Having spent a fair amount of time lately writing and talking about two particularly critical medical issues, my only viable current solution is to hide under the bed. But I'm not sure that's there is room for me and the dust, so I'll just vent here.
We are headed for big trouble in two areas of our health care. I don't know which is worse.
First, in the absence of a sudden congressional agreement on a pending bill, the Medicare reimbursement for doctors will automatically drop by 27% by at the end of this month. It will be a very bad time to be 65.

Biosimilars the generic versions of biological drugs are considerably more difficult to produce than regular drugs. Now, a new draft guidance issued last week by the FDA aims to more precisely define the steps biopharmaceutical companies must follow to navigate the approval process and to delineate the quality standards for reproducing such medications. Although the Affordable Care Act specified that the FDA must issue such a guidance, no company has yet applied for approval.

Some doctors may soon be forced to give parents of leukemia patients some devastating news that a critical, life-saving leukemia drug is not available. The nation s supply of injectable methotrexate, which is standard treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients, is dwindling.

Given that the media often presents us with conflicting diet and health information, one would think it makes sense to turn to expert advisory committees for an explanation of what the scientific evidence really shows. However, a recent study in the journal Nutrition finds that that s not always the case.

One billion dollars is the number typically cited as the average cost of bringing a new drug to market. It s a nice number for the pharmaceutical industry, Matthew Herper writes in Forbes, because it seems to justify the idea that medicines should be pricey ¦without making it seem that inventing new medicines is so expensive ¦as to be ultimately futile.

Smokers using a nicotine patch to help them quit are more likely to be successful if, after a relapse, they continue to use the patch, reports an Australian study just published in the journal Addiction.

Defensive medicine, the practice of ordering tests and referrals more out of concern for liability than for the benefit of patients health, is an expensive convention. According to a recent survey of orthopedic surgeons, 30 percent of the tests and referrals ordered in this specialty are unnecessary, resulting in an estimated cost of greater than $2 billion in the U.S. each year. The survey was conducted by Vanderbilt University s Dr. A.

Recently, we applauded the New York City Health Department s latest campaign to warn the public about increasing portion sizes. Now a new study published in the journal Health Affairs has added to the mounting evidence that offering smaller portions at restaurants may be an effective means of reducing caloric intake.

Pregnant women with cancer may be relieved to know that a new (albeit small) study shows that children exposed to chemotherapy in utero develop just as well as those in the general population.

When it came to preventing the construction of new nuclear power plants, a little hysteria went a long, long way. But now, after a 33-year hiatus, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has finally approved a new construction license for nuclear reactors. The two reactor approvals are in the state of Georgia and, upon completion in 2017, are expected to power one million homes. The reactors will be the first in the U.S. of the latest class of NRC-approved nuclear reactors, known as AP 1000.