ModernMedicine 2013 Climb
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Does Sanjay Gupta’s support of medical marijuana really signify a turning point in the debate?
CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, MD’s very public transformation into a proponent of medical marijuana has done more than just inspire late-night talk show hosts to joke that his employer should change its name to the “Cannabis News Network.”
It has at least one pundit speculating that the U.S. has arrived at a “tipping point” in which the American is open to legalizing some drugs that had generally been thought of as illicit.
But despite Gupta’s fame, influence and seemingly heartfelt apology for previously being “dismissive” of medical marijuana, that’s giving him a little too much credit.
That tipping point indeed may have come in 2013, but it came before Gupta’s change of heart. In April, a Pew research poll of 1,500 adults revealed that for the first time in more than four decades of polling on the issue, a majority of Americans (52%) said they favor legalizing the use of marijuana.
Support for legalization rose 11 percentage points in just three years, and has come a long way since 1969, when just 12% were in favor of it, according to Pew.
The Washington Post appears to have been right on when it labeled marijuana as “the new gay marriage,” another issue in which support amongst the American public has risen sharply in recent years.
With marijuana, what’s less clear is exactly why Americans’ acceptance of it is growing. Ballot measures in Colorado and Washington last year, in which voters supported decriminalization and legalization, no doubt have made a difference in making marijuana seem more acceptable to the mainstream. In April, Illinois became the 20th state to legalize medical marijuana.
Still, the answer may be a little more simple. Perhaps more people are supportive of loosening legal restrictions on marijuana because they’ve used the drug themselves. In 2001, Pew found that 38% of adults said they’ve tried pot, and that number had risen to just 40% by 2010. But in the three years since, the number has jumped to 48%, Pew found. Of those who’ve tried it, 47% said they used it “just for fun.”
If the trend holds, the percentage of Americans who’ve tried pot will continue to rise and the number who support legalization is likely to grow right along with it in the coming years.
A reader poll that recenty appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that clinican attitudes on medical marijuana may be moving in the same direction as those of the American public. The poll received nearly 1,500 votes, and 76% of the votes cast were in favor of the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. It should be noted that this was hardly a scientifically rigorous poll, but it does serve as a general gauge of sorts for medical providers’ perceptions of medical marijuana.
As for Gupta, he’s predictably faced a little backlash over his rapid about-face on medical marijuana, such as a Boston Globe health reporter who pronounced herself “disappointed” in Gupta for “swinging too hard from one pendulum to the other.”
But at least give Gupta credit for clearly explaining the “why” behind his seemingly abrupt turnaround. Business Insider cites nine reasons that Gupta offered, including that marijuana laws are not based on science, the drug doesn’t have a “high potential for abuse” and that pot is much safer than lots of prescription drugs.
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As Obamacare Deadline Looms, Doctors are Opting for “Cash Only” Clinics
7 hours ago | Interviews | Posted by Joshua Cook
- August 16, 2013
Physicians across the country are attending seminars that teach doctors how to start their own direct primary care practices. Direct primary care practices take no health insurance, only cash. In a recent survey conducted by the DPMA Foundation, 2 out of 3 doctors say they are “just squeaking by or in the red,” and 83% say they are “thinking about quitting the business.” With the looming threat of Obamacare, many doctors are planning to ditch the traditional business model for a more simple and straightforward one.
Dr. Jerome Aya-Ay from Palmetto Proactive healthcare in South Carolina uses the “Direct primary care,” model which is successful because it eliminates the bureaucratic hassle of insurance and lowers prices for the consumer.
Dr. Jerome Aya-Ay charges his patients via a price list similar to a restaurant menu. He also charges a monthly fee of $60 for routine services which most doctors cannot do. Listen to the interview below.
Chiropractors have been using the cash only business model for many years and are experiencing great success. Dr. Scott Baker, owner of Upper Cervical of Spartanburg, S.C. said, “We started to go 100% cash in May 2012 and are experiencing great success, now we are moving into a state of the art facility 3 times bigger than our current venue, and we will be hiring a new doctor.” Dr. Scott said he is creating a patient-driven practice. His new clinic will have a “health-spa feel” with digital touch screens for patient check-ins, flat screens TVs, and a paperless office so he can have more time to focus on his patients.
