UHA, CAC to Hold 3 Public Meetings to Discuss Community Health Assessment

Here is an opportunity to find out more about our local Coordinated Care Organization (CCO), Umpqua Health Alliance (UHA).  This coming Wednesday evening (10/23/2013), at the Sutherlin Community Center, from 5:30 to 6:30 pm, UHA’s  Community Advisory Council (CAC)   will reveal the results from a community health assessment and let communities know what the local Coordinated Care Organization is doing.   

Below is a link to the Health Assessment, so you can read what a group of folks who met in secret decided were the health problems in our community.  

This may be a good time for folks to ask questions of this group of people who is supposed to be representing the community’s interest in the CCO. This Community Advisory Committee is required by law and is supposed to be set up in a particular way and be the public’s vehicle to be part of the CCO process, yet UHA will not even tell us who is on it or when or where they meet.   These meetings should at least reveal who they are, or who at least some of them are.  Set out below is the Oregon law section that deals with the requirements of Community Advisory Councils (CAC).  Based on information provided to us, UHA may be violating the law regarding the make-up of the CAC.  

These meetings may be a good time to hold UHA representatives, including the CAC members there, accountable for failing to reveal the members of the CAC to the public, failing to hold all CAC meetings in public, allow public comment at meetings, and provide minutes of the meetings and related documents to the public.    

The meetings will also provide a forum for input about what you want UHA to spend our tax dollars on locally to promote healthy lifestyles, better health care services and improved medical outcomes.   

UHA’s Community Advisory Council (CAC) will also be holding meetings in Riddle, October 29^th from 1:00 to 2:00 pm at Riddle Community Center, and in Roseburg from 5:30 to 6:30 pm, Ford Rm, DC Library on on the 4^th of November.  

 

 

 UHA Community Health Assessment

Sorry, the DOCTOR is no longer taking new patients!

Even though this article was posted on the web in May, 2013, I think it is useful now -- long after the 76th Oregon Legislative Assembly has closed up shop and the reps gone home.

Meet Maggie: Walking Medical Time Bomb



And if you haven't seen the documentary called "The Healthcare Movie" I urge you to see it as soon as possible.

Produced by Canadian/American couple Laurie Simons and Terry Sterrenberg, this documentary reveals the public relations campaigns that have been prevalent in the United States since the early 1900's to dissuade the American public from supporting national health care.  It also shows the personal and emotional impact on Canadians who now have access to health care because of the heroism of people who took a stand to bring universal health care to Canada over 50 years ago.

The film reveals the real story of how the health care systems in Canada and the United States evolved to be so completely different, when at one point they were essentially the same. Most people under the age of 50, in both countries, are not aware of the intensity of the political struggle that led to the universal medical care system in Canada. Nor are they aware of the public relations campaigns, still active today, that have been prevalent in the United States since the early 1900’s to dissuade the public from supporting national health care.  Every day people are dying or going bankrupt due to the ills of the United States system. Who are we in the face of this human tragedy? If you agree that people are more important than profits, then you must watch this film.

Best 90-second Speech of the 76th Oregon Legislative Assembly

If cannabis contributes to (this) mood elevation, should patients be deprived of it?

Dr Lester Grinspoon is Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For 40 years, he acted as Senior Psychiatrist at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and supports the use of marijuana for a variety of ailments.

If you want to learn more about treating chronic pain with cannabis, visit this website:

Patients Out Of Time

If you want to learn more about the medical uses of marijuana, here are some sources:

Abrams, D. I., Jay, C. A., Shade, S. B., Vizoso, H., Reda, H., Press, S., et al. (2007). Cannabis in painful HIV-associated sensory neuropathy: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Neurology, 68(7), 515-521.

Ellis, R. J., Toperoff, W., Vaida, F., van den Brande, G., Gonzales, J., Gouaux, B., et al. (2008). Smoked medicinal cannabis for neuropathic pain in HIV: a randomized, crossover clinical trial. Neuropsychopharmacology, 34(3), 672-680.

Russo, E. B. (2008). Cannabinoids in the management of difficult to treat pain. Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management, 4(1), 245-259.

Russo, E. B., Guy, G. W., & Robson, P. J. (2007). Cannabis, Pain, and Sleep: Lessons from Therapeutic Clinical Trials of Sativex((R)), a Cannabis-Based Medicine. Chem Biodivers, 4(8), 1729-1743.

Wallace, M., Schulteis, G., Atkinson, J. H., Wolfson, T., Lazzaretto, D., Bentley, H., et al. (2007). Dose-dependent effects of smoked cannabis on capsaicin-induced pain and hyperalgesia in healthy volunteers. Anesthesiology, 107(5), 785-796.

Additional Research

Karsak, M., Gaffal, E., Date, R., Wang-Eckhardt, L., Rehnelt, J., Petrosino, S., et al. (2007). Attenuation of allergic contact dermatitis through the endocannabinoid system. Science, 316(5830), 1494-1497.

Lynch, M. E., & Clark, A. J. (2003). Cannabis reduces opioid dose in the treatment of chronic non-cancer pain. J Pain Symptom Manage, 25(6), 496-498.

