It was a rude reminder of what I witnessed and how the public needs to rein in their gullibility in medicine, medical advances, and treatments. We are now seeing major campaigns in the service of medications. You know the ones that tell you to “Ask your doctor.” Is your doctor informed enough to advise you, or did they receive materials from a company?

In my experience, two significant areas of medicine cried out for remediation, and public relations was waiting with open arms; Alzheimer’s disease and anxiety. With an aging US population and a burgeoning one worldwide, SDAT is prime for anyone who wants to help or become incredibly wealthy. The silver tsunami is rolling over us as medicine keeps us living longer. The firm with the first patented SDAT “cure” or effective treatment for SDAT will make billions.

My respect for Dr. Jonas Salk has grown because he did not patent the rights to his polio vaccine. A similar instance of research integrity and ethics has been shown by Dr. Peter Hotez and his co-researcher, Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi. They created a patent-free, low-cost vaccine for Covid-19, not so in the case of the HeLa cells on which millions were made, and that helped to originate vaccine production.

Anxiety, a mental health disorder that can be crippling in nature, affects approximately 284 million worldwide. When you have those numbers, the possibilities are highly enticing in terms of PR and money to be made.

But so are sleep disorders, where up to 60% of patients may have insomnia. Have you noticed how much attention sleep is receiving, especially when there’s a major conference? I’ve been to the conference, served in the press r, written the releases, bought the morning buffet goodies, and met the experts. Eye-opening, to say the least.

Now we come to the question of patient advocacy and who originates or funds it. Skeptics will pooh-poo such questions stating we need advocates to lobby for effective treatments. But do they spring up out of patient-caregiver zeal, or are they promoted for different purposes?

Of course, we want medications or treatments to address the need, and numbers must be used to lobby those who can supply the resources. Primarily, this means donations from the public or, more likely, from the government that will fund research.

Advocacy groups in which I once played a small part, are created by pharmaceutical firms that seek out famous persons or suffering patients to be the faces of their campaigns. I know that when we were working on anxiety disorders, our personnel tried furiously to find famous people (they shall remain nameless here) with serious anxiety disorders. The staff found a famous TV weatherman, a famous singer, an actor who drank himself to sleep, at least one actress with panic disorder, another who had bipolar disorder, and one was an incredibly wealthy man — who remained hidden from everyone’s view.

Assuredly, we need attention and in seeking the help these patients deserve, we have to make Faustian deals. Reviled as they may be, they are necessary to get the funding wheels turning. But always keep in mind that they are not as pure as the driven snow. And entertainers are paid to appear in service of the products — they aren’t experts. Your next-door neighbor might be as knowledgeable.

Disorders may be treated because someone has a new “cure” for it and the only way to make money is by advocacy. Do we have pharmaceuticals in search of a disorder? I’ve heard that question asked.

I’ll close, as I often do, with the proviso; caveat emptor.

The post Should We Question the Backing of Advocacy Groups or Remain Quiet But Skeptical? appeared first on Medika Life.

All the usual suspects

To identify the root causes, and there are many, we need to examine the engines that power the industry, the healthcare behemoths. The corporate giants that have clawed their way to dominance, many amassing levels of wealth and influence on that journey that place them beyond the reach of even governments. They have become a law unto themselves, and they are without a doubt, what ails healthcare at its heart.

The extent of the wealth acquired by these corporations, their reach, and their influence has been brought home by the pandemic. What has become even more apparent is that the harmonious balance required for an effective relationship between the patient (the customer) and the company (in whatever form) has all but vanished. That relationship, so key to both the health of the industry and the patient, relies on two key elements to function — trust and ethics.

Both of which are absent in modern healthcare in 2022. The blame for the erosion of these elements can be laid squarely at the door of the behemoths. Patients are, for the most part, now viewed by industry as cash cows, rounded up for fattening and subsequent slow exsanguination over the course of their lives. Any loud complaints from the herd and the ranchers simply move the ranch house further from the pens. 

