Dr. Evan Levine: Want to Know How to Charge 40 Billion Dollars for Nothing? Ask Merck.
In 2002, Merck labs received FDA approval for the use of their soon-to–be blockbuster drug; a drug that has since given Merck more than $40,000,000,000 (40 billion dollars in sales). But with all the hype, and billions in profit, Ezitamide (brand name of Zetia) has failed to show it helped any patient in every published trial, and likely has done nothing for the scores of patients who dutifully paid for and swallowed this pill.
5 Things Cancer Taught Me About Being A Doctor
In September of 2013, I noticed a lump on the side of my neck that I had been watching for six months was growing. After going through the differential diagnosis in my head, seeing two physicians, and getting a biopsy... Ding! Ding! Ding! I had cancer. Stage 2A Hodgkin's lymphoma. The journey from being a physician to being a patient changed me forever and taught me the following five things:
Think Government Can Run Healthcare Insurance?
On April 9th, 2014, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released billing and collection date, for the year 2012, for every physician practicing in the United States. This treasure trove of information, while being imperfect by not showing payments from all the insurers or what each doctor’s payer mix is, clearly shows us the most important fact; CMS has clearly illustrated that it cannot manage physicians or itself.
Facebooks Creepy Mass Psych Experiment
Facebook secretly manipulated the feelings of 700,000 users to understand "emotional contagion" in a study that prompted anger and forced the social network giant on the defensive.
4 Things Doctors Don't Do
Friday, I was in the break room at the hospital scarfing down a power bar between three-hour cases. The truth was, I was multi-tasking: eating, writing on a chart and checking my email in my phone. I had received an email from a businesswoman, whom I have known for a few years. She wanted to know if I wanted to join her for lunch, this week. I laughed out loud.
