Problem: For almost a decade, practitioners have been reporting concerns with illegible labeling of unit-dose respiratory therapy medications packaged in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic containers. The poor legibility of these product labels has repeatedly been brought to the attention of the USP-ISMP Medication Errors Reporting Program (MERP). In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [...]
I case you were wondering how carefully our peer reviewers scrutinize the manuscripts we send them, consider this excerpt from a manuscript that neurologist Bruce R. Ransom reviewed for us several years ago: Wow, where to start. This is a horrible paper. I know of no conventional peer-reviewed journal that would take it—not even the [...]
Public outrage over the widespread occurrence of medical errors has faded somewhat since the pioneering report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in January 2000 (To Err is Human), which set off a cascade of headlines and congressional hearings. In the ensuing five-and-a-half years, Congress has tried repeatedly to pass legislation that would encourage hospitals, [...]
Using our Medicaid database, we found that treatment with TZDs was associated with a higher risk of heart failure. The relative OR was similar to that in prior studies. The characteristics that precipitated initiation of TZDs were older age, presence of a pre-index comorbidity, the pre-index use of insulin, and non-African-American race. The first three [...]
Patient Characteristics A total of 2,756 patients met the inclusion criteria; 677 patients filled a prescription for at least one TZD, and 2,079 patients filled at least one prescription for metformin medication (Table 1). Compared with the patients who were prescribed metformin, TZD patients were older (OR, 1.009; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.001-1.017; P = [...]
Source of Data We obtained prescription and medical claims from Medic-aid managed care organizations. Over the study period, none of the Medicaid plans had tiered co-pay designs that charged different amounts for brand and generic drugs. The plans did not apply step therapy or prior authorization criteria to obtain these study drugs during the data [...]
BACKGROUND For the year 2000, diabetes mellitus was the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. More than 10 million Americans have type-2 diabetes, and an additional 5.5 million people may unknowingly have the disease. Diabetes typically progresses via the development of resistance to insulin in the peripheral tissues and via decreased insulin production [...]
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