first opinion
Will there be a Mark Cuban effect on drug shortages?
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We've got two big problems with prescription drugs right now: They're too expensive, and there aren't enough of the most important ones. Mark Cuban — the billionaire entrepreneur perhaps best known for his assertive presence on the TV show "Shark Tank" — has decided to solve these problems for us through the creation of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. (That's MCCPDC for short, if that name isn't rolling off your tongue.)
Cuban claims that the pharmaceutical industry is "the easiest industry I've been in to disrupt." But in a First Opinion essay, industry vet Ezekiel Emanuel and physician John Connolly argue that perhaps Cuban shouldn't be so confident. His current approach will fail to make a significant dent in drug prices, they write. But by expanding his production forays, they argue, Cuban could make real progress addressing America's drug shortage issues.
Read more from Emanuel and Connolly about why Cuban's company can't save us from high drug prices.
money
Health care workers have more medical, educational debt, study says
More and more medical schools are going tuition-free — which is great for doctors, but what about other health care workers? A new study published in JAMA Health Forum found that health care workers overall have more medical and school debt than other workers.
Medical debt among all health care workers tallied $19.8 billion nationally, while educational debt totalled $134.4 billion, according to the study's analysis of nationally representative survey data from 2018-2021. Medical debt was more common among women than men and among Black health care workers than white ones. School debt was also more common for Black people, and less common for older people.
first opinion
How to prevent tragedies like Sonya Massey's death
Sonya Massey called 911 on July 6 to report a potential home intruder. "Don't hurt me," is what she said to the police when they arrived. "Why would I hurt you? You called us," is how Deputy Sean Grayson responded minutes before he shot and killed her.
Massey had paranoid schizophrenia, and she was distracted, unsettled, and frightened. What she needed was reassurance, two emergency physicians write in a First Opinion essay. The interaction with police turned quickly from routine to deadly. "As two academic, Black women physicians, we have become familiar with the same speed at which we can turn from 'pet to threat,'" they write.
Read more on the "pet to threat" phenomenon and the critical need for safe de-escalation tactics and specialized, mental health crisis response teams.
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