The Heritage Foundation’s Ed Haislmaier said, “I think we are going to see primary care doctors increasingly moving to a cash-only arrangement, where they opt out of insurance rules.” The simple truth is that doctors want to get off the insurance grid not only because of the risky regulations and economic factors, but because they want better relationships with their patients.
Dr. Tom Kendall of Greenville, S.C., a practicing physician and the president of the Association of American Surgeons and Physicians said, “Obamacare is not about healthcare, it’s about control. Obamacare puts the relationship of the patient and physician under the jurisdiction of the government. This means more government control and less patient choice. Under Obamacare, healthcare will be rationed, healthcare costs will increase, and bureaucrats will decide medical treatments instead of the physician and patient.”
Upstate doctors who are moving to a direct primary care are creating win-win solutions for medical professionals and their patients. It would be a move from a bureaucracy-driven model which is enamored with red tape and creates a wedge between the doctor and patient, to a patient-driven model with no insurance interference, less government intrusions, and no wasted time dealing with paperwork. It is a model that will create lower fees for patients and will allow doctors to foster better relationships with patients. The real solution to healthcare is to give patients more control over their health care dollars, and unchain doctors from the shackles of government control and regulations.
Change Healthcare raises another $15M to help you save money on medical bills
Change Healthcare, a Tennessee-based company trying to encourage more consumerism and cost transparency in healthcare has raised a $15 million Series D round of funding.
On Tuesday, the company said its latest round, which brings its total amount raised to $32 million, was led by HLM Venture Partners and new investor Noro-Moseley Partners. It also included existing institutional investors BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, Inc., West Health Investment Fund, LLC, and Solidus Co.
Launched in 2007, the company provides employers and health plans with web-based tools for enabling employees and members to cut costs when it comes to the their healthcare expenses. Similar to startups like Castlight Health and ClearCostHealth, it analyzes historical claims data to help patients comparison shop for procedures and services. If you need a knee replacement, for example, it could tell you where to go for the cheapest…
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Chat Multi-Tasking, Facebook Home’s Game Changer, Could Rattle Apple And Google
The 2013 TIME 100 Poll
It seems he’s at it again. Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter and the Obvious Corp., tweeted on Monday that he’s venturing back into new startup territory with his latest project called Jelly. (Of the fish variety, not the peanut butter one.)
In a blog post titled, “What is Jelly?” Stone didn’t actually explain much what Jelly is, but did hint at a mobile-oriented startup. And yes, the company is based in San Francisco and it’s hiring.
“People are basically good—when provided a tool that helps them do good in the world, they prove it.
Jelly is a new company and product named after the jellyfish. We are inspired by this particular animal because neurologically, its brain is more “we”…
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Business leaders need insights to remain competitive, which is driving them to prospect for big data “gold.” But they need help filtering the signal from the noise and don’t want to waste time on standing up the hardware, configuring the software and manually coding point-to-point solutions. They want to get data in and out of Hadoop, or any other big data target, as fast as possible without needing a complement of data science experts on staff.
Snaplogic is an enterprise cloud integration platform that enables users to efficiently build, deploy and manage multiple high-volume, data-intensive integration projects. For enterprises dealing with massive amounts of data, SnapLogic’s Big Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS) solution provides data ingress, egress and data logging for Hadoop to help them get from big interactions to big insights quickly and easily.
This new solution offers regular Joes and data architects alike an easy way to integrate Hadoop data with…
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Electronic health records provider Practice Fusion is bringing in some new blood. On Wednesday, the San Francisco-based company said it made its first major acquisition in purchasing 100Plus, a personal health prediction startup.
Founded in 2011, 100Plus last month launched a mobile app that combines data analytics and game mechanics to encourage people to engage in healthy activities.
In the acquisition, 100Plus’ five-person team will join Practice Fusion’s data and product development teams, with Chris Hogg, co-founder of 100Plus, becoming the associate vice president of data science. The company would not share financial details.
Ryan Howard, Practice Fusion’s CEO, who is also a co-founder of 100Plus, said he and Hogg first met a couple of years ago when Practice Fusion challenged about 50 teams to hack anonymized patient records to come up with interesting applications. Hogg created a tool that found patients’ “health twins” and then predicted their future…
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