Health stories in the news

Hip replacement implant pulled from market

DePuy Orethopaedics, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, has withdrawn its ASR hip replacement device. The company had warned doctors that the implant appears to have a high early failure rate in some patients, reports Barry Mieir in the New York Times. Mieir writes:

The action by the company, DePuy Orthopaedics, follows more than two years of reports that the hip implant, which is known as the ASR, was failing in patients only a few years after implant, requiring costly and painful replacement operations.

Some orthopedic experts have voiced dismay in recent interviews that DePuy had not halted sales of the device earlier. And some specialists said that they believed the device had a design flaw that made it difficult to implant properly, a claim disputed by DePuy officials, who had said the product had no safety problems.

To learn more:

• Read Mieir’s article: With Warning, a Hip Device Is Withdrawn

Seattle group sequences entire genomes to pinpoint disease genes

Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology is one of two groups reporting in the journal Science that they had successfully identified disease-causing genes by sequencing patients’ entire genomes. Reporting in the New York Times, Nicholas Wade writes:

The approach may offer a new start in the so far disappointing effort to identify the genetic roots of major killers like heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. In the decade since the first full genetic code of a human was sequenced for some $500 million, less than a dozen genomes had been decoded, all of healthy people.

Geneticists said the new research showed it was now possible to sequence the entire genome of a patient at reasonable cost and with sufficient accuracy to be of practical use to medical researchers. One subject’s genome cost just $50,000 to decode.

To learn more:

• Read Wade’s article: Disease Cause Is Pinpointed With Genome
• Visit the Institute for Systems Biology’s Web site.
• Read the article published online at Science Express (fee or subscription required).

Women with breast cancer having healthy breast removed as well

New York Times reporter Tara Parker-Pope reports that a growing number of women with breast cancer are asking doctors to remove their healthy breast as well. She writes:

The percentage of women asking to remove both breasts after a cancer diagnosis has more than doubled in recent years. Over all, about 6 percent of women undergoing surgery for breast cancer in 2006 opted for the procedure, formally known as contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. Among women in their 40s who underwent breast cancer surgery, one in 10 opted to have both breasts removed, according to a University of Minnesota study presented last week in St. Louis at the annual meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology.

To learn more:

• Read Parker-Pope’s article: After Cancer, Removing a Healthy Breast

Are health plan executives paid too much?

Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat goes after local the big bonuses local health plan executives are pulling in.

So how is it that the CEO of Premera Blue Cross, Herbert “Gubby” Barlow, of Mercer Island, scored a $1.3 million bonus in 2009? Even as his company served up insurance to 10 percent fewer people than the year before?

Including the bonus, Barlow made $2.2 million in 2009, up $115,000 from 2008, according to compensation data released Tuesday by the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

Group Health President Scott Armstrong’s pay and bonus came to $1.6 million — a 31 percent boost over the year before.

And Mark Ganz, CEO of Regence health plans in Washington and Oregon, came in third in this dubious sweepstakes, earning $1.1 million including bonus.

To learn more:

• Read Westneat’s article: Sick over the health honchos’ pay

Tags: Breast Cancer, Executive Pay, Genomics, Insurance

Category: Breast Cancer