In the News

July 2009

Cover Story: Drug Expiration Dates
WBFF-Fox54 TV - July 2, 10 p.m.

School of Pharmacy professors Peter Swaan, PhD, and Frank Palumbo, JD, PhD, were interviewed on the issue of the ligitimacy of expiration dates on pill bottles.
www.youtube.com

FDA Panel Asks for Painkiller Restrictions
Baltimore Sun - July 1

A Food and Drug Administration panel voted 20-17 Tuesday that prescription drugs that combine acetaminophen with other painkilling ingredients should be pulled off the market. Lynette Bradley-Baker, PhD, an assistant professor at the School of Pharmacy, is quoted.
www.baltimoresun.com

FDA Panel Recommends New Acetaminophen Changes
WBAL.com - July 1

An FDA panel recommended making current over-the-counter high-dose medications prescription-only and requiring smaller packages and stronger labeling. "I think it's definitely a step in the right direction," Maryland Board of Pharmacy Commissioner and School of Pharmacy assistant professor, Lynette Bradley-Baker, PhD, said.
www.wbaltv.com

How Much Is Too Much?
Baltimore Sun - July

A federal advisory panel's vote Tuesday to pull two popular prescription drugs off the market has shed light on a problem with a common ingredient in over-the-counter painkillers: acetaminophen. Still, much of the public isn't aware of the potential harms of the painkiller, said Lynette Bradley-Baker, PhD, an assistant professor at the School of Pharmacy, who attended the hearings Monday.
weblogs.baltimoresun.com

Pharmacists Need a Place at the Health Reform Table
Medical News Today - July 1
Chicago Tribune.com - July 2
Press Display.com - July 2
Kaiser Health News - July 2
This clip appeared in 11 more on-line health newsletters.

The federal government is now in the process of defining the details of health care reform, which Natalie Edddington, PhD, dean of the School of Pharmacy says needs to include the perspective of pharmacists.
www.medicalnewstoday.com
www.chicagotribune.com
www.pressdisplay.com
www.kaiserhealthnews.org

Record Number of Firms Wait in Line for Tax Credits
The Baltimore Sun - July 1
The Daily Record - July 2

Representatives from 20 companies waited in line to submit applications for the Maryland Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credit program. The program, which is administered by the Department of Business and Economic Development, began accepting applications at 9 a.m. yesterday at the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore.
www.baltimoresun.com
www.mddailyrecord.com

The Wall Street Bubble Mafia
Rolling Stone - July issue

Did Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs play a role in every memorable market manipulation since the Great Depression? Michael Greenberger, JD, a professor at the School of Law and a former director at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is quoted.
www.rollingstone.com

Upper Chesapeake Health, Univ. of Md. Medical System to Merge
The Daily Record - July 2

The School of Medicine was a large factor in the decision. Students in their residencies would be assigned to Upper Chesapeake hospitals, providing physician recruitment that John Ashworth, MBA, senior vice president of network development for UMMS and associate dean of the School of Medicine, said is key to the deal.
www.mddailyrecord.com

With Medicare Plan, Drug Spending May Be Up
Forbes.com - July 1
Drugs.com -July 1

Older people who signed up for Medicare's prescription drug coverage, called Part D, spent more on drugs after enrolling in a study, says the New England Journal of Medicine. The report was not designed to look at improvements in health, but another study on Part D did. The study, from the School of Pharmacy presented at the AcademyHealth meeting in Chicago, found "small but statistically significant" improvements in health status, based on daily activity levels, of those enrollees who previously had no prescription drug coverage.
www.forbes.com
www.drugs.com

'Natural' Not Necessarily 'No Harm' 'Safety Net' Too Loose, Sources Fear
Times-Herald Record (Hudson Valley, N.Y.) - July 1, 2009

At one of the nation's top trauma hospitals, a nurse circles a patient's bed, humming and waving her arms as if shooing evil spirits. Another woman rubs a quartz bowl with a wand, making tunes that mix with the beeping monitors and hissing respirator keeping the man alive. They are doing Reiki therapy, which claims to heal through invisible energy fields. The anesthesia chief, Richard Dutton, MD, MBA, associate professor at the School of Medicine, calls it "mystical mumbo jumbo." Still, he's a fan.
www.recordonline.com

Acetaminophen and Drug Safety
WBFF-TV, Ch. 45, 8:45 a.m.- July 1

Sheila Weiss Smith, PhD, a professor at the School of Pharmacy, was interviewed about the FDA recommendations concerning acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is said to be the cause of the highest number of overdose deaths of over-the-counter medications.
www.youtube.com

Acetaminophen and Drug Safety
WBAL-TV. Ch. 11, - June 30

Every year, Americans die from liver failure caused by acetaminophen overdoses. Yesterday the FDA made recommendations to stop the inadvertent overdose of the painkiller. Lynette Bradley-Baker, PhD, an assistant professor at the School of Pharmacy and Commissioner on the Maryland Board of Pharmacy, is interviewed about the recommendations.
www.youtube.com

Camping out for Tax Breaks
WBAL- AM Radio - June 30
WMAR-TV, Ch. 2, 5:30 p.m. - June 30

They're not camping out for concert or Ravens tickets; they're camping out for state tax credits in Baltimore. It's first-come first-served for applicants for $6 million in state tax credits, designed to encourage investments in biotech and small pharmaceutical companies. The applications must be submitted in person so since Friday about 20 people have been camping out in the lobby of the University of Maryland BioPark waiting to submit their applications. Jim Hughes, MBA, vice president for research and development at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, is quoted.
wbal.com
www.youtube.com

Computer-Aided System Detects Missed Lung Cancer
Modern Medicine - June 30

In lung cancer patients, a computer-aided detection system may detect nodules in chest radiography that were initially overlooked by a radiologist, according to a study published in the July issue of Radiology. Charles White, MD, professor at the School of Medicine, and colleagues evaluated chest radiographs from 3,100 patients and found missed cancer on 114 radiographs from 89 patients, with lesion sizes ranging from 0.4 to 5.5 cm.
www.modernmedicine.com

Medicare Part D Healthy for Enrollees
Care About Medicine - June 29
Newstin - July 30
Health Care International - June 30

Researchers at the School of Pharmacy found that Part D in 2006 made statistically significant improvements in the health, access to medications, and financial hardships of previously uninsured beneficiaries.
www.medicarenews.net
www.newstin.com
www.healthcareinternational.net

Overdose Deaths Drop Again
Baltimore Sun - July 1

Deaths from alcohol and drug overdoses declined for the second straight year in Baltimore and are at their lowest level since 1995. In the meantime, education and outreach programs can help, said Christopher Welsh, MD, assistant professor, School of Medicine and an addictions psychiatrist at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
www.baltimoresun.com