Healthcare

Panel Adds Time Frame To Aid-In-Dying Bill

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By ANDREW OXFORD
A legislative committee decided Monday that medical professionals would have to determine a patient has no more than six months to live before prescribing drugs that would help the patient end his or her own life.
 
By tweaking the bill to give it a time frame, lawmakers who support the measure hope to add New Mexico to a short list of states that permit medical assistance in dying.
 
Critics had raised concerns about exactly which patients would qualify under House Bill 90. It was originally written to allow medical aid in dying for patients
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Legislation Expanding Access For Developmentally Disabled Passes First Committee

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NMDP News:
 
SANTA FE ― Wednesday, a bill sponsored by Rep. Elizabeth “Liz” Thomson (D-Albuquerque) and co-sponsored by Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-Albuquerque) passed the House Health and Human Services Committee.
 
House Bill 68 addresses the chronic problem of long waitlists for the developmental disabilities waiver services in New Mexico.
 
“This bill is so important for New Mexico families who have a family member with a developmental disability. It is unthinkable and unbelievable that families are waiting 13 years for services they desperately need and for which they
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Balderas Announces $120 Million Settlement With Johnson & Johnson Subsidiary Over Marketing Practices

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Attorney General Hector Balderas
 
AG News:
 
ALBUQUERQUE ― Attorney General Hector Balderas announced Tuesday that he and 45 other Attorneys General reached a $120 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson and DePuy to resolve allegations that DePuy unlawfully promoted its metal-on-metal hip implant devices, the ASR XL and the Pinnacle Ultamet.
 
Depuy claimed the devices were much more reliable than they actually were. Contrary to DePuy’s claims of reliability, these hip implants were found to fail at rates more than eight times higher than rates advertised.
 
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THD Procedure Reduces Pain And Recovery Time

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Dr. Salim Amrani

Los Alamos Surgical Associates News:

Dr. Salim Amrani, MD offers a non-excisional surgical technique for the treatment of internal hemorrhoids.

Transanal hemorrhoidal dearterialization (THD) is a minimally invasive surgery that does not require incisions or removal of the hemorrhoidal tissue. For most patients, the procedure is done on an outpatient basis and normal activities can be resumed two to three days post-operatively.

What Are Hemorrhoids?

Hemorrhoids are necessary, normal, vascular veins found in the anal canal. Hemorrhoids are fed by arteries and drained Read More

EMS Division Chief Ben Stone: Dangers Of Opioids

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By BEN STONE
EMS Division Chief
Los Alamos Fire Department

The rate at which Americans are dying from overdoses involving opioids is staggering. The U.S. Center for Disease Control has deemed the opioid crisis as a national epidemic.

Decades of over-prescription, along with wide-spread misconceptions about drug addiction, have led to an astounding rise in overdose deaths. The devastation is pervasive, leaving families of every type and communities of every size grieving and searching for answers in the wake.

  • From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose.
  • Around
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House Dist. 43 Rep. Christine Chandler Co-sponsors Transparency, Healthcare And Education Bills

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Dist. 43 Rep. Christine Chandler on the House floor at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. Courtesy photo

From the Office of Rep. Christine Chandler:

SANTA FE – House Dist. 43 Rep. Christine Chandler has co-sponsored several important bills this legislative session.

Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (SD-15) and Rep. Chandler’s bill (SB 11) closing the so-called lobbying “loophole” has successful passed out of committee and onto the Senate. The bill is similar to Sen. Ivey-Soto’s bill from the 2018 session that was vetoed by the former governor. 

According to the Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Read More

Department Of Health Reports Steady Improvements In Safer Prescribing

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NMDOH News:

The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) announced Jan. 14 the release of its latest state quarterly prescribing report that shows a 14.9 percent decrease of prescribing high dose opioids in the state.

The numbers come from the Board of Pharmacy’s Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) database, which is required for use by healthcare providers to check a patient’s prescription history before prescribing opioid and benzo-diazepines. Opioids are a class of prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, codeine and morphine, all of which can cause addiction.

The latest report Read More

LANL: Scientist Bette Korber To Discuss Her Work Developing HIV Vaccine In Frontiers In Science Lectures

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Bette Korber
 
LANL News:
 
Los Alamos National Laboratory Fellow Bette Korber will discuss her work designing a vaccine against HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) in three Frontiers in Science public lectures beginning Jan. 31 in Los Alamos.
 
“Our immune system precisely targets and eliminates pathogens when we get an infection, and our immune cells have a remarkable capacity to ‘remember’ such an encounter, acquiring protection that can last a lifetime,” said computational biologist Korber, who was named as the 2018 Scientist of the Year by R&D magazine. “Vaccines work
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Want To Be Healthier? YMCA Coaches Can Help!

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YMCA Health Coaches Tessa Dowell, left, and Emily Schmidt. Courtesy photo
 
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

It is simple to say that the key to better health is eating healthy food and exercising but actually achieving a healthier lifestyle is sometimes easier said than done.

The Los Alamos Family YMCA Health Coaches Emily Schmidt and Tessa Dowell are here to assist.

A Health Coach, according to Schmidt, is a wellness professional who works with clients one-on-one or in group settings to help them achieve their personal wellness goals including weight Read More