News in brief - Aug. 28, 2006

Companies ask court to decide whether N.H. prescribing law is legal - Museum observes anniversary of President Garfield's death - Lack of insurance doesn't translate to higher ED use - Free CME for California's physicians

Companies ask court to decide whether N.H. prescribing law is legal

Two medical data collection firms are challenging the constitutionality of the nation's first law to prohibit drugmakers from using doctors' prescribing information for marketing purposes. In a lawsuit filed in a U.S. District Court in New Hampshire in July, IMS Health Inc. and Verispan LLC claim that the state's law restricts information essential to improving health care quality.

The problem with the statute is that it "creates an entirely new and special privacy right for physicians at the expense of health care quality and patient safety," said Verispan's chief privacy and ethics officer, Scot Ganow.

The companies are asking the court to block enforcement of the law, which took effect June 30. Richard W. Head, a spokesman for the New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte, said they are in the process of drafting a response to the lawsuit.

The New Hampshire Medical Society endorsed the new statute, saying it would protect doctors from the influence of pharmaceutical representatives that profile their prescribing behavior and would provide extra privacy safeguards to patients. NHMS also disputes the lawsuit's claims.

"The law does not prevent [data companies] from collecting the data, it prevents them from selling it for profit," NHMS President Marc M. Sadowsky, MD, said.

The AMA opposes restrictions on the disclosure of physician prescribing data, which it says can be beneficial for evidence-based research.

Museum observes anniversary of President Garfield's death

The National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., is hosting an exhibit through Sept. 19 that commemorates the 125th anniversary of President James A. Garfield's death. Garfield, the nation's 20th president, was shot on July 2, 1881, and died 80 days later on Sept. 19, 1881.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is the president's 12th thoracic and 1st and 2nd lumbar vertebrae. A red probe shows the path of the assassin's bullet. Also on display are reproductions of a drawing of Garfield's wound and deathbed, photos of two doctors who took charge of examining the injury, and a drawing by Alexander Graham Bell of his metal detector invention that was unsuccessful in locating the bullet in Garfield's body.

To mark the 80 days from when the president was shot to the day he died, the exhibit runs 80 days and ends 125 years to the day of his death.

Admission and parking are free to the museum, located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Ave. and Elder Street, NW. For information, call 202-782-2200 or visit the museum's Web site (www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum).

Lack of insurance doesn't translate to higher ED use

Emergency department use varies widely across the country and isn't reliably driven by uninsured or immigrant patients, according to a July Health Affairs study.

In 12 nationally representative communities, there was an average of 32 ED visits per 100 people in 2003, with a high of 40 in Cleveland and a low of 21 in Orange County, Calif.

Though Cleveland had the highest ED use rate, only 7.9% of residents there are uninsured and only 3.2% are noncitizens. Orange County, meanwhile, had the lowest ED use rate even though 18.2% of its residents are uninsured and 15.6% are noncitizens.

What does drive the variation in ED use?

According to study author Peter J. Cunningham, PhD, factors include long waits for physician appointments and decreased availability of community health centers.

Free CME for California's physicians

For the next two years, physicians in California, at no cost to them, can earn up to 16 credits of continuing medical education on domestic violence. The online program (www.respondtodv.org) includes text-based simulations, multimedia tutorials, video presentations by domestic violence experts, downloadable practice tools and links to the National Library of Medicine's journal abstracts.

Medical Directions Inc. developed the program with a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health The Blue Shield of California Foundation contributed $350,000 to cover the cost of CME credits for California physicians.

Physicians outside California can take the course for free, but will not earn CME credit.