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What We're Reading: US Task Force Releases Statin Use Recommendations
What we're reading, December 22, 2015: experts recommend using statins in adults between the ages of 40 years and 75 years; Republicans and Democrats are equally concerned about rising healthcare costs; and Martin Shkreli now fired as CEO of a second company.
The United States Preventive Services Task Force has released draft recommendations for statins, which should be used to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. According to HealthDay, the recommendations call for use of statins in adults ages 40 to 74 years old who have an existing risk factor for heart disease and 10% or greater 10-year risk of a heart attack or stroke. In addition, the task force said that people with a 10-year risk of as low as 7.5% might also benefit from statins.
Both Republican and Democratic voters have listed curbing rising healthcare costs as one of the top priorities for the next US president, according to Reuters. A poll found that 62% of people want to know presidential candidates’ plans for reducing healthcare costs with the proportion nearly the same for Republicans (62%) and Democrats (67%). Only national security was a bigger priority (67%).
Finally, after being arrested last week for fraud related to his time as a hedge fund manager, Martin Shkreli stepped down as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Now, he has been let go by another company he headed: KaloBios Pharmaceuticals. CNBC reported that after Shkreli had been arrested, the company’s trading was halted, and KaloBios “terminated” Shkreli as CEO on Monday. In addition, he has resigned from the board.
Prices for care at hospital trauma centers vary across hospitals; drug shortages reached a record high during the first quarter of 2024; although 3 of the biggest makers of asthma inhalers pledged to cap out-of-pocket costs for some US patients at $35, these do not apply to daily inhalers used by the youngest kids with asthma.
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Age Alone Is No Barrier to Allo-HCT for AML, Data Indicate
April 17th 2024A new study is among the largest real-world analyses to date to assess trends over time and predictive factors for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who received allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT).
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The Biden administration recently launched the Global Health Security Strategy, a new effort to combat the spread of infectious diseases; lawmakers zeroed in on the risks of massive consolidation in health care during the first congressional hearing on the Change Healthcare hack; the FDA recently announced the recall of a pair of heart devices linked to numerous deaths and injuries.
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