While prescription drug brand names can increase medication name recognition by patients and help differentiate products, they can also confuse patients and reduce appropriate use of generic drugs. Given increased pressure to reduce drug costs and use medicines safely and effectively, can the prescription drug naming system be improved?
“Legal epidemiology,” the scientific study of law as a factor in the cause, distribution, and prevention of disease in a population, is funded and conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but the level of work and its distribution across the agency has not been assessed.
The Legal Toolkit for Newborn Screening DBS provides state legislators and other policy-makers with a menu of options to consider as they develop policies related to the retention and secondary use of residual newborn screening dried blood samples (DBS).
University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law
Regulators are implementing new programs that require manufacturers of products containing certain chemicals of concern to identify, evaluate, and adopt viable, safer alternatives. Such programs raise the difficult question for policymakers and regulated businesses of which alternatives are “viable” and “safer.” To address that question, these programs use “alternatives analysis,” an emerging methodology that integrates issues of human health and environmental effects with technical feasibility and economic impact.
University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law
Emerging "prevention-based" approaches to chemical regulation seek to minimize the use of toxic chemicals by mandating or directly incentivizing the adoption of viable safer alternative chemicals or processes. California and Maine are beginning to implement such programs, requiring manufacturers of consumer products containing certain chemicals of concern to identify and evaluate potential safer alternatives. This article identifies an integrated set of design principles for regulatory alternatives analysis, and illustrates the application of those principles.
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Caleb Alexander, MD, MS •
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
The study finds Florida’s efforts to prevent inappropriate use of painkillers are showing reductions among prescribers and patients who had the highest prescribing and usage rates.
Health Research Inc./New York State Department of Health
The study reviewed policies from all 129 NY hospitals providing maternity care services. In 2009, none were fully compliant with WHO recommendations, but by 2013, 97, or 75 percent of the hospitals had compliant hospital breastfeeding policies. And as of April 2014, all 129 hospitals in New York had a fully compliant, approved, written breastfeeding policy in place.
Researchers reviewed 47 prescription monitoring program (PMP) websites for overdose content. They found that most PMPs did not address overdose or related terms in available materials and few state PMPs project overdose-specific messaging or provider tools for prevention.
In a Perspective for the New England Journal of Medicine, Sarpatwari and Kesselheim discuss the future of follow-on biologics in the United States. Among other issues, the article discusses the impact that so-called carve-outs from state drug product selection laws will have on reducing the market penetration of interchangeable biologics.
These three articles aim to acquaint specialists in mental health law, health services research, and policy implementation research with the Virginia Advance Directive Project.
