Faculty Bibliography

If 1 begin these reflections on Taylor Mead, who died at the age of eighty-eight on May 8, 2013, with brief mention of two underexplored periods in the artist's life-his years in the late Beat scene in Venice and his European period of self-imposed exile from New York in the mid-'60s-it is to suggest that we have yet to account for the breadth, diversity, and wide-ranging importance of more than five decades of work by the disarmingly affable man considered the first superstar of underground film and the "doyen of underground performance. Rice's movie, shot on outdated 16-mm film stock that lent the black-and-white images a wistful look, was both a document of the last remnants of San Francisco's North Beach Beat scene and a lyrical portrayal of Mead's joyful embodiment of flexibility and spontaneity

Public shootings release powerful emotions, both for survivors and for the families of the victims. The same deep center of the brain that processes fear also handles courage and caring. We need to fill our brains with positive emotions for the sake of our health. The survivors have also been wounded. The initial lifesaving response, fight or flight, which involves an outpouring of stress hormones triggered by the brain's fear center, gives way over the succeeding weeks to post-traumatic stress disorder. According to the National Center for PTSD, 77(PERCENT) of children who witness a school shooting and 35(PERCENT) of the kids who see violence in the area they live are affected. The same long-term impact related to proximity to the shooting was found in a study of the 1998 Thurston High School shooting in Oregon. Retrospective studies on the infamous Columbine High School shooting in 1999 found that because of the intensive involvement of the news media, the impact went well beyond the town of Littleton, Colo., where the shootings occurred and impacted attitudes across the nation. Survivors of Columbine continue to experience flashbacks, though no formal study has been conducted

For all the attention in the media about potential side effects of vaccines like Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil, not enough time or attention has been paid congratulating Merck for its shingles homerun, Zostavax. Zostavax is the only vaccine available to keep shingles from occurring. Studies from 2003 show that it is 50% effective at doing so. The Center for Disease Control recommends that everyone over the age of 60 receive it, and the author agrees with this recommendation since Shingles can be devastating and half of all cases are in people over the age of 60

For example, the cost for an exercise echo stress test in Manhattan varies from $2,500 to $5,000. The Weill Cornell Medical Center charges $2,500 for that test, but if a patient is willing to pay cash, the charge is only $1,000. This discounted cash approach is becoming more commonplace, but with a hitch. The cash option is only intended to make care more affordable for the uninsured and not to provide an option to those who are insured. In fact, hospitals are forced to charge private insurers more because of their care of the uninsured and Medicaid patients, who pay a drastically reduced rate. In California, Los Alamitos Medical Center charges more than $4,000 for a CT scan of the abdomen, according to a state website. The negotiated rate that Blue Cross pays is a little over $2,000. The cash price is only $250 - but again to help the uninsured and not to provide an option to those who are insured, according to the California Hospital Association. In fact, many health insurance policies limit the amount you can pay out of pocket in a given year

Advocates of expanding over-the-counter medications point to aspirin or allergy drugs as examples that have proved successful without a doctor's prescription. But for every patient who is glad not to have to visit my office for an allergy prescription, I can point to another patient who has suffered side effects like fatigue that he or she didn't realize were due to that same pill, or where the allergic reaction was due instead to food. Although the FDA's goal is to reduce health care costs by improving access to treatments, remember that both public and private insurers are not likely to cover these treatments if a prescription isn't involved. Insurance companies typically rely on a doctor's authorization to document medical necessity. This is another way the FDA plan could backfire, as patients might not be able to afford the out-of-pocket expense and could even go without treatment altogether. A doctor's appreciation of a pharmacist's acumen is not the same thing as saying that he or she should replace a physician. The American Pharmacists Association is wrong to back the FDA proposal, and the American Academy of Family Physicians is right to oppose it

The FDA, wary of another fen-phen disaster, hasn't approved a weight loss drug since xenical in 1999. Xenical interferes with the absorption of fats in the bowel, causing unpleasant side effects, so it is of limited use. Now along come Qnexa and Lorcaserin, which have just been approved by a panel advising the FDA, which means almost certain FDA approval. Both drugs will likely be approved, but this physician will wait a long while before prescribing them

The PSA screening has been a breakthrough in medical science. Since the early 1990s, when it was first used, death from prostate cancer has decreased 40 percent

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is on the front lines, meeting daily to review new developments and working with state and local health departments to track potential cases. [...]we need to shine a spotlight on the fact that not all the compounding pharmacies are doing their work safely

[...]a new Health Care Cost Institute study found that these bloated charges are, in part, the reason health care costs have risen at double the rate of inflation during the recession, even as patients used less medical care than before

For example, the cost for an exercise echo stress test in Manhattan varies from $2,500 to $5,000. The Weill Cornell Medical Center charges $2,500 for that test, but if a patient is willing to pay cash, the charge is only $1,000. This discounted cash approach is becoming more commonplace, but with a hitch. The cash option is only intended to make care more affordable for the uninsured and not to provide an option to those who are insured. In fact, hospitals are forced to charge private insurers more because of their care of the uninsured and Medicaid patients, who pay a drastically reduced rate. In California, Los Alamitos Medical Center charges more than $4,000 for a CT scan of the abdomen, according to a state website. The negotiated rate that Blue Cross pays is a little over $2,000. The cash price is only $250 -- but again to help the uninsured and not to provide an option to those who are insured, according to the California Hospital Association. In fact, many health insurance policies limit the amount you can pay out of pocket in a given year