New York City-based Paradigm Spine launched its coflex Solution website, a patient-centered site with information on lumbar spinal stenosis and both surgical and non-surgical treatment options.

At least eight hospitals in the Boston area treated more than 140 victims of the Boston Marathon explosions yesterday, which have left three people dead and many more critically injured.   

A survey by the American Pain Foundation shows that 17 percent of adults with chronic pain face difficulties reaching their primary pain providers when trying to reach out with questions or concerns, according to an APF news release.

Physicians, healthcare professionals and medical students should be wary of social media blurring the line between their professional and personal lives, according to a recent British Medical Association report.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has proposed a bill that would require physicians and pharmacists to use an electronic database of a patient's prescription history when writing and filling a prescription for certain narcotics, according to a Times Union report.

Physicians and pharmacists would use the database, called the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing and which has up-to-the-minute information on pertinent patient information and prescription details, before dispensing narcotics such as hydrocodone, oxycodone and Xanax, the report said.

Physicians or pharmacists who fail to report information to the database, fail to review patient data before prescribing or disclose and dispense private patient information to a third party may be fined.

The report said the proposed bill aims to stop drug seekers and curb prescription drug trafficking.

Read the Times Union report on I-STOP.

Related Articles on E-Prescribing:
Study: Omitted Information Most Common Error in E-Prescribing Systems
Healthcare Providers That Don't E-Prescribe May See 1% Medicare Payment Reduction
CMS Issues Proposed Changes to E-Prescribing Incentive Program

Omitted information was the most common error within computerized prescribing systems, according to a study in the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association.

People actively engaged in social media and patient-specific websites are 60 percent more likely than the general population to participate in a clinical trial, according to a recent survey.

As part of healthcare reform's initiative to lower the cost of healthcare, the Independent Payment Advisory Board and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute were formed to make decisions about the procedures Medicare will cover. IPAB will develop proposals guiding Medicare as to which treatment methods are necessary and acceptable for coverage while PCORI is charged with conducing evidence-based research for patients and physicians to enhance treatment pathways. Both IPAB and PCORI are led by a small number of people consisting of select medical and non-medical professionals.

According to a report by ABC News, Florida authorities report that 34 pain patients treated just in 2011 by Joseph Hernandez, MD, are dead and they are considering pressing charges against him for those deaths.

The trial for Dewey C. MacKay, MD, an orthopedic surgeon who is accused of prescribing 3.5 million painkillers over a four year period, is set to begin soon, according to a Cache Valley Daily report.