Education
California Measure Aims To Limit Drugmakers’ Influence On Doctors
By Pauline Bartolone, Kaiser Health News
State Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who authored the bill, said that when drugmakers woo physicians with meals and other enticements they generate brand loyalty, which can raise health care costs and even compromise patient safety.
McGuire’s bill would limit drug company payments to health care providers — including cash and gifts of food, travel or entertainment — mostly to educational and scientific purposes, such as seminars.
“Financial incentives change minds,” said McGuire, who cited a news media report showing that doctors who accepted money or meals from the pharmaceutical industry were two to three times more likely to prescribe high-priced brand-name drugs than those who did not accept such benefits.
Brand-name drugs tend to be pricier than generic drugs, even though research shows they are not necessarily more effective.
The proposed measure would allow pharmaceutical companies to continue paying health care professionals for their work on clinical trials and other scientific research. And the industry could continue to sponsor educational events, as long as they were not for the purpose of promoting specific products.
Doctors would still be allowed to accept free drug samples and take up to $250-a-year’s worth of food paid for by companies. But drugmakers could be slapped with a $10,000 state fine if they pay a physician, or cover the cost of a flight, hotel room or entertainment for purely promotional purpose.
Doctors can receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from drug companies, according to a ProPublica investigation. One New Hampshire nephrologist received more than a half-million dollars in speaking and consulting fees, and a Brooklyn-based psychiatrist prescribed much higher rates of brand-name drugs while receiving $53,400 from drug companies, according to ProPublica.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry’s primary trade association, opposes McGuire’s measure, arguing that the legislation could compromise communication with companies that helps doctors stay up to date on medication safety and effectiveness.
Information provided by drugmakers “may inform a physician’s prescribing decisions as they weigh the best options for their patients,” said Holly Campbell, a PhRMA senior director for public affairs, in an emailed statement. “Collaboration between biopharmaceutical companies and physicians not only helps advance patient care, but is essential in the development of new treatments and diagnostics.”
Advocacy groups, including Consumers Union and Health Access, support the bill, saying it could lower drug costs by reducing incentives for doctors to prescribe higher-cost brand-name drugs when cheaper generic drugs are available.
A 2016 survey of more than 107,000 health care consumers showed that about $73 billion from 2010 to 2012 was spent unnecessarily on brand-name drugs in cases where generic medications were available.
The advocates also say cutting pharmaceutical industry ties with doctors will make patients safer because providers will be more likely to prescribe based on medical evidence.
A new study published in JAMA found that doctors at academic medical centers that have restricted financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry prescribed fewer medications promoted by drug companies.
Several states and the District of Columbia already restrict pharmaceutical gifts to health care providers, according to Sen. McGuire and medical education researchers.
California health care providers received more money from pharmaceutical companies in 2014-15 — about $1.4 billion — than their counterparts in any other state, according to ProPublica. But some health providers in California already ban company payments and gifts to their staff.
Kaiser Permanente, which covers more than 8 million Californians, does not allow employees involved in drug-buying decisions to accept gifts from the industry, and some physicians are restricted from accepting anything of value from the industry. (Kaiser Health News, which produces California Healthline, is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.)
The hospitals and clinics of the University of California-San Francisco does not allow faculty, staff or students to receive gifts from the industry.
“UCSF wishes to minimize such conflicts and to ensure to the best of its ability that all decisions regarding clinical care, research activities and educational content are unbiased and independent of outside influence,” according to its written policy.
Activism
Lend A Hand Foundation Celebrates 25th Anniversary
Lend A Hand Foundation Celebrates 25th Anniversary at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland. On stage: KTVU Fox 2 Broadcasters Roberta Gonzales and Dave ClarkDance-A-Vision Founder, Carla Service, Vice Mayor Kimberly Mayfield-Lynch, California State Assemblymember Mia Bonta and Lend A Hand Foundation Executive Director Dee Johnson with the Dance-A-Vision Dancers. Photo By Carla Thomas
By Carla Thomas
The Lend A Hand Foundation (LAHF) celebrated the 25th anniversary of the organization’s Stay In School Program on May 9 at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland.
