Industry Payments to Plastic Surgeons: What Has Changed Over the Last Six-Years Following Implementation of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act?

Author(s):  
Rowland W Pettit ◽  
Jordan Kaplan ◽  
Matthew M Delancy ◽  
Edward Reece ◽  
Sebastian Winocour ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The Open Payments Program, as designated by the Physician Payments Sunshine Act is the single largest repository of industry payments made to licensed physicians within the United States. Though sizeable in its dataset, the database and user interface are limited in their ability to permit expansive data interpretation and summarization. Objectives We sought to comprehensively compare industry payments made to plastic surgeons with payments made to all surgeons and all physicians to elucidate industry relationships since implementation. Methods The Open Payments Database was queried between 2014 and 2019, and inclusion criteria were applied. These data were evaluated in aggregate and for yearly totals, payment type, and geographic distribution. Results 61,000,728 unique payments totaling $11,815,248,549 were identified over the six-year study period. 9,089 plastic surgeons, 121,151 surgeons, and 796,260 total physicians received these payments. Plastic surgeons annually received significantly less payment than all surgeons (p=0.0005). However, plastic surgeons did not receive significantly more payment than all physicians (p = 0.0840). Cash and cash equivalents proved to be the most common form of payment; Stock and stock options were least commonly transferred. Plastic surgeons in Tennessee received the most in payments between 2014-2019 (mean $ 76,420.75). California had the greatest number of plastic surgeons to receive payments (1,452 surgeons). Conclusions Plastic surgeons received more in industry payments than the average of all physicians but received less than all surgeons. The most common payment was cash transactions. Over the past six years, geographic trends in industry payments have remained stable.

2009 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-220
Author(s):  
C. Michael Hawn

Throughout history the church has often been slow to recognize developments in the sciences and reorder its thinking about God's creation accordingly. The church in the northern world is now facing the reality that Christians in the southern hemisphere outnumber them two to one. The seeds of the gospel planted during the great mission movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have taken hold and Christianity is flourishing in many places in the south. Are Christians in the northern hemisphere ready to receive the gifts of worshiping communities through song and prayer from their southern sisters and brothers? Given the patterns of immigration to the United States, this is not an academic proposal but a reality of the twenty-first century. Congregations in the current century will need a global perspective in local communities. We dare not be as slow to respond to this reality as the church has been to scientific discoveries in the past. This article offers strategies for reciprocal mission mindedness in our worship.


2018 ◽  
pp. 387-391
Author(s):  
S. Nassir Ghaemi

The practice of psychopharmacology is influenced by cultural factors, including a tendency in the United States for patients and doctors to want to receive pills for symptoms. This therapeutic activism dates back centuries, and it has influenced aggressive treatments in the past such as bleeding the patient. The proponents of DSM-III sought to make psychiatry more empirical, and much of this drive came from the need to diagnose entities that could be treated with the newly emerging psychotropic drugs. In retrospect, it could be concluded that what happened was that the DSM-III–oriented practitioners implemented an American pragmatic attitude to psychiatry that has tended toward both polynosology and polypharmacy. The spirit of pragmatism still lives in the world of contemporary psychiatry. A debate still exists culturally between caution and liberality in the use of medication, for psychological states in particular.


1980 ◽  
Vol 1 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
George J. Annas

On July 1,1980, at four major medical institutions across the United States, the National Cancer Institute began testing Laetrile on cancer patients on whom all other therapy has failed. The study calls for 200 patients to receive the drug, along with a natural food diet. Results should be known in two years, and should demonstrate once and for all whether or not Laetrile has any cancer inhibiting effects. The study was undertaken primarily because of the large amount of publicity proponents of Laetrile have generated over the past five years, rather than any independent evidence that Laetrile may be an effective anticancer agent. Its commencement, however, provides a useful opportunity to review the legal status of Laetrile, and to suggest a possible approach to the controversy it has caused.


