Suboxone vs. Addiction
Monday, September 15, 2014
Saturday, August 30, 2014
HEROIN OVER DOSE BEFORE 30, TALKING ABOUT DEATH A WEEK PRIOR
Only the good die young: http://youtu.be/Hu6Rm0eFNvU
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Decline of Mobile Web the App. Revolution Begins
The decline of the mobile web
People are spending more time on mobile vs desktop:
And more of their mobile time using apps, not the web:
This is a worrisome trend for the web. Mobile is the future. What wins mobile, wins the Internet. Right now, apps are winning and the web is losing.
Moreover, there are signs that it will only get worse. Ask any web company and they will tell you that they value app users more than web users. This is why you see so many popups and banners on mobile websites that try to get you to download apps. It is also why so many mobile websites are broken. Resources are going to app development over web development. As the mobile web UX further deteriorates, the momentum toward apps will only increase.
The likely end state is the web becomes a niche product used for things like 1) trying a service before you download the app, 2) consuming long tail content (e.g. link to a niche blog from Twitter or Facebook feed).
This will hurt long-term innovation for a number of reasons:
1) Apps have a rich-get-richer dynamic that favors the status quo over new innovations. Popular apps get home screen placement, get used more, get ranked higher in app stores, make more money, can pay more for distribution, etc. The end state will probably be like cable TV – a few dominant channels/apps that sit on users’ home screens and everything else relegated to lower tiers or irrelevance.
2) Apps are heavily controlled by the dominant app stores owners, Apple and Google. Google and Apple control what apps are allowed to exist, how apps are built, what apps get promoted, and charge a 30% tax on revenues.
Most worrisome: they reject entire classes of apps without stated reasons or allowing for recourse (e.g. Apple has rejected all apps related to Bitcoin). The open architecture of the web led to an incredible era of experimentation. Many startups were controversial when they were first founded. What if AOL or some other central gatekeeper had controlled the web, and developers had to ask permission to create Google, Youtube, eBay, Paypal, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Sadly, this is where we’re headed on mobile.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Why Suboxone treatment is difficult to obtain!
Some parts of the country report a shortage of physicians who are DATA-2000 certified, i.e. able to prescribe Suboxone and other buprenorphine products. The shortage of buprenorphine-certified doctors parallels shortages of mental health practitioners in general, including psychiatrists and addictionologists. Larger cities and areas near the east and west coasts are less likely to have shortages of doctors than are smaller and more-rural parts of the country, particularly across the Midwest. Suboxone-certified physicians did not come to light in the United States until October of 2000. The difficult part of finding treatment comes from the 100 patient cap each doctor has to follow. Only 30 patients allowed for first year. This number has remained unchanged since 2000. Also, many physicians are downright frightened to become DATA-2000 certified. To become buprenorphine-certified, doctors must sign an agreement that allows random inspections by the DEA without cause. Other doctors enjoy privacy rights similar to other businessmen, where search of the premises and review of records would require probable cause and issuance of a warrant by a judge. But in order to treat with Suboxone or buprenorphine, doctors must waive that right of privacy and allow inspections with no notice, even if such inspections require closing the clinic doors for the day.
And now that most doctors are employees of large health systems, the requirement for inspections is a greater hindrance. Most major health systems are not as interested in treating addiction— an area of medicine with low reimbursement rates, and patients who are more likely to be impoverished by their illness– as in attracting orthopedic or heart patients, the ‘cash cows’ of modern medicine. If you were CEO of a multi-physician network, would you permit random DEA inspections of your physicians’ offices in exchange for the ability to treat more patients that are addicted to drugs including opioids? I can’t blame those CEOs and doctors for the decisions they make. The result is a shortage of buprenorphine-certified doctors, and the attraction of businessmen-doctors who find a way to turn buprenorphine treatment into a profitable enterprise, by signing doctors to increase their patient-limit, and seeing as many patients in as short a time as possible. Other doctors tend to be physicians who enjoy working in the field of addiction because of their own experiences with addiction and recovery. To those physicians, treating a fatal disease, in a disrespected and stigmatized patients, can be very a very rewarding way to practice medicine. My personal opinion to those seeking Suboxone treatment is that you receive better therapy ie. talk-therapy from a private practice physician.
If you are seeking information on the process of getting put on the waiting list in your state. Please click here to learn how to truly find the help you need. Treatment Match system
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