Once again, this legislative session, advanced practice registered nurses (nurse practitioners) will continue their quest to gain “full practice authority,” commonly referred to as “independent practice.” Currently, Indiana law requires…
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This column neither supports or opposes abortion rights. It focuses solely on the adverse unintended consequences of restrictive state abortion laws and their exceptions affecting obstetrical practice. Most laws have…
We’re in the Medicare open enrollment season. I strongly advise patients signing up for Medicare to avoid Part C Medicare Advantage programs (MAPs). Rather, I recommend “traditional” Medicare with a…
My column last month discussed one of the “endgame” approaches to finally end tobacco smoking. This approach is the “birthdate-based phaseout” of tobacco use whereby people born after a certain…
For decades, public health officials and anti-tobacco activists have talked about the “endgame” in tobacco control. It refers to laws and policies that would virtually end tobacco use. Great strides…
Vaccine misinformation and politicization abound in America. Social media and internet sites are packed with both from vaccine critics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other…
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed over 1.2 million Americans and over 7 million worldwide. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic killed an estimated 675,000 Americans and 40 to 60 million globally….
For many years much of the medical and public health communities have anxiously awaited the long-overdue federal Controlled Substances Act reclassification of marijuana to characterize it more accurately. In 2022,…
There’s an expression, “You may be done with COVID, but COVID isn’t done with you.” It’s true. COVID-19 is still very much with us even though we would like to…
Being an election year and with primary elections looming, the clear intention of the 2024 Indiana General Assembly leadership was for a short session avoiding controversial issues. Indeed, the session…