OneZero: A Black Market for Life-Saving Insulin Thrives on Social Media. “Insulin is an essential and life-saving drug used by 7.4 million people in the United States. Over the last few years, it’s become increasingly expensive. Between 2012 and 2016, the price of insulin effectively doubled for people with type one diabetes, with costs jumping from $239 to $475 per month, on average. These controversial and dramatic price hikes, singled out by presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have become symbols of a failing American healthcare system. They have also created a thriving online black market for insulin.”
health care
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: State launches more consumer-friendly website with inspection reports on healthcare facilities
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: State launches more consumer-friendly website with inspection reports on healthcare facilities. “A month after a glitch took the state’s healthcare facility website offline, the Georgia Department of Community Health on Thursday restored online access while launching a new version of the website with crucial licensing and inspection information for thousands of facilities.”
Weill Cornell Medicine: Scientists Build the First Global Database and Roadmap for CAR Therapy Clinical Trials
Weill Cornell Medicine: Scientists Build the First Global Database and Roadmap for CAR Therapy Clinical Trials. “Weill Cornell Medicine scientists have built the first global database of clinical trials testing a rapidly expanding approach to cancer treatment that involves genetically modifying immune cells to recognize specific targets on a patient’s cancer cells and attack them. By analyzing the approach, called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapies, the scientists designed a ‘therapeutic roadmap’ that identifies all current therapies as well as additional cancers that can be treated with them.”
University of Nottingham: The MRI story safely preserved after huge archive project
University of Nottingham, as I continue to delve up things I missed in December: The MRI story safely preserved after huge archive project . “The MRI Collections Project was undertaken by Manuscripts and Special Collections (MSC) to catalogue, preserve and selectively digitise the papers of the Nobel Prize winning physicist Professor Sir Peter Mansfield and two other scientists involved in the development of MRI at Nottingham, Professor Raymond Andrew and Professor Brian Worthington. The project was funded by the Wellcome Trust.” It looks like the catalogues have been put online but the archives themselves have not, which is why this is here and not in New Resources.
‘This is not right’: Medicare’s plan guide was so messed up, it’s offering a do-over (Kansas City Star)
Kansas City Star: ‘This is not right’: Medicare’s plan guide was so messed up, it’s offering a do-over. “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services added a new planning tool to its website, and it was so confusing — even for experts like [Kelly G.] Loeb — that congressional leaders have called for officials to publicize a special do-over period to give recipients another chance to enroll in the right plan. Loeb and other Medicare counselors worry that Medicare users could feel the aftershocks when they get their prescriptions this month.”
Ars Technica: Hackers steal data for 15 million patients, then sell it back to lab that lost it
Ars Technica: Hackers steal data for 15 million patients, then sell it back to lab that lost it. “Toronto, Ontario-based LifeLabs Notified Canadian authorities of the attack on November 1. The company said a cyberattack struck computer systems that stored data for about 15 million customers. The stolen information included names, addresses, email addresses, customer logins and passwords, health card numbers, and lab tests.”
Krebs on Security: 110 Nursing Homes Cut Off from Health Records in Ransomware Attack
Krebs on Security: 110 Nursing Homes Cut Off from Health Records in Ransomware Attack. “A ransomware outbreak has besieged a Wisconsin based IT company that provides cloud data hosting, security and access management to more than 100 nursing homes across the United States. The ongoing attack is preventing these care centers from accessing crucial patient medical records, and the IT company’s owner says she fears this incident could soon lead not only to the closure of her business, but also to the untimely demise of some patients.”