Themed “Together We Can Empower Our Youth to Stay in School,” the event featured a pre-event reception featuring Oakland’s Kev Choice Ensemble.
The ensemble featured Oakland School for the Arts student, Ayo Brame, a 16-year-old, up-and-coming tenor saxophone jazz musician. The master and mistress of ceremonies were local broadcasters Dave Clark and Roberta Gonzales of KTVU Fox 2. Clark’s wife, Lucretia also supported the program.
A special appearance featured Dwayne Wiggins of Tony! Toni! Toné! on guitar, performing the group’s hit song “Anniversary” as guests dined on salmon, chicken, beef and vegetarian entrees prepared by the Food Network “Chopped” Champion, Chef Rashad Armstead of Oakland. California State Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) provided the keynote address and the Carla Service Dance-A-Vision youth dancers energetically performed a hip hop routine throughout the audience in white leotards as attendees clapped along. An auction led by Auctioneer Franco Finn assisted in raising funds for the organization with prizes that included a luxury resort vacation and other items.
LAHF presented District 5 Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and District 4 Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley with Lifetime Supporter Awards. LAHF presented the Trailblazer Award to Guy Richardson of Ernst and Young; Dante Green of Kaiser Permanente; Antioch Attorney Gordon Greenwood of the Kazan McClain Partner’s Foundation; and Sarah Yoell of PG&E.
Oakland Unified School District Superintendent, Dr. Kyla Trammel Johnson acknowledged LAHF’s impact.
“Each year, LAHF gives backpacks and school supplies to thousands of students across Oakland,” said Johnson. “In 2022 the effort topped 25,000 students. No matter the need, big or small, involving lots of students or just one, Lend A Hand is always there ready to make a difference in the lives of our young people.”
Founder and executive director of LAHF Dee Johnson took the stage as the DJ played the Sledge Sisters’ “We Are Family.”
Guests gave Johnson a standing ovation as she thanked supporters and presented many of them with gifts.
“It’s heartbreaking to know some children don’t have clothes or supplies for school,” said Johnson. “The babies really need our support and when we deliver supplies to them, it makes them really happy.”
Since the LAHF Annual Stay in School Program began in 1999, it has provided over 150,000 educational school supply kits to students throughout Alameda County, including Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, and San Leandro, among other cities.
“This past August, we provided for over 12,000 students with supplies, with the help and support of our very generous donors,” said Johnson. “This year, we aim to do all we can to match that amount or provide even more.”
For more information visit: www.LendaHandFoundation.org
Community
Dasia Taylor: A Girl’s Powerful Success Story Is Inspiring the Next Wave of STEAM Leaders
Dasia Taylor’s journey began as a young girl in high school in her AP chemistry class. Her teacher at Iowa City’s West High School had just asked which students wanted to try out for the school’s science fair team. Taylor volunteered. At the time, Taylor was a high-school junior focusing on the humanities. She was already overcommitted as a member of the student senate, her district’s diversity and equity committee, and an array of other “anti-racism initiatives.” Her family had no history of participating in science fairs – and no desire to attend one, as she wasn’t really into science. However, Taylor says her life and decisions are guided by a simple rule: “Be curious.”
By Tamara Shiloh
Dasia Taylor’s journey began as a young girl in high school in her AP chemistry class. Her teacher at Iowa City’s West High School had just asked which students wanted to try out for the school’s science fair team. Taylor volunteered.
At the time, Taylor was a high-school junior focusing on the humanities.
She was already overcommitted as a member of the student senate, her district’s diversity and equity committee, and an array of other “anti-racism initiatives.” Her family had no history of participating in science fairs – and no desire to attend one, as she wasn’t really into science. However, Taylor says her life and decisions are guided by a simple rule: “Be curious.”
