Follow up on Mevacor and Holiday Wishes
Good evening and Happy Holidays from the Department of Health Policy. I wanted to let our readers know that my comments at the recent FDA Advisory Board Public Hearing were picked up by the wire services and appeared in literally hundreds of media outlets, including scores of newspapers across the nation. I tongue in cheek suggested that they should put Mevacor in the nation's water supply and this also engendered some angry comments (from die hard public health types who said that it could cause birth defects if pregnant women were to drink the water!!).Anyway, I stand by my testimony which will appear in more detail in an upcoming issue of the journal, Pharmacy and Therapeutics. I also wanted to take this time to wish all of our readers a very happy and health holiday season and a great New Year. All the best, DAVID B. NASH MD,MBA
Cholesterol Drugs Over the Counter (OTC)
Good morning!! I am sitting in an FDA hearing in Washington D.C., ready to testify later this afternoon regarding making MEVCOR an OTC drug. Mevacor, a statin, helps to lower cholesterol and a low dose, available OTC, would go a long way to improve the health of the public. I have been involved with this issue for more than eight years, as Merck and J and J have been studying the impact of this possible launch together. It is very controversial and the FDA Advisory Board is grilling all the folks who are testifying today. My plan is as follows---we could do a lot better in our care of patients with a primary prevention strategy for coronary artery disease. Sure, can the public really understand the role of cholesterol in heart disease and will they take mevacor appropriately---these are important questions but we need to move ahead and find out!! I will keep you posted on this important FDA decision. This is after all, a real life health policy issue for our country.As always, I am interested in your views too. ALSO, please let me know what you think about our plans for a new school of Health Policy and Population Health. See my previous posting. I am excited about my new blog so keep your comments coming. DAVID NASH
Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health
Good afternoon.The blog is picking up some speed!! I wanted to let everyone know about some new plans we have afoot on campus. We have been asked by the university President to begin the planning for a possible new school--that's right,a new school to join the other Health Care Colleges on the campus of Jefferson University. The new school is tentatively called, "The Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health" or JSHPPH. We plan to offer up to three Master's degress including the MPH,a Master's in Health Policy and a totally new degree, the Master's in Health Care Quality and Safety. I need your input here. What do you think about this new school idea?? What are the competencies that we should be seeking in each of the degree programs?? What sort of student should we seek?? I am very excited about all the possibilities here and will have more to say about this in the next few weeks but for now, I would like to hear from all of you about our challenge. Thanks for your support, DAVID NASH
Disease Management, prevention and wellness
Good morning and happy Friday. I have been thinking a good deal about the convergence of several seemingly disparate areas---namely, disease management, wellness and prevention. I am privileged to serve on the board of a company called ITRAX or you may know them as CHD. In any event, they are practicing worksite wellness and prevention and getting publishable results. In addition to ITRAX, my work with Informedix, has also lead me to believe that we can make a difference with patients about compliance and adherance to medication. If we can bring together the disease management world, the prevention people and all the corporate wellness, build the research base, and effectively implement these tools, maybe we can really turn around the cost of obesity, smoking and the like. For me, I think this stuff is frankly, "too important to be left to the doctor". Meaning, we are not set up to let the docs do this work and they are not good at it anyway. We need a new model and maybe this combination of talents and tools, with the tripod of DM, prevention and wellness, is the way to go. What do you all think?? Don't forget to join us at our national Disease Management Colloquium, here in Philly, on May 19, 20 and 21. Thanks, DAVID NASH
Here we go for the Health Policy conversation.
Good afternoon and welcome to my blog. After much to do, we are ready to bring you the most cutting edge conversation about Health Policy in the nation. We are going to be talking about everything--the failed national quality agenda, the silliness of our presidential candidates, the need for CMS to practice what is preaches, and all the rest. We will not pull any punches either as we tackle all the tough questions. I am so proud of our Department of Health Policy, one of only a handful of such departments, based in a medical school, in the country. I also want to thank several key staff members including Valerie Pracilio and Christina Raymond who helped to make this possible. I am also appreciative of the help from our University CIO, Bruce Metz, who gave this his blessing and our University President,Robert Barchi MD, who said "go to it". I sure hope they will still be supportive months from now!! Okay, enough for now. Stand by for action, general quarters, man your battle stations and open fire when ready. Let the conversation begin. Thanks for your support, DAVID B. NASH MD MBA
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