Casting for the Cure

Have you ever looked at your handwritten prescription and wondered just what it was you were supposed to be taking? Well, imagine the pharmacists trying to decipher their way through literally thousands of these per year. The Institute of Medicine reports that 1.5 million people in the United States are injured or die each year from preventable medication errors that cost the health care system as much as $3.5 billion.

With the push from the United States government, health insurers, and private business groups encouraging doctors and patients to put more information online, two of the country’s largest electronic-prescription networks—once rivals competing for prescription sales—have merged in a cashless transaction. SureScripts, owned by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and National Community Pharmacists Association and RxHub, owned by CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions—the leading mail-order companies—have creating a single, secure network for the exchange of digital health information.

The new entity, under the temporary name, SureScripts-RxHub, will be manage jointly by Rick Ratliff, acting chief executive officer of SureScripts, and J.P. Little, acting chief executive officer of RxHub, until new management and a new name can be secured. Through pharmacy benefit managers, the new merger will have access to 200 million patient records and about 70 percent of all drugstores in this country. The merged network expects to transmit 100 million paperless drug orders this year, which would nearly triple the present number of digital prescriptions written in the United States.

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Could that morning pot of gold prevent Multiple Sclerosis (MS)? While many experts recommend limiting caffeine because of possible negative effects on diabetes and some other medical conditions, a recent study has shown coffee to have warded off the animal form of MS.

The new study involved mice that were given a shot to force the mice to develop a condition like MS in humans. However, those that were given the equivalent to 6 to 8 cups of coffee a day avoided developing the animal form of MS, called EAE or experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, stated Dr. Linda Thompson, a member of the team reporting the findings in the National Academy of Sciences.

During the study, researchers monitored the progress of mice that would normally have developed EAE. Thompson explained that the caffeine prevented one of the four building blocks of DNA, known as adenosine, from binding to the adenosine receptor in the mice. Because adenosine wasn’t able to bind to the receptor, it prevented the white blood cells known as T cells, from reaching the central nervous system and starting the domino effect that leads to EAE.

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A Texas couple has given birth to quintuplets at a Phoenix hospital nationally known for its successful multiple-birth deliveries. Three girls and two boys, who are expected to debut in Houston in August, were delivered last Thursday to 33-year-old mother Ellen Howell.

Doctors at the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center delivered the five babies via elective caesarean section within three minutes of each other. Though they arrived nine weeks early, each weighed about two pounds and appear healthy.

However, the babies were immediately placed in the neonatal intensive care unit, where they are expected to remain for the next few months before heading home to Houston. They are the couple’s only children.

The boys’ names are Mitchell Thomas and Luke Harrison. The girls’ names are Sidney Alun, Ivy Elizabeth and Briellen Jeanette. Ellen Howell’s husband, Stephen is a technical sales representative and will return to work in Houston on Monday. The couple rented in suburban Phoenix until the babies are released.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, quintuplet births are rare. There were just 68 births in 2005 that involved five or more babies. It is the tenth set of quintuplets been born at the Phoenix hospital.

Amid intense political pressure from the nation’s doctors, the Bush administration said Monday it would hold off on a 10 percent fee cut in Medicare payments to doctors that was slated to kick in Tuesday.

The Bush administration is giving members of Congress time to prevent the reduction in payments from the federal health insurance program for the elderly when lawmakers return from a July 4 recess. The administration said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would not process Medicare claims for the first 10 days of the month, which in effect would allow Congress time to reconsider a vote to stave off the cut.

Should the cut take effect, it could have big ramifications in the health-care industry since some doctors say they could not afford to see Medicare patients if a 10 percent payment reduction occurred.

About 60 percent of physicians who responded to a poll by the American Medical Association this year said they would limit the number of new Medicare patients they would see if a cut took effect.

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