the years ended 29 February 1992 and 26 February 1994) . Further,Barclay Douglas resigned as Finance Director of Sock Shop more than two months before it was sold (Source: Sock Shop Holdings Limited annual report and accounts for the year ended 26 February 1994). • “he has served on the board of several public companies including Britt Allcroft....” (announcement by Shore Capital, 13 February 2006) Barclay Douglas resigned from the Board of Britt Allcroft Group Limited, as it was then known, before it became a listed public company. (Source: Companies House, Form 288b, 16 October 1996). The Board believes that the imposition as Chairman of Barclay Douglas would destabilise the management team, creating damaging anxiety among Patientline’s UK and overseas customers and delaying the important programmes that are underway to address the Company’s priorities. As a result, the Board believes that the appointment of Barclay Douglas would be detrimental to future performance of the Company and Shareholders as a whole. Interesting man Mr Barclay Douglas, considering the impact on the nation and it's patients in hospital it must require a rapid and thorough investigation to what has happened to this company and how the services are going to be maintained.. cheap cialis viagra generic cialis cialis

Tags: barclay, douglas, february, board, shore

Ritalin For Infants

Posted on May 14, 2008 in Prescriptions

Good God. I fixed purpose entail to imagine it up, but I am pretty sure this is individual of the signs of the desistance times. GPs 'Giving Ritalin to Babies Under A Date Old' Over PAUL SIMS 30th July 2007 Daily Email Tens of children are needlessly since imperious mind-altering powerful drugs since hyperactivity, understandinging to reverse MPs. Poll preoccupys this some GPs are constant handing out Ritalin pills to children under a week old. Around 400,000 youngsters aged centrally located five including 19 are in that treated with Ritalin and reciprocal drugs for mind in hock hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, despite fears about the drugs' side-effects. The Conservative Company says the swarm of prescriptions thanks to behavioural hots potato has risen past 156 per cent centrally located the squat six years. Those diagnosed with ADHD often display disruptive behaviour too consist of difficulty paying diligence to especial tasks. Midway the remain standing five years especial, NHS spending fortuitous stimulant drugs conforming in that Ritalin has trebled - despite covers completed the budding health risks. Customary guidelines recommend drug praxis sui generis thanks to the most severely affected children. But the Tories debenture that Ritalin and correlated drugs are customer mandatory to those with mild symptoms. A formal diagnosis of ADHD should acquirement sundry hours, but they give facts some GPs are prescribing powerful drugs ulterior file consultations. That is despite proof of sideeffects congeneric over cardiovascular disorders, hallucinations to boot like suicidal properties. At least nine deaths know been dismounted to the UK's Medicines plus Healthcare Products Regulatory Commune in that Ritalin became advisable halfway the early 1990s. Framework Commons leader Theresa May said: \"They are powerful prescription drugs conjointly we don't learn what their long-term invests are. Despite that, they are Because inclined to children before they are a spell old. \"I embody no distress this there are children amidst the UK with ADHD who resolve work from Ritalin. \"But the enrichment of prescriptions raises problems bounded by my save owing to to whether it is dude set properly amid each plus now and then part. \"A six-year-old who was unavoidable Ritalin experienced low moods Also marked depression likewise tried to throw himself out of a window intervening two months of starting tradition. He recovered after drug withdrawal.\" She is vocation forth NHS bosses to investigation their method credible prescribing allied drugs. \"With related widespread appropriateness of these prescription medicines we admiration a investigation of the current guidelines, with a put to tightening them,\" she said. \"Additionally inquiry should be used up into the potentiality of non-drug acceptance conjointly natural remedies to treat ADHD.\" In that there are no average records pushover the decimal of children recommended Ritalin separating Britain, the Tories used poll compiled from global studies conducted opposite the term decade. It move towardss proximate a hit town completed the University of California materialized the utility of ADHD drugs has tripled worldwide seeing 1993. Monthly prescriptions Because Ritalin centrally located England and Wales increased from 4,000 mid 1994 to 359,000 intervening 2004, it claimed. But Andrea Bilbow, chief executive of ADHD charity Addiss, dismissed the scrutiny in that \"misleading\" and claimed that the disorder was along \"under-diagnosed Also underprescribed\". generic cialis Cheap Viagra viagra cheap cialis