10.2196/17677 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. e17677
Author(s):  
Matthew T Rosso ◽  
Akshay Sharma

Background The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.1 million people in the United States are living with HIV and 1 in 8 are estimated to be unaware of their serostatus. Little is known about whether individuals would consider being tested for HIV in nontraditional health care settings such as a dentist’s office. Studies in selected US cities have indicated high acceptability of receiving an HIV test among people attending dental clinics. However, we are not aware of studies that have assessed willingness to receive HIV testing in dental care settings at a national level. Objective Using a web-based sample of adult residents of the United States, we sought to assess the self-reported willingness to receive any type of HIV testing (ie, oral fluid rapid testing, finger-stick blood rapid testing, or venipuncture blood testing) in a dental care setting and evaluate independent associations of willingness with the extent to which dental care providers were perceived as knowledgeable about HIV and how comfortable participants felt discussing HIV with their dental care providers. Methods Participants were recruited using banner advertisements featured on social networking platforms (Facebook and Instagram) from December 2018 to February 2019. Demographic and behavioral data including information on sexual behaviors in the past 6 months, HIV testing history, and dental/health care–seeking history were collected using an anonymous web-based survey. Willingness to receive any type of HIV testing in a dental care setting was assessed on 4-point scale from very willing to very unwilling. Factors independently associated with participants’ willingness were identified using a multivariable logistic regression model. Results Of the 421 participants in our study aged 18 to 73 years, 271 (64.4%) reported having oral sex, 197 (46.8%) reported having vaginal sex, and 136 (32.3%) reported having anal sex in the past 6 months. Approximately one-third had never been tested for HIV (137/421, 32.5%), and the same proportion had not been tested in the past year (137/421, 32.5%). Most participants had dental insurance coverage (356/421, 84.6%), and more than three-fourths reported being very or somewhat willing (326/421, 77.4%) to receive any type of HIV testing in a dental care setting. Higher levels of willingness were associated with being 18 to 24 years versus ≥35 years (aOR 3.22, 95% CI 1.48-6.98), 25 to 34 years versus ≥35 years (aOR 5.26, 95% CI 2.52-10.98), believing that one’s dental care provider is knowledgeable about HIV (aOR 2.04, 95% CI 1.06-3.92), and feeling comfortable discussing HIV with one’s dental care provider (aOR 9.84, 95% CI 3.99-24.27). Conclusions Our data indicate high acceptability of receiving HIV testing in a dental care setting, especially among those who report having a positive patient-provider relationship. Future research should focus on assessing dental care providers’ attitudes, self-efficacy, and beliefs about whether HIV testing fits into the scope of dentistry.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T Rosso ◽  
Akshay Sharma

BACKGROUND The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.1 million people in the United States are living with HIV and 1 in 8 are estimated to be unaware of their serostatus. Little is known about whether individuals would consider being tested for HIV in nontraditional health care settings such as a dentist’s office. Studies in selected US cities have indicated high acceptability of receiving an HIV test among people attending dental clinics. However, we are not aware of studies that have assessed willingness to receive HIV testing in dental care settings at a national level. OBJECTIVE Using a web-based sample of adult residents of the United States, we sought to assess the self-reported willingness to receive any type of HIV testing (ie, oral fluid rapid testing, finger-stick blood rapid testing, or venipuncture blood testing) in a dental care setting and evaluate independent associations of willingness with the extent to which dental care providers were perceived as knowledgeable about HIV and how comfortable participants felt discussing HIV with their dental care providers. METHODS Participants were recruited using banner advertisements featured on social networking platforms (Facebook and Instagram) from December 2018 to February 2019. Demographic and behavioral data including information on sexual behaviors in the past 6 months, HIV testing history, and dental/health care–seeking history were collected using an anonymous web-based survey. Willingness to receive any type of HIV testing in a dental care setting was assessed on 4-point scale from very willing to very unwilling. Factors independently associated with participants’ willingness were identified using a multivariable logistic regression model. RESULTS Of the 421 participants in our study aged 18 to 73 years, 271 (64.4%) reported having oral sex, 197 (46.8%) reported having vaginal sex, and 136 (32.3%) reported having anal sex in the past 6 months. Approximately one-third had never been tested for HIV (137/421, 32.5%), and the same proportion had not been tested in the past year (137/421, 32.5%). Most participants had dental insurance coverage (356/421, 84.6%), and more than three-fourths reported being very or somewhat willing (326/421, 77.4%) to receive any type of HIV testing in a dental care setting. Higher levels of willingness were associated with being 18 to 24 years versus ≥35 years (aOR 3.22, 95% CI 1.48-6.98), 25 to 34 years versus ≥35 years (aOR 5.26, 95% CI 2.52-10.98), believing that one’s dental care provider is knowledgeable about HIV (aOR 2.04, 95% CI 1.06-3.92), and feeling comfortable discussing HIV with one’s dental care provider (aOR 9.84, 95% CI 3.99-24.27). CONCLUSIONS Our data indicate high acceptability of receiving HIV testing in a dental care setting, especially among those who report having a positive patient-provider relationship. Future research should focus on assessing dental care providers’ attitudes, self-efficacy, and beliefs about whether HIV testing fits into the scope of dentistry.


