Author: Ring of Fire Staff

President Obama’s recent executive orders regarding gun reforms are supported by the American Academy of Pediatricians.  Because mental health issues have come to the forefront from the recent rash of large scale killings by gun violence, the organization favors the reforms that allow greater access to mental health care as well.  “The Academy agrees with the president that to prevent future incidents like the shooting in Newtown there must be stronger gun laws, comprehensive access to mental healthcare, and no restrictions on federal gun violence research and prevention efforts,” AAP President Thomas McInerny, MD, said in a statement. The...

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)  is hoping that 2013 will see movement on the effort to implement a uniform fiduciary duty for investment advisors and broker-dealers when providing personalized advice to retail clients.  Leaders of SIFMA are urging the SEC to look past opposition and press ahead with its development of a rule implementing a stricter ethical standard for brokers. The SEC was authorized by Congress to impose a common standard, but it isn’t required to do so. The Dodd-Frank financial reform law gave the SEC the authority to promulgate a rule that would subject brokers...

Nixon had Checkers.  Reagan had Rex.  Rick Scott? Well, he had Reagan—“had” being the operative word. Reagan the disposable dog. In April 2010, Rick Scott announced his run for the Florida governor’s mansion. Scott spent between 60-80 million dollars of his own money along the way, but his dog came free.  Scott adopted a shelter dog, perhaps to smooth over his image as the former captain of HCA/Columbia hospitals, which paid nearly 2 billion dollars in fines and pled guilty to more than a dozen fraud-related felonies, many of which were committed under Scott’s watch.  Accused by his opponents...

Pradaxa is a novel oral anticoagulant designed to reduce the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. From the day it was approved for sale in the United States an unprecedented number of serious adverse events and deaths attributed to the drug that were reported to the FDA. In response, the FDA launched an investigation into the safety of Pradaxa announcing that “the FDA is working to determine whether the reports of bleeding in patients taking Pradaxa are occurring more commonly than would be expected…” Less than a year later, in November 2012, the FDA concluded that “bleeding...

Despite the long-standing debate and controversy on the topic, the American Cancer Society just issued a new guideline which supports use of annual low-dose CT scans to screen for lung cancer in older smokers.  The guideline utilizes specific criteria for the cancer screening by CT scan, including screening patients who are between 55 and 74 years old, who have at least a 30 pack year smoking history. The guideline relies heavily upon the evidence generated by the National Lung Screening Trial.  The study found an impressive reduction in lung cancer death of 20% in high risk patients who underwent...