Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, JAMA, Pharmacology / 21.02.2019
Some Patients Purchasing Over-the-Counter Insulins Due to High Prescription Costs
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_47591" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr. Goldstein[/caption]
Jennifer N. Goldstein, MD, MSc
Assistant program Director of Internal Medicine
Christiana Care Health System
Newark, Delaware
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Human synthetic insulins have been available over-the-counter for nearly a century, and at relatively low cost for around a decade under a Walmart brand name. However, little is known about the frequency of sale of over-the-counter insulin or the reasons why patients use it.
While prescription insulins (insulin analogues) are considered by many to be easier to use and more predictable than the over-the-counter versions, the cost of these insulins has skyrocketed.
Our study examined the frequency of sale of over-the-counter insulins and whether patients potentially use over-the-counter insulin as a substitute for expensive prescription insulins.
Dr. Goldstein[/caption]
Jennifer N. Goldstein, MD, MSc
Assistant program Director of Internal Medicine
Christiana Care Health System
Newark, Delaware
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Human synthetic insulins have been available over-the-counter for nearly a century, and at relatively low cost for around a decade under a Walmart brand name. However, little is known about the frequency of sale of over-the-counter insulin or the reasons why patients use it.
While prescription insulins (insulin analogues) are considered by many to be easier to use and more predictable than the over-the-counter versions, the cost of these insulins has skyrocketed.
Our study examined the frequency of sale of over-the-counter insulins and whether patients potentially use over-the-counter insulin as a substitute for expensive prescription insulins.
Dr. Kishan[/caption]
Amar U. Kishan, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology
University of California, Los Angeles
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Typical external beam radiation courses range up to 8-9 weeks in length (39-45 treatments). There are data that shorter courses, delivering a higher dose per day, may be just as effective.
Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) really pushes this concept by condensing the treatment to just four to five treatments, with a high dose per day.
Here, we present the pooled results of the outcomes of 2142 men with low and intermediate risk prostate cancer and a median of 6.9 years of followup.
We demonstrate a very favorable efficacy and safety profile. Specifically, the rates of recurrences were 4.5% and 10.2% for low and intermediate risk disease at 7 years, and rates of late severe toxicity were 2.4% for urinary toxicity and 0.4% for gastrointestinal toxicity.
Dawn Wiest, PhD
Director, Action Research & Evaluation
Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Understanding the role of care transitions after hospitalization in reducing avoidable readmissions, the Camden Coalition launched the 7-Day Pledge in 2014 in partnership with primary care practices in Camden, NJ to address patient and provider barriers to timely post-discharge primary care follow-up. To evaluate whether our program was associated with lower hospital readmissions, we used all-payer hospital claims data from five regional health systems. We compared readmissions for patients who had a primary care follow-up within seven days with similar patients who had a later or no follow-up using propensity score matching.
