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Amgen Requires Patients in Repatha Copay Program To Surrender Their Privacy

(This story was updated on October 23 with a statement from Amgen. It was again updated on October 27 with new information about Amgen’s patient privacy policy for a second drug, Enbrel.) The tumult...

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Does Anyone Really Think Industry Funded CME Is Independent?

Does anyone really think that commercially supported continuing medical education (CME) is truly independent? Or does anyone really think that it has the primary goal of delivering quality medical...

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Precision Medicine, Stuck In Second Grade, Flunks Test Of Clinical Utility

One of the great scientific achievements of the past generation has been the identification and characterization of the genetic underpinnings for many diseases. By combining genetic information with...

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2015: The Year We Finally Cured Heart Disease!

Editor’s note: Larry was too depressed to write the 2015 yearly review. Veteran healthcare journalist and eternal optimist Candide Corn volunteered to take over the task this year. Candide’s motto is...

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Vampire Lab Turns To Old Trick To Grow Business: Physician Owned Labs

(Updated) True Health Diagnostics, the new laboratory that bought the assets and adopted the business model of the disgraced and bankrupt laboratory company Health Diagnostic Laboratory (HDL), is...

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On Road To Bankruptcy A Stent Company Invested in Marty Leon’s VC Fund

More questions are being raised about the research and financial activities of Palmaz Scientific, the bankrupt medical device company founded by Julio Palmaz, the co-inventor of the stent. In the...

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The American Heart Association’s Strong Stance Against Science

Once again the American Heart Association has taken a strong stance against science. Of course, that’s not how the AHA phrases it. In its own words the AHA says it “strongly refutes the findings” of a...

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Documents Reveal Rogue Laboratory Company’s Unorthodox Billing Practices

–Promised in writing to not bill patients, then changed its tune Records and emails newly posted on the web by a physician document the strategy used by a controversial new laboratory company to bypass...

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The Wild West Of New Laboratory Scams

It’s like the wild west. With no sheriff acting to impose law and order, many laboratory companies are now deploying a wide variety of new scams to gain new business. The new scams have emerged in the...

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The Billion Dollar Lab Scandal

If you think Theranos is a big story then I have some news for you. There’s another medical laboratory scandal  that dwarfs the Theranos story by almost any standard except for hype. The Theranos story...

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Interventional Cardiology And The Rejection Of Science

–Prominent interventional cardiologist says clinical trials are slowing progress In their eagerness to embrace a glorious future of ever more spectacular technology-based advances, interventional...

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The Big Dirty Secret Every Doctor Knows

–Eminence-based medicine is not the exception. It’s the rule.    Lately I’ve been writing about eminence-based medicine (here, here, and here). In response to these posts Saurabh Jha, a well-known...

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Top Clinical Investigators Seek To Dampen Impact Of Data Sharing

Despite earlier concerns by its editors about “data parasites,” the New England Journal of Medicine has now published 4 articles offering support in some form for data sharing. But two of the articles—...

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Clinical Trialists Dig In And Vote For Status Quo

–Doctors who got famous for doing clinical trials resist changes to the clinical trial system. It should probably come as no surprise that hundreds of clinical trial investigators whose positions and...

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Dollars For Heart Docs: 2015 Edition

–Cardiologists received more than $200 million from industry in 2015. In 2015 cardiologists and other cardiovascular specialists received more than $200 million dollars from industry, according to new...

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Cardiologists: Thumbs Down To SPRINT

[Updated, August 29, August 30] –SPRINT should not be used in guidelines to lower blood pressure targets. Should the SPRINT trial be used by guideline committees to lower systolic blood pressure...

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Trump’s Risk For A Cardiac Event Is Seven Times Hilary Clinton’s Risk

Editor’s note: The following guest post is reprinted with permission from Dr. Anthony Pearson, a cardiologist who is the medical director of the Echocardiography Laboratory and Anticoagulation Clinic...

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No, $75 Million Won’t Cure Heart Disease Or Reinvent Science

–Silicon Valley hype and hubris come to cardiology. We may be close to peak hype and hubris in cardiology. This week some of the smartest people on the planet said that $75 million can help find new...

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Seeking Profit and Investors, Rogue Lab Moves Into Small Hospitals

A controversial new laboratory company specializing in “advanced cardiovascular risk testing” is developing an innovative, highly profitable– and legally dubious– new business model. Details of the...

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Debaters At Interventional Cardiology Meeting Literally Put The Gloves On

The world’s premiere interventional cardiology meeting now features cardiologists wearing boxing shorts and gloves. The Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting in Washington, DC kicked...

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Is The American Heart Association Trying To Kill Health Reporters?

The answer is no. The AHA is not trying to kill us. But its dietary advice is consistently confusing and occasionally wrong, and health reporters in New Orleans may end up as collateral damage. Just...

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Lunchroom Scandal At The AHA: Day Two Of Buttergate

–After a CardioBrief investigation the American Heart Association changes the lunchroom menu There is no better proof that journalism can change the world– both for the good and the bad– than...

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Telling People What They Want To Hear: Alt-Med And Donald Trump

Donald Trump won* the election because he told people what they wanted to hear. Alternative medicine is growing in popularity because it tells people what they want to hear. Of course, there’s a big...

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Novartis Contest Rewards Positive Peer Review Articles About Entresto

(Updated) Despite the fact that it had one of the biggest clinical trial successes in recent years, the Novartis heart failure drug Entresto has been struggling to gain acceptance in the marketplace....

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2016: Great Year Or Greatest Year Ever?

Editor’s note: Once again Larry was too depressed to write the 2016 yearly review. (Actually, he’s hiding under his bed.) Veteran healthcare journalist and eternal optimist Candide Corn has again...

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