The New York Times recently ran an article about a woman who is living successfully with schizoaffective disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. ‘Successfully’ does not do her life justice. In fact, she has a high-level job as the chief executive of a large nonprofit mental health treatment organization in California. After struggling for decades as an outcast and with multiple wrong diagnoses, Keris Myrick was able to turn her life around.
There are lots of changes up in the air for health care reform. While our country get things sorted out, in the meantime it’s important for patients to have plenty of options available if they need help with prescription medications.
Here’s a bit of great news for pharmaceutical employees and patients throughout New York — the Long Island Business Journal profiled a new investment of $39M in Suffolk County by Invagen Pharmaceuticals (story can be found here).
The October issue of Health Affairs contains an article on health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. The article also discusses tried-and-true and newer interventions to address the problem. The article reiterates what we already know: racial and ethnic minorities receive worse health care and have poorer health outcomes than non-minorities. The same holds for disabled and low-income persons.
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran a piece in their Informed Patient column entitled Many Pills, Many Not Taken. The column discusses medication compliance challenges and the value of technology and intervention by health care providers.
A full meeting of the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) was held yesterday in Albany. The meeting was informational. Proposals and recommendations from the sub work groups were presented but no action was taken. Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson and DOH also provided updates. A complete summary is after the jump, including MRT schedule and agenda for the remainder of the year.
Since the legislature shows no sign of returning before January, it appears a decision on how to develop the NYS Health Insurance Exchange would be stalled until then. But according to a Crain’s report today, the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) suggested that Gov. Cuomo might issue an executive order to lay out a plan for implementing the health insurance exchange.
There is a full meeting of the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) today from 12:30-3:30pm. There is no public comment period but the webcast can be viewed here.
Dr. Ralph M. Steinman is a local hero to many in the health care field thanks to winning the Albany Medical Center Prize in 2009, and it was announced today that he’s also received international acclaim by way of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his contributions to the research and development of new treatments for pancreatic disease. The Albany Times Union reports on his contributions, where Dr. Ralph M. Steinman discovered dendritic cells, using his own pancreatic cells for research.
It’s been tough for everyone to work through this recession, so I’m always excited to hear about new jobs in New York for those in the health care field.