Patient Rights At The End Of Life: Provider Attitudes Toward End Of Life Decisions

As a society we have recognize that an individual should have the right to provide informed consent regarding his or her care. This right extends to end of life decisions as long as they do not contradict current legal mandates (for example assisted suicide).  Virtually all 50 states have passed legislation which allows patients to refuse life support and at the Federal level the Patient Self-Determination Act (1990) promotes this right at least within an Health Maintenance Organization environment

Medical Malpractice Reform: A Societal Crisis or Fear Marketing?

This paper explores the primary issues surrounding the malpractice crisis currently facing the healthcare system and asks the question ‘is it truly a crisis or is it an effective marketing campaign waged by interested parties?’ The authors discuss the primary issues presented by both the supporters of tort reform and the opposition to tort reform. As is true for many issues in healthcare, final analysis suggests that tort reform is needed or not needed depends on the analysts\u27 role in the system. The authors argue that the evidence suggests malpractice reform will produce desired results if the goal is to reduce the physician\u27s cost of doing business and/or enhance the profit margin of insurance companies. If it is society\u27s goal to reduce overall healthcare costs, the evidence at best is, however, unclear. The authors speculate that providers and others are employing fear marketing in an effort to reduce their cost of doing business

Pharmaceutical Counterfeiting and the RFID Technology Intervention

Both nationally and internationally, pharmaceutical counterfeiting has become a problem that is threatening economic stability and public health. The purpose of the present research study review was to analyze the scope and severity of pharmaceutical counterfeiting and to establish if the implantation of the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) model can more efficiently be used within the pharmaceutical supply chain to reduce the problem counterfeit drugs impose on public health and international economic stability. Results indicated that implementing the RFID model for tracking drugs at the item level in the pharmaceutical supply chain has potential to alleviate the scope of the counterfeit drug problem. Recommendations for how the pharmaceutical industry may sooner adopt the RFID model are made