Lynch, M. E., Young, J., & Clark, A. J. (2006). A case series of patients using medicinal marihuana for management of chronic pain under the Canadian Marihuana Medical Access Regulations. J Pain Symptom Manage, 32(5), 497-501.

Neff, G. W., O’Brien, C. B., Reddy, K. R., Bergasa, N. V., Regev, A., Molina, E., et al. (2002). Preliminary observation with dronabinol in patients with intractable pruritus secondary to cholestatic liver disease. Am J Gastroenterol, 97(8), 2117-2119.

Notcutt, W., Price, M., Miller, R., Newport, S., Phillips, C., Simmonds, S., et al. (2004). Initial experiences with medicinal extracts of cannabis for chronic pain: results from 34 “N of 1″ studies. Anaesthesia, 59, 440-452.

Notcutt, W. G., Sharief, M., Mutiboko, I., Hawkes, C., Bolt, J., & Sarantis, N. (2006). Cannabis based medicine (Sativex) for chronic pain due to multiple sclerosis or other neurological dysfunction: a randomised controlled trial. European Journal of Pain, (in press).

Nurmikko, T. J., Serpell, M. G., Hoggart, B., Toomey, P. J., & Morlion, B. J. (2005). A multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of oro-mucosal cannabis-based medicine in the treatment of neuropathic pain characterized by allodynia. Neurology, 64(6, Suppl. 1), A374.

Pertwee, R. G. (2001a). Cannabinoid receptors and pain. Prog Neurobiol, 63(5), 569-611.

Rog, D. J., Nurmiko, T., Friede, T., & Young, C. (2005). Randomized controlled trial of cannabis based medicine in central neuropathic pain due to multiple sclerosis. Neurology, 65(6), 812-819.

Russo, E. B. (2004). Clinical endocannabinoid deficiency (CECD): Can this concept explain therapeutic benefits of cannabis in migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and other treatment-resistant conditions? Neuroendocrinol Lett, 25(1-2), 31-39.

Russo, E. B. (2006). The role of cannabis and cannabinoids in pain management. In B. E. Cole & M. Boswell (Eds.), Weiner’s Pain Management: A Practical Guide for Clinicians.(7th ed., pp. 823-844). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Wilsey, B., Marcotte, T., Tsodikov, A., Millman, J., Bentley, H., Gouaux, B., et al. (2008). A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Trial of Cannabis Cigarettes in Neuropathic Pain. J Pain, 9(6):506-21.

source of information

DCIPA, UHA Need to Follow A Well Known Doctor's Lead!

Yesterday, well know doctor, Sanjay Gupta had the courage to admit he had been duped by the DEA and its war on marijuana.  After listening to the science, the good doctor realized that we have been lied to because the Schedule I designation of marijuana is not based on science.  

Our local doctors need to listen to what Dr. Gupta has to say.  It does not take a brain surgeon to understand the medical benefits of THC.  It is true that not all medical practices need to know the science behind the effective use of this medication, but we should be able to expect our local community doctors to refrain from making uninformed medical opinions and using them to drive local medical practices, like the current situation in Douglas County.

Doctors in our community need to start living up to patient expectations that their medical opinions are based on science and what is in the best interest of each patient, which includes taking into consideration patient choice.  The issue of medical marijuana is a start.  Many of the doctors in our community may have been misguided like Dr. Gupta.  If so, it seems to be good time to follow the TV doctor's lead.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57597645/sanjay-gupta-backs-medical-marijuana-apologizes-for-previous-views/


http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/09/health/gupta-weed-reaction/index.html

Are FQHC Boards Truly Representative of the Consumer Population?

According to a recent report in the Journal of Health Politics and Law, "Despite the requirement that a majority of board members must be consumers, the results of this study suggest that descriptive representation is lacking on most FQHC governing boards. While nearly two-thirds of board members are consumers, only about one-fourth are representative of typical FQHC patients. What is more, the method used to categorize consumer board members is likely to have overestimated the degree of descriptive representation. It is reasonable to assume that the true proportion of representative consumer board members may be closer to one in five. By contrast, the majority of consumer board members are not representative. While the board members in this group do report being FQHC patients, they also belong to a high-status group that includes physicians, lawyers, and other professionals."*

In order to determine how representative our local FQHC, Umpqua Community Health Center board of directors is, two OPRA folks requested information about who the current UCHC board members are.   Unfortunately UCHC has not been forthcoming, inspite of the fact that federal law requires that they provide certain information, which includes names of the individuals on their board, to  the public.  It makes one wonder if UCHC is one of those FQHC discussed in the report that fails to fulfill the intent of the mandatory requirement of majority representation by their consumers. 

So is the Umpqua Community Health Center (UCHC) board truly representative of the consumers UCHC serves?  Are policies being made that represent these patients' interests?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Excerpted from: Brad Wright, Who Governs Federally Qualified Health Centers?, 38 Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law 27 (February, 2013)

Corporatization of Medicine

Sound familiar?