You probably have heard about Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, taking a medical leave of absence so that he can focus on his health. Here is the press release. Previously, he has battled pancreatic cancer and undergone a liver transplant.
Original post from Monday, January 24, 2011 is found below:
I wish Steve Jobs all the best and a quick and complete recovery and respect his right to privacy.
I hope Apple champions an intra-company live donor organ donation program whether Steve Jobs is currently in need of a transplant or not because this can bring a revolution to the world or organ transplantation. Corporations like Apple pay towards their employees health insurance costs so they have an economic incentive to keep their employees as healthy as possible. Also, the good-will created by saving and improving the quality of life of their employees is priceless. And it may just contribute towards saving the life of their CEO, Steve Jobs.
I think that an astute Medical Coordinator or Benifits Manager at Apple may want to sieze on the oppurtunity created by the Steve Jobs health situation and implement a corporate initiative to encourage live donor donations from healthy Apple employees to other Apple employees in need of transplants (FYI - therefore, this would work for kidney donations, bone marrow donations, and partial liver donations, depending on transplant center policy.)
Three previous blog posts linked to here, here, and here discuss various statutory laws that decrease the ability to increase the quantity of organs availible for transplantion along with a few of my ideas to improve the situtation including intra-company live donor donation programs.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Do You Really Want Government In Charge of Healthcare?
An article by the AP linked to here regarding Arizona reducing its Medicaid coverage and the probable death of a second person as a result of it is mind-boggling and anger inducing for many reasons.
The travesty of this extends to the hospital system in Arizona - do they not have charity care? And what are the procedures at the organ distribution organization in Arizona - do they deny organs to people without insurance because of insurance status because they are worried about organ rejection if the patient cannot afford the expensive anti-rejection medicine?
And if what I surmised above is correct, what about the docs/hospital execs that have connections to pharmaceutical companies through reps - could no deal be quickly put together to have one of the pharmaceutical companies provide charity medication to this person?
And no family, good Samaritans, or friends to pitch in?
This makes me sick!
I'm in a hurry so I have to continue later, but I sense that the government through the Medicaid program is creating economic phenomenon of crowding out the market for charity medical care not only in Arizona, but throughout the country.
Hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, etc. are used to at least being able to collect some level of reimbursement from Medicaid so why bother to give anyone free care - even if the patient will end up dead as a result of this inaction!
The travesty of this extends to the hospital system in Arizona - do they not have charity care? And what are the procedures at the organ distribution organization in Arizona - do they deny organs to people without insurance because of insurance status because they are worried about organ rejection if the patient cannot afford the expensive anti-rejection medicine?
And if what I surmised above is correct, what about the docs/hospital execs that have connections to pharmaceutical companies through reps - could no deal be quickly put together to have one of the pharmaceutical companies provide charity medication to this person?
And no family, good Samaritans, or friends to pitch in?
This makes me sick!
I'm in a hurry so I have to continue later, but I sense that the government through the Medicaid program is creating economic phenomenon of crowding out the market for charity medical care not only in Arizona, but throughout the country.
Hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, etc. are used to at least being able to collect some level of reimbursement from Medicaid so why bother to give anyone free care - even if the patient will end up dead as a result of this inaction!
Monday, January 3, 2011
First Successful Organ (Kidney) Transplant Donor Dies 56 Years Later; Brother Survived for 8 Years
The following press release was taken in its entirety from a box that popped up when I went on the American Society of Nephrology's website today. Basically, a brother donated his kidney to his brother and the brother who received the kidney lived for 8 more years, an unbelievable success for the world's first recorded successful organ transplant. This reminds us that the courageous people who challenge the status quo and don't accept so-called medical realities and, as a result, improve medicine and human progress for all mankind.
Although, I have a feeling Mr. Ronald Lee Herrick might have said he was just doing what any other brother would do to keep alive his sibling or family member - just about anything he could do.
Death of Mr. Ronald Lee Herrick, Pioneer Transplant Donor
Ronald Lee Herrick died Monday, December 27, 2010, at age 79, in Augusta, Maine.
Mr. Herrick, a math teacher for almost four decades, donated his kidney to his twin brother, Richard, on December 23, 1954, in what is recognized as the world's first successful organ transplant. Ronald's courageous act helped change the face of medicine by advancing development of the field of organ transplantation. This revolutionary surgery took place 56 years ago at what is now the Brigham and Women's Hospital and was performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray. Dr. John Merrill, one of the founders of the discipline of Nephrology and chief of the Renal Division at the Brigham, was a member of the team caring for transplant recipients including Mr. Herrick.
Receiving a kidney from his brother allowed Richard to live an additional eight years. The American Society of Nephrology gratefully acknowledges Mr. Herrick's major contribution to medicine.
Joseph V. Bonventre, MD, PhD, FASN
President, American Society of Nephrology
Although, I have a feeling Mr. Ronald Lee Herrick might have said he was just doing what any other brother would do to keep alive his sibling or family member - just about anything he could do.
Death of Mr. Ronald Lee Herrick, Pioneer Transplant Donor
Ronald Lee Herrick died Monday, December 27, 2010, at age 79, in Augusta, Maine.
Mr. Herrick, a math teacher for almost four decades, donated his kidney to his twin brother, Richard, on December 23, 1954, in what is recognized as the world's first successful organ transplant. Ronald's courageous act helped change the face of medicine by advancing development of the field of organ transplantation. This revolutionary surgery took place 56 years ago at what is now the Brigham and Women's Hospital and was performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray. Dr. John Merrill, one of the founders of the discipline of Nephrology and chief of the Renal Division at the Brigham, was a member of the team caring for transplant recipients including Mr. Herrick.
Receiving a kidney from his brother allowed Richard to live an additional eight years. The American Society of Nephrology gratefully acknowledges Mr. Herrick's major contribution to medicine.
Joseph V. Bonventre, MD, PhD, FASN
President, American Society of Nephrology
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