Pharmacies prepare for disaster

Foundations from the National Community Pharmacists Association and AmerisourceBergen are partnering to create the AmerisourceBergen Foundation–NCPA Foundation Disaster Relief Grant Fund*, which will “provide financial assistance to community pharmacy owners for the repair of pharmacies in the event of disaster, accidents, illness or other adverse circumstances.”

* We pity whoever has to have all that on a business card

Health-app ‘formulary’

Express Scripts is trying to launch what it calls a digital-health formulary — a list of technology and apps that have been vetted for safety and effectiveness “with the aim of helping payers and consumers navigate the growing number of digital health tools.”

Make them suffer

How to get anti-vaxxers to change their minds? Expose them to the “real-life pain of diseases.”

New research from Brigham Young University […] finds there is a better way to help increase support for vaccinations: Expose people to the pain and suffering caused by vaccine-preventable diseases instead of trying to combat people with vaccine facts.

A couple of bits of opioid news

More young people than ever are overdosing on drugs, and the main culprit is painkillers — either prescription or bought on the street.

Death rates from drug overdoses for people ages 15 to 24 rose by 19.75% from 2006 to 2015, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

The pendulum is swinging back, as this Wired article explains. Patients with chronic pain who need prescription painkillers to function are finding it harder to get their meds — and they are fighting back.

One in four cancer patients have had trouble getting their pain medication because a pharmacist refused to fill the prescription, even though the drug was in stock, according to a survey by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. Thirty percent said they couldn’t get the pain meds their doctor prescribed because their insurance wouldn’t cover the costs.

Perhaps a hearty handshake* instead

“Kissing is a risk factor for throat gonorrhea”

* Followed by a round of Purell

Good luck with that

Back in April we told you how hacker diabetics are making their own artificially intelligent insulin pumps — DIY artificial pancreases, essentially, that work better than what patients can buy (or afford).

But now one such hacker (out of thousands) gave himself an accidental insulin overdose requiring “medical intervention,” so the FDA is warning people not to build their own devices.

The FDA warning is an example of the tension between patients who want to take more of their health care into their own hands and increasingly have the technological tools and know-how to do so, and regulators charged with safeguarding public health.

Deal with it

Health.com answers the important medical questions. (Bonus: It’s a slideshow!)