News Briefs
News Briefs
New cultural guide now available
Created in response to "dramatic changes in the nation’s demographics," the American Medical Association in Chicago published a book in September to help physicians understand patients’ cultural backgrounds.
The book, The Cultural Competence Compendium, includes resources available from organizations that focus on cultural competence, including information about spiritual practices and self-help resources.
The 460-page book can be purchased from the American Medical Association. Telephone: (800) 621-8335. It also can be downloaded from the AMA’s Web site free of charge. Access the site at http://www.ama-assn.org/ethic/diversity/ contents.htm.
Medication errors worry patients most
Highest of 10 common concerns
The potential for medication mix-ups ranks highest among 10 common concerns of patients in hospitals and components of health systems.
The results of the study, conducted by the Bethesda, MD-based American Society of Health System Pharmacists, indicate that many Ameri cans have a relatively high level of anxiety surrounding hospital or health system visits.
The majority of respondents said they were very concerned’ about a number of issues, including the following:
• being given the wrong medication (61%);
• being given two or more medications that interact in a negative way (58%);
• complications from medical procedures (56%);
• getting an infection (50%);
• suffering from pain (49%).
"With more and more sophisticated and powerful drugs entering the market today, patients are increasingly worried about the accuracy, safety, and appropriate monitoring of their medications to ensure the best outcomes," says Bruce Scott, MS, president of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
The survey was conducted by telephone in July 1999 and involved more than 1,000 adults ages 18 and older. Three out of four respondents (76%) said that speaking to a pharmacist while in the hospital or health system would help alleviate their medication concerns, and 65% said they’d rather speak to the pharmacist in person as the way to receive information about their medications.
DC voters approve medical marijuana
U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts ruled in September on an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit allowing ballots from last Novem ber’s election to be counted on a measure permitting the use of medical marijuana in the District of Columbia.
The measure would change current laws in the district to allow the possession, use, cultivation, and distribution of marijuana if recommended by a physician for serious illness. The tally, in which voters overwhelmingly approved the measure, comes almost a year after the election. Congress has 30 working days to approve or override the measure.
Results get mixed reactions
District mayor Anthony Williams (D) maintains his support of the measure, while Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, DC, opposes the policy change. McCaffrey bolsters his argument with the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine report stating that there is little future for marijuana as a medically approved medication. (See Medical Ethics Advisor, April 1999, p. 40, for details on the Institute of Medicine report.)
The battle is far from over, says Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA). Barr sponsored the district’s medical marijuana funding ban and says he’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that the ban sticks, according to a report in USA Today. "Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and it would send a terrible message to America’s young people to allow those laws to be openly flouted in the same city where they are passed," states Barr.
African-Americans not included in trial data
African-Americans face unique barriers that inhibit their participation in clinical trials, according to speakers at a symposium held in September in New York City. The symposium, titled African-Americans and Breast Cancer, was sponsored by the nonprofit Magic Johnson Foundation in Culver City, CA.
There is insufficient information on why African-American women are more likely to die of breast cancer, for example, than their white counterparts. That’s because few African-American women participate in clinical trials, the experts state.
Exploring the reasons
There are several possibilities for the discrepancy, researchers suggest, including these:
• lack of information from physicians;
• lack of awareness that trials are available;
• lingering patient mistrust because of the Tuskegee (AL) Syphilis Study, which was terminated in 1972.
"Before coming to the National Institutes of Health [NIH], I did not have an appreciation for how much [the Tuskegee experiment] was a driving force in the African-American community," says Walter Jones, deputy director of the Clinical Center at NIH.
Changes also took place at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, MD. A restructuring over the past year now encourages patient par ticipation from every state. Traditionally, the Northeast, California, and Florida have had the highest referral rates for trials.
NCI now allows patients to refer themselves to a clinical trial. Previously, only physicians could do so. Patients are required, however, to obtain medical records from their physicians to be eligible.
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