With cash prizes in the four-digit range and competitors polishing concepts and techniques since grade-school, today’s science fair projects are much more advanced than the simple papier-mâché volcanoes we used to see.
Taylor says her chances of entering the science far, let alone winning, were slim to none.
However, she won her next competition, then the one after that. Finally, she ended up in the last stage of the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Super Bowl of high school science competitions. And the publicity resulting from her unlikely story and potentially world-changing proposal made Taylor a viral sensation, putting the bubbly 17-year-old on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’, ‘PBS NewsHour’, CNN, and many other shows.
In fact, equity work was the inspiration for Taylor’s science ideas. Her medical suture, which colors beet juice to reveal an infected surgical wound, is based on research that shows that Black individuals are particularly vulnerable to post-surgical complications such as infection – and that what appears on some patients’ skin as simple signs of infection, like a red patch and swelling, doesn’t show up on darker skin.
Taylor’s suture concept, which she is trying to patent, could provide a simple low-cost fix in poor countries where infections that can easily be treated are often fatal.
Two years after her forum-moments virilization, at 19, Taylor is a college student, but also the founder and CEO of VariegateHealth, creating inclusive medical devices; and the owner of her own “head nerd brand.”
“My life’s work is helping kids embrace their inner nerd and just be their authentic selves,” Taylor says.
Through “hands-on innovation workshops,” she inspires teenagers to make science bolder. By bolder, Taylor says she means more exciting and socially meaningful.
By the time the debate wrapped up, Taylor had been chosen for the 2023 Iowa’s Woman of the Year prize by USA Today, which annually showcases creative leaders with “stories that influence their communities.”
She was featured in the collection “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women,” which is part of the Rebel Girls series.
Through her innovative work and advocacy for STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) programs, Taylor is proving that it’s possible for students to be curious about the issues that affect their lives, engage in learning experiences not just in the classroom but beyond, and change the world.
With this constant motivation and her focus on improving the lives of others, she has become a public speaker, and a role model for the millennial generation worldwide.
Taylor says she has a penchant for the color yellow, music and creating any rule she wants.
California Black Media
California Approves $1.3 Billion to Restructure Community Schools
The State Board of Education and Governor Gavin Newsom announced last week that they have approved $1.3 billion in grants to implement a new school initiative that offers students support outside the classroom. According to a press release dated May 8, State education officials have appropriated funds since 2021 to offer students and their families resources such as health care, mental health support, and social services.
By California Black Media
The State Board of Education and Governor Gavin Newsom announced last week that they have approved $1.3 billion in grants to implement a new school initiative that offers students support outside the classroom.
According to a press release dated May 8, State education officials have appropriated funds since 2021 to offer students and their families resources such as health care, mental health support, and social services. The State’s board awarded $1.3 billion to 288 local education agencies that fund and support 995 schools statewide.
The California Department of Education plans to mobilize resources to help students thrive in school and at home. This initiative includes summer programs, tutoring, and counseling.
Gov. Newsom said that the state is expanding community schools across the state. Students will be offered free meals twice a day, mental health counseling, and after-school programs.
“California is transforming education to make schools a place where every family and student can succeed,” Newsom said.
The state is developing the initiative as part of the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP), a ten-year plan that promotes equity and quality education for students in California. The state will spend $4.1 billion with its partners including community schools, local counties, government agencies, and nonprofits that provide health, mental health, and social services.
State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond is eager to uplift communities with well-resourced schools and achieve equity in public education.
“We know children learn best when they are healthy, happy, and in a learning environment where they are surrounded by knowledgeable and caring adults attuned to their needs,” Darling-Hammond said.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond endorsed current school programs and anticipates promising results as grants are invested in these programs.
“Our Community Schools continue to serve as exemplars of programs that educate the whole child. I am proud to see California continue to be at the forefront of recognizing that student wellness is a cornerstone of learning,” Thurmond said.
The California Department of Education will award a final round of grants to community-based organizations and schools during the 2024-2025 academic year.
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