Physician burnout continues to be pervasive and differs by generation; more opioid doses flooded the market than originally believed; the FDA drug approval rate is speeding up.
Physician burnout continues to be a pervasive issue, according to Medscape, despite an almost 9% improvement from 5 years ago. Of the 3 generations surveyed, Gen X physicians had the highest rate of burnout at 48%, compared with 38% for millennials and 39% for baby boomers, while urology (54%) and public health and preventive medicine (29%) were the fields with the most and least burnout, respectively. The top reasons leading to burnout include administrative tasks, long hours, workload, and lack of support, with millennials preferring to sleep their burnout off and Gen Xers and baby boomers choosing to exercise or stay to themselves. Some would even take a pay cut to get a better work-life balance.
Data from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) show that 100 billion doses of the opioids oxycodone and hydrocodone flooded the United States between 2006 and 2014, per The Washington Post. That’s 31.5% more than previously thought. Seventy-six percent alone originated from McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health, Walgreens, AmerisourceBergen, CVS, and Walmart. During this same period, more than 130,000 Americans alone died from prescription opioid use, with West Virginia having the highest death rate among the states.
The FDA may be speeding up the rate at which it approves new prescription drugs, but it’s accomplished that by relying on weaker evidence, according to a new JAMA study. The Center for Biosimilars reported that instead of results from 2 or more trials, the FDA is now handing down approvals based on results from 1 trial. And compared with 1986 through 1992, when it took 2.8 years for a new drug application to be reviewed, 2018 saw that time drop to just 10.1 months. Lead study author Jonathan Darrow, a lawyer with Harvard Medical School's Program on Regulation, Therapeutics and Law, worries that regulatory changes laws meant to spur drug development (eg, Orphan Drug Act, Prescription Drug User Fee Act) instead put the needs of the pharmaceutical industry ahead of patients.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
Read More
New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
Listen
Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
Listen
ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
Read More