Louie, cousin Debra's pup

Meet Louie, he is a very friendly little guy once
he warms up to you. He thinks he is a "Big Bad Dog"
and has to act like one when he first meets you.

Afterward, he is a mush, who loves attention.

We were lucky to spend Easter at his house once again.

Best Buy Drugs Digital Health Finds

Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs is now on Twitter and Facebook. PLEASE follow, like, and share! 


INFOGRAPHIC: How are hospitals using social media? [Mediabistro]
One survey has found that 90 percent of hospitals in the Ohio area of the U.S. are using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. And they’re investing in these channels, too. Almost half (49 percent) are devoting more staff and time to social media, and more than one-third (36 percent) are spending more money on these tools. Community relationships, sharing news and building reputation are the top priorities for hospitals on social media, and 80 percent have initiated social media campaigns to raise general health awareness.

Balance app: Alzheimer’s care goes digital [Science 2.0]
He says the goal was simple enough, he wanted to create a way to help multiple caregivers communicate and coordinate with each other in real-time and also include family in the information chain. And it certainly does; the entire process can quickly be integrated with everyone in the Alzheimer's patient network. Since debuting a few weeks ago, they say it has been downloaded all over the world, showing that Alzheimer's care solutions are a global need.

Is the era of patient centered care decidedly anti-physician? [KevinMD]
We’ve entered into the era of patient-centered care—an era that champions patient safety, provider communication, avoidance of “medical mistakes.” But this era is also decidedly anti-physician and assumes that we as providers are somehow purposefully unsafe. Look no further than Obamacare’s soon to be established registry of medical mistakes, which asks patients the loaded question: Did a medical mistake happen because a doctor, nurse or other health care provider did not communicate well with the patient or the patient’s family?

Social media use isn’t healthy enough, study finds [Wall Street Journal]
That’s the finding of a new paper based on telephone surveys of 1,745 adults who go online for health information. Nearly a third of those used social networking sites for health-related information, but only 15% posted a comment, question or information to a social networking site (a category that, in the study, included blogs and online discussion forums).

INFOGRAPHIC: Patients are self-diagnosing online [InsuranceQuotes.org]
A few highlights:

59% of internet users say they’ve looked up health information online in the past year

A full 38% decided they could take care of the problem on their own, without consulting a doctor after researching on the Internet.

18% of those who did go to the doctor were told their self-diagnosis was incorrect. This means some of those who didn’t visit a doctor were also probably incorrect.

Women are more likely than men to go online to figure out a possible diagnosis.

Online diagnosers are going mobile, too. 1 in 3 cell phone owners have used their cell phone to look up health information.

Doctors prescribing phone apps to manage health problems [The Columbus Dispatch]
Doctors are beginning to prescribe smart-phone applications and medical devices they work with to help patients manage chronic illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes and asthma. Simple apps that help people with their fitness or remind them to take their pill prescriptions already are widely popular. But new device applications are taking mobile health — or mHealth as practitioners are calling it — to a new level.

WebMD introduces allergy app [Smart Phone Healthcare]
The app features:

Allergy Forecast: Allergy levels specific for your location that are regularly updated. You can also look up the “allergy forecast” for places you are visiting.

Personalized Forecasts and Tips: After indicating which allergies you and/or your family suffer from, the app will give you tips on how to manage those allergies.

Allergies 101: This includes WebMD’s library of allergy related resources — articles, photos, and videos. It focuses on seven categories: Outdoor, indoor, skin, drug, food, insect bites and stinks, and latex.

Timely Alerts: This helps you plan your days, and know if certain triggers will be worse, according to the allergy forecast.

The tweet of the week:

@MOMeo: Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently - Henry Ford

START II Animal Shelter Fundraiser in Rockleigh, NJ

Please help out the animals and have some fun while doing so.

Prescription Drug Savings

Shopping Around Brings Steep Prescription Drug Savings, Report Finds


THURSDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) — Prescription drug prices at U.S. pharmacies can vary widely, and failing to shop around could result in people overpaying by as much as $100 or more a month on average, depending on the drug, a new study finds.

Researchers at Consumer Reports called more than 200 pharmacies across the United States to get retail prices (out-of-pocket costs) for a one-month supply of five popular medicines that have recently gone generic.

The medicines were: the diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone); the antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram); the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (atorvastatin); the blood thinner Plavix (clopidogrel); and the asthma drug Singulair (montelukast).

For a one-month supply of these drugs, there was a $749 difference between the highest- and lowest-priced stores — a more than four-fold difference, according to the study in the May issue of Consumer Reports magazine.

Overall, Costco outlets had the lowest retail prices and CVS had the highest, the report found. Among the specific findings:

A month’s supply of generic Lipitor cost $17 at Costco, compared with $150 at CVS. Prices at Rite Aid and Target were also high.

A month’s supply of generic Lexapro cost $7 at Costco and $126 at CVS. On average, Rite Aid, Walgreens and grocery store pharmacies also charged higher prices.

A month’s supply of generic Plavix cost $12 at HealthWarehouse.com and $15 at Costco, compared with $180 at CVS.

Different business approaches are one reason for the wide price variations, according to Lisa Gill, prescription drugs editor at Consumer Reports.

“It really comes down to a store’s business model. For example, big box stores tend to use their pharmacies as a way to get consumers through the door with the expectation that they’ll buy other things,” she explained in a Consumer Reports news release.

If you want to get the best deals, shop around and always request the lowest price, Gill advised.

“A consumer can’t assume that the price of their prescription medications is set in stone,” she said. “One of the big takeaways is that you have to ask for the best price and see if your pharmacist will work with you. Especially for the independent pharmacies, if they want to retain your business and loyalty, they will help you get the best price,” she said.

Other ways to save money include:

Using generic drugs, which contain the same active ingredients as brand name drugs.

Getting refills for 90 days, not 30 days. Most pharmacies offer price reductions on a three-month supply of a medicine.

Look for other discounts. All chain and big-box pharmacies offer discount generic drug programs, with some selling hundreds of generic drugs for $4 a month or $10 for a three-month supply.

Try shopping in rural areas. The study found that some grocery store pharmacies and independent drug stores had higher prices in cities than in rural locations. For example, a 30-day supply of generic Actos cost $203 at a pharmacy in Raleigh, N.C., compared with $37 at a pharmacy in a rural area of the state.