June Shaffer
Very carefully. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Gigi in 2006. (Photo: AP)
A 36-year-old gorilla named Gigi got a colonoscopy earlier this week, the first time the procedure was performed on a gorilla from Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo. The Boston Globe has the story.
Docs from Boston’s famous Brigham and Women’s Hospital even came to the zoo […]
Continued Read ...
Jonathan
Michael Crichton, Age 26. (Photo: AP)
Michael Crichton, a doctor who used science and medicine as a jumping off point for popular novels, movies and TV shows, died yesterday of cancer. He was 66.
Crichton was something of a prodigy, cranking out popular thrillers under two pseudonyms and publishing “The Andromeda Strain” under his own […]
Continued Read ...
JGrimes
Two widely watched government health programs cleared important hurdles yesterday.
San Francisco Bay (Photo: AP)
A federal appeals court upheld a San Francisco law that requires businesses with 20 or more employees to offer health coverage or pay a fee to fund a city health-care program that aims to provide basic health care to the […]
Continued Read ...
JGrimes
How many calories are in that bag? (Photo: AP)
Look out, California. You’re about to find out that your morning muffin — a muffin’s healthy, right? — has, like, 570 calories.
Gov. Schwarzenegger just signed into law a bill that requires restaurant chains to post calorie information on their menu boards.
Public health types argue […]
Continued Read ...
Scott Hensley
Next stop, Mayo Clinic. (Photo: AP)
Maybe there is something to this notion that transparency will make health care work better in this country. After comparing prices and outcomes, a mining company is encouraging Wyoming coal miners to travel to the Mayo Clinic and other big-name hospitals for treatment, Bloomberg reports.
As it turns […]
Continued Read ...
Jacob Goldstein
Hands off Ranbaxy (Photo: AP)
If Rudy Giuliani’s dream had come true, he’d be barnstorming the country right running for president. Instead, he’s working for Indian generics giant Ranbaxy.
The company said it’s retained Giuliani and his consulting shop to fight the ban on almost all of the company’s drugs imposed by the FDA […]
Continued Read ...
Trav
Big Pharma’s pitches for new and improved versions of old drugs aren’t working the magic they used to.
Johnson & Johnson still hopes for better sales of Invega (AP)
New York psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman has heard Johnson & Johnson’s spiel for schizophrenia medicine Invega, a derivative of the company’s blockbuster Risperdal, that was launched […]
Continued Read ...
JGrimes
For every percentage-point increase in unemployment, tack on another $3.4 billion in state and federal spending on health-care for low-income Americans.
Unemployed people wait in line at the California Employment Development Department in San Jose, Calif. (Photo: AP)
That’s the headline from a study released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and […]
Continued Read ...