Author(s):  
Ella Inglebret ◽  
Amy Skinder-Meredith ◽  
Shana Bailey ◽  
Carla Jones ◽  
Ashley France

The authors in this article first identify the extent to which research articles published in three American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) journals included participants, age birth to 18 years, from international backgrounds (i.e., residence outside of the United States), and go on to describe associated publication patterns over the past 12 years. These patterns then provide a context for examining variation in the conceptualization of ethnicity on an international scale. Further, the authors examine terminology and categories used by 11 countries where research participants resided. Each country uses a unique classification system. Thus, it can be expected that descriptions of the ethnic characteristics of international participants involved in research published in ASHA journal articles will widely vary.


Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Shannon Lange ◽  
Courtney Bagge ◽  
Charlotte Probst ◽  
Jürgen Rehm

Abstract. Background: In recent years, the rate of death by suicide has been increasing disproportionately among females and young adults in the United States. Presumably this trend has been mirrored by the proportion of individuals with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. Aim: We aimed to investigate whether the proportion of individuals in the United States with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide differed by age and/or sex, and whether this proportion has increased over time. Method: Individual-level data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2008–2017, were used to estimate the year-, age category-, and sex-specific proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. We then determined whether this proportion differed by age category, sex, and across years using random-effects meta-regression. Overall, age category- and sex-specific proportions across survey years were estimated using random-effects meta-analyses. Results: Although the proportion was found to be significantly higher among females and those aged 18–25 years, it had not significantly increased over the past 10 years. Limitations: Data were self-reported and restricted to past-year suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Conclusion: The increase in the death by suicide rate in the United States over the past 10 years was not mirrored by the proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide during this period.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Philip L. Martin

Japan and the United States, the world’s largest economies for most of the past half century, have very different immigration policies. Japan is the G7 economy most closed to immigrants, while the United States is the large economy most open to immigrants. Both Japan and the United States are debating how immigrants are and can con-tribute to the competitiveness of their economies in the 21st centuries. The papers in this special issue review the employment of and impacts of immigrants in some of the key sectors of the Japanese and US economies, including agriculture, health care, science and engineering, and construction and manufacturing. For example, in Japanese agriculture migrant trainees are a fixed cost to farmers during the three years they are in Japan, while US farmers who hire mostly unauthorized migrants hire and lay off workers as needed, making labour a variable cost.


Author(s):  
Pierre Rosanvallon

It's a commonplace occurrence that citizens in Western democracies are disaffected with their political leaders and traditional democratic institutions. But this book argues that this crisis of confidence is partly a crisis of understanding. The book makes the case that the sources of democratic legitimacy have shifted and multiplied over the past thirty years and that we need to comprehend and make better use of these new sources of legitimacy in order to strengthen our political self-belief and commitment to democracy. Drawing on examples from France and the United States, the book notes that there has been a major expansion of independent commissions, NGOs, regulatory authorities, and watchdogs in recent decades. At the same time, constitutional courts have become more willing and able to challenge legislatures. These institutional developments, which serve the democratic values of impartiality and reflexivity, have been accompanied by a new attentiveness to what the book calls the value of proximity, as governing structures have sought to find new spaces for minorities, the particular, and the local. To improve our democracies, we need to use these new sources of legitimacy more effectively and we need to incorporate them into our accounts of democratic government. This book is an original contribution to the vigorous international debate about democratic authority and legitimacy.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo

By identifying two general issues in recent history textbook controversies worldwide (oblivion and inclusion), this article examines understandings of the United States in Mexico's history textbooks (especially those of 1992) as a means to test the limits of historical imagining between U. S. and Mexican historiographies. Drawing lessons from recent European and Indian historiographical debates, the article argues that many of the historical clashes between the nationalist historiographies of Mexico and the United States could be taught as series of unsolved enigmas, ironies, and contradictions in the midst of a central enigma: the persistence of two nationalist historiographies incapable of contemplating their common ground. The article maintains that lo mexicano has been a constant part of the past and present of the US, and lo gringo an intrinsic component of Mexico's history. The di erences in their historical tracks have been made into monumental ontological oppositions, which are in fact two tracks—often overlapping—of the same and shared con ictual and complex experience.


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