It’s a terrible picture to paint, isn’t it, and one many healthcare experts would deride as being a ridiculous representation of the industry. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In an article by NPR which hit the headlines in the last week, a baby powder produced by one of these companies contained carcinogenic asbestos, which, had unfortunately found its way into their powder during the production process. Sadly, by the time the product has been removed from shelves, consumers had been diagnosed with cancers. A class-action was brought against the company by the affected customers, seeking some form of redress or compensation. Faced with a choice of paying settlements, the company elected to pursue a legal loophole.

In a shuffle, known in legal circles as the Texas Two-Step, they registered a new company in Texas, shifted all onus for the product claims to the new division, and then filed for its bankruptcy, effectively killing off the hopes of any potential payments to their affected customers and ending the class action. As appalling as this is, it is an acceptable legal loophole which many companies use, in itself an indictment of the American legal system. The existence of the loophole, however, does not excuse the ethics of the companies prepared to engage it.

Profits are protected at any expense, with trust and ethics forgotten, and therein lies the problem. These companies aren’t selling us cars or cellphones. They are, in many instances selling us products that can cure our ills, extend our lives or potentially kill us, and in medicine, where that product ends up on that scale can often be a fine line.

So trust matters, hugely so. Breach it and you better have a damn good reason, supported by an ethical and transparent response to any harm you’ve caused. The fact that lawyers make a living off class actions aimed at these companies speaks volumes to the behemoth’s disregard for the customer and their wellbeing. Engage in legal shenanigans to avoid that responsibility and then offer me your Covid vaccine with the assurance it’s safe. 

The Power of the People 

If we then assume that much of what ails healthcare can be resolved by addressing and regulating the business practices of these corporate giants, that leads us to the title of this piece. Can these companies be “saved” or are they too far gone, despotic dictators obsessed with their own self-inflated worth who’ve lost the ear of their people? I tend to believe the latter.

The public is rediscovering their voice in terms of their health, determining outcomes, and engaging in the processes that surround their treatment. I use the term public and patient interchangeably, as any member of the public is, was, or will be a patient at some stage in their lives. We all require healthcare, no matter our status, race, or sex.

This patient-centric movement sweeping through healthcare is long overdue and has been birthed as a direct response to much of what I have described above. Taking that as a given, logic dictates that a popular movement that arises in response to a dictatorship will not endeavor to change the minds and hearts of its despotic rulers. Complete regime change is called for, and almost always results. You cannot fix something that is fundamentally broken and no longer fit for purpose. The behemoths have served their purpose and must be retired. For the sake of the patient and healthcare globally, we need to start afresh.

If we look to oust the current regime, how do we then harness this new force sweeping through the industry? How best do we use the momentum of the patient voice to engage lasting solutions?

At the risk of buying into trending catch phrases, decentralization of the industry is key. Redistributing the power amassed by the few among the many. Smaller, more focused companies that address specific needs, specialists in their chosen fields, offering tailored solutions to the real issues affecting the development and delivery of equitable and accessible health care. In short, a new model of care and delivery, built from the ground up with patients actively engaged as masons. And yes, ethical businesses that place their customers’ interests first and foremost can be profitable.

It isn’t simply the patients that stand to benefit from this change. Make no mistake, the egregious travesties visited on healthcare by these large corporations extend beyond the patient and has ensnared providers, who are in many ways, products and prisoners of the environment they are forced to function within. Patients looking around their lifeboat will find themselves surrounded by white coats.

I’d like to end this with a few probing questions, directed to the industry in its entirety. What happens when the next pandemic strikes, an event that is inescapable? How, at that point do we convince the global population that any potential treatment we’ve developed is in fact fit for purpose? How, when we currently engage in deceitful and dishonorable practices and place the acquisition of wealth before the interests of the very population we’re sworn to protect, do we reclaim our credibility? How do we rebuild and regain trust?

Now is the time to build afresh from the ground up, as many promising new start-ups are doing. We have the technology, the intellectual capital, and the desire. Time will show if we possess the will.

The post Are Healthcare’s Behemoths Destroying Healthcare? appeared first on Medika Life.