According to the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) racism has caused a pronounced negative impact on the health of minorities and communities of color. Many sociologists and public health experts blame racism and the resulting so-called social determinants of health for lower health status among black Americans. The social determinants of health are a big area of research nowadays.
Author: Devon Herrick
Accelerated Approval Benefits Patients with Some Caveats
Nowadays more than four-in-five drugs granted accelerated approval are oncology drugs (85%). How well is it working? That depends. The program to grant patients early access to promising new drugs does just that: it is used a lot. Since it began in 1992, 290 drugs have been approved through the accelerated program. That works out to more than nine a year, on average, or nearly one a month. By any measure that accelerated access to new drugs.
Psychiatrist: The FDA Should Approve Sales of OTC Antidepressants
Why should antidepressants be switched from Rx to OTC? Because there is a severe shortage of mental health professionals. Access to mental health specialists and therapists is difficult for many people. Most therapists don’t accept insurance and psychiatrists are booked out far in advance.
Millions Dropped from Medicaid Rolls. How Much does it Matter?
With the end of the covid emergency millions of Americans enrolled in Medicaid found they were no longer eligible. Medicaid eligibility fluctuates over time for many families. Medicaid is a patchwork of 50 state programs with eligibility that varies by age and income. Pandemic-era protections against disenrollment began expiring in the Spring of 2023 with Medicaid coverage coming to an end for many Americans. An important question public health advocates have is what happened to people dropped from the federal-state health program?