Journal of the American Medical Association

See the following -

Inside Big Pharma's Fight to Block Recreational Marijuana

Alfonso Serrano | The Guardian | October 10, 2016

Marijuana legalization will unleash misery on Arizona, according to a wave of television ads that started rolling out across the state last month. Replete with ominous music, the advertisements feature lawmakers and teachers who paint a bleak future for Arizona’s children if voters approve Proposition 205, a measure that would allow people aged 21 and over to possess an ounce of pot and grow up to six plants for recreational use. “Colorado schools were promised millions in new revenues” when the state approved recreational pot use, says the voiceover in one ad. Instead, schoolchildren were plagued by “marijuana edibles that look like candy”...

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Medical Boards Ring Up Big Margins by Charging Doctors High Exam Fees

Max Blau | STAT | August 1, 2017

After the grueling slog of medical school, residency, and fellowship, Dr. Brian Drolet was ready to start paying down his debt. Then the hand surgeon faced another $5,660 in board certification fees. It didn’t seem right, considering what he got in return. “Let’s say you finished journalism school, went through another five years of training, and had to pay over $5,000 to take tests to be a certified journalist,” said Drolet, an assistant plastic surgery professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “You’d be curious why it was necessary at the end of all that training.”...

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Phillip Longman's Senate Testimony Before the The State of VA Health Care Hearings

Phillip Longman | U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs | May 14, 2014

We need to open up the VA and grow it, extending no-questions-asked eligibility not only to all vets but to their family members as well. This not only makes clinical sense, it also makes economic sense. So long as the VA remains one of, if not the most, cost- effective, scientifically driven, integrated health care delivery systems in the country, the more patients it treats, the better for everyone.

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When Evidence Says No, but Doctors Say Yes

David Epstein and Propublica | The Atlantic | February 22, 2017

Fiirst, listen to the story with the happy ending: At 61, the executive was in excellent health. His blood pressure was a bit high, but everything else looked good, and he exercised regularly. Then he had a scare. He went for a brisk post-lunch walk on a cool winter day, and his chest began to hurt. Back inside his office, he sat down, and the pain disappeared as quickly as it had come...

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