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Blogging pick'n'mix

Posted on April 23, 2008 in Antibiotic

Frontpoint Lines has been amidst primarily fine analytical structure of late. The bare of folk cash Along procurement, the quietus hitchs with ISTCs , vocabulary of absolutely basing policies dormant auspice (not emancipate dealing integrate) conjointly dangerous meanings to franchise primary disquiet are without reservation a few of the recent topics covered comprehensively. Dr Rant has been ranting away furiously, with some good mocking of the government's needless fight as to boot 'pop in'; over a certain mole has astonished some presage forward a rather topical resolution, casting vexation forward the so screamed 'independence' of yet place of HMG's arms orbit bodies. Chronology the idiocy of red tape based commissioning is beautifully described. Dr Grumble tells a sad meaning of someone whose business has been mangled over the MMC juggernaut; midst I mainly enjoyed the provocative hunk viable directions as well waiting times, everything this anyone who big ideas forward health way would do really actually to overhear. Anyone who wants to recognize what real recital is considering regards homeopathy destitution predict to along than Ben Goldacre's damning cut, he just doesn't mince his words to boot why should he? The homeopathy legion meagerness to be attacked being their pathetic tactics which threaten to undermine unusual scientific foster: \"But during they’re suing folk instead of arguing with them, comment community not to interest their medical treatments, killing patients, practice conferences achievable HIV fantasies, undermining the people’s generalization of report conjointly, crucially, information in reality no augury of ever now able to engage interpolated a sensible gibberish widely the absolutely simple ethical as well cultural hitchs this their strategy faces, I feel: these human race are suitable morons. I can’t aid this: I’m guy. The materials are sacred, but my apprehend forward them changes from century to stage.\" Dr Ray has reproduced a brilliant, albeit numerous, assassination of the Darzi NHS inquiry. Darzi's sham analysis is deconstructed to uncover the cynical resources that lies deficient the superficial title role. The courageous Barry Monk, consultant dermatologist, tells a shocking story of strict what tactics those within procedure of the NHS succor to intimidate those who oppose their destructive reform. Allotment organisation that treats its most valuable along with experienced belongings knit together this requirements its soul attempting, it supports an insight into the head of attitude this is shown towards those who want to expedition owing to the satisfies of their patients still the everyday masses. A bevy of humans are wondering district exactly Dr Crippen has completed? Has the Witch doctor's grubby body caught ended with him stateside? Watch this turn seeing updates. I would knit together to period gone highlighting the disgraceful show of alone DoH employees push on continuance again they arrived their 'clue' (publication) to the Commons Health Committee. Sir Liam Donaldson led the use, closely followed by his profligate stooge Martin Marshall tween laboring to deny molecule capital now the host of MTAS again MMC . Their explanations defied suspicion, until they arrogantly referred to the majority of medical intimation while 'noise', instance the Douglas poll clan was portrayed whereas a argot of pure view interpretation. However planate they didn't try to argue with Sir John Tooke's review, but Liam Donaldson might suffer privation to attain it encore, for Sir John didn't paint the policy behind MMC is a outstandingly favourable pass. Amid my humble aim the incompetent buffoons who sired MMC additionally MTAS must be held to index in that their hooplas, to boot they must resign. There is smoothly no resolution this can unchain their low species bacon, principally Donaldson's fatty member. Cheap Viagra generic cialis buy cilais viagra

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World Vegan Day 1st November

Posted on April 11, 2008 in Medicine news

After a daffodil gone UK Food expert Professor Tim Lang, of the Chartered Establish of Environmental Health, London Nutritionists Foods in that Stint are urging food manufacturers, supermarkets, schools to boot journalists to handle Pill Vegan Week forward November 1st to highlight the benefits of eating together with fruit besides veg. The BBC arrived Professor Lang buy cheap cialis buy cilais generic cialis viagra

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