Posts Tagged ‘health disparities’

FDA is working hard to push drug companies to get more diversity into the clinical trials that are the foundation for bringing new, safe, and effective drugs into the market. In June, the agency issued guidance for diversity action plans to improve the representation of marginalized populations. But unfortunately, it has nothing to say about […]

Is the price for health equity in obesity care too high? Or do policy makers simply not care to make it a priority? Writing in the Washington Post, Reverend Al Sharpton tells us that advances in obesity care bring an appalling failure of health equity into plain view: “Despite rates of obesity among people of […]

When the subject of equitable access to GLP-1s arises, contrasting perspectives of what is equitable become apparent. Last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, an analysis of prescription data for GLP-1 agonists made two facts about their use very clear. First, their use for obesity is growing much faster than the use for type […]

“Not everything is healthcare,” writes Chris Pope in an essay for the Wall Street Journal, questioning  policy advocates who focus on disparity in social determinants of health. In his commentary, he expresses doubt about diverting money from healthcare to other social programs: “Social theories of health have become so popular because they allow states, nonprofit […]

Nope, says Dr. Alissa Chen. Medicare shouldn’t start covering obesity medicines. Her dad, 72, has obesity that began when he was in grad school and has persisted throughout his life. Now he has the cardiovascular disease that often results from untreated obesity. But no, she doesn’t want him to receive treatment with advanced medicines proven […]

In dealing with health policy related to obesity for nearly two decades, the stubborn persistence of health disparities has been one of the most frustrating issues. On the opening day of Nutrition 2024, an impressive series of new studies reminded us of an important contributor to those disparities. Keeping people guessing about their food security […]

The STOP Obesity Alliance released new data Friday from an exhaustive analysis of access to obesity medicines in Medicaid programs across the United States. It’s not a pretty picture. It gives us more data to show how we are marginalizing people with the greatest need for obesity care. No state fully covered all forms of […]

We are living in an amazing time for people who live with obesity. But it is also a time when harsh inequities in health grow wider because of obesity, even though innovation could be bringing brighter prospects for everyone who is vulnerable to this chronic disease. But inequitable access to care might instead be amplifying […]

We thought it would be hard to top the vacuous absurdity of juice cleanses. But it turns out that the Washington Post was up for the challenge. So the paper assigned an intrepid travel reporter and even hired a model to make the medical spa baloney of intravenous infusions for hangover therapy sound and look […]

Reports of first quarter business results from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly this week leave no room for doubt. The utilization of obesity treatment is growing at a rate that has caught both of these companies by surprise. Wegovy sales more than doubled in the first quarter of 2024. On top of that, new prescriptions […]