New federalproposals are hoping to tear down barriers among hospitals, doctors, insurers, health IT companies and patients that prevent the free, secure exchange of patient records and data.
Why it matters: It's 2019. And yet patients still can't easily obtain all of their medical information, and doctors still can't always receive or share important patient data with other clinicians.
Public health officials on Monday said there's a growing epidemic of tobacco products currently used by children — 4.9 million high school and middle school kids used tobacco products in 2018 up from 3.6 million in 2017 — mainly due to a growth in e-cigarette usage.
What's new: For the fifth year in a row, e-cigs were the most popular product amongst high school students, but in 2018 it reached unprecedented epidemic levels, with the addition of another 1.5 million kids, said Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The debate around prescription drug prices — including the Trump administration's proposal tying some Medicare drug prices to what other countries pay — raises an important question: How do other countries decide what to pay for drugs?
Why it matters: A recent World Health Organization report on cancer drugs, which found that cancer drugs' high cost is largely unjustified by development costs, detailed a handful of methods other countries use.
