Archive for February, 2011

Patient Advocates Warn Against Penalties in Wellness Programs

February 24, 2011 — A wide range of patient and consumer advocates came together to urge the secretaries of HHS, Labor, and the Treasury to protect patients against discrimination in employer wellness programs.  Health reform legislation allows employers to offer incentives in wellness programs that could range up to 50% of the cost of health care coverage. Ted Kyle, […]

Making Progress to Deploy an Obesity Outcomes Registry

February 15, 2011 — Richard Atkinson, MD, and Ted Kyle, RPh, served on an expert panel meeting in Alexandria, VA, helping to deploy a registry of outcome databases for obesity and other chronic diseases. This meeting is part of the Registry of Patient Registries (RoPR) project, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).  The goal is […]

FDA Reverses Expert Advisors’ Decision, Rejects New Obesity Treatment

February 1, 2011 — Despite a favorable vote by an FDA advisory panel in December, Orexigen Therapeutics announced that FDA rejected their application for a new obesity treatment called Contrave (naltrexone/buproprion). Obesity Society President Jennifer Lovejoy, PhD, expressed disappointment. “In the face of such a devastating, widespread and expensive public health crisis as obesity, it is baffling that the […]