Daily Rounds: Capsule Colonoscopy; Frightened Pharmacists; UMass Memorial Finances; Occupy Geriatrics

Colonoscopy in a capsule (The Boston Globe) - "To see inside the digestive system, doctors have to thread a scope up or down - potentially doing damage along the way - or get their patients to swallow a capsule that tumbles through, uncontrolled, snapping random pictures. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital are now developing a “swimming capsule’’ that they hope will combine the best of both approaches: the control of the endoscope with the safety and ease of a pill. The team of scientists, led by Nobuhiko Hata, associate professor of radiology, still has a lot of work to do before the plastic capsule could be ready for use in a patient." (The Boston Globe)

Anxious days for Long Island Pharmacies (The New York Times) - "Long Island pharmacists talk of the twitchy arrivals who meander around, peering at the ceiling. They talk of the “pharmacy shoppers” who call up, give no name, and wonder if the place has oddly copious quantities of a narcotic painkiller, usually oxycodone. For some time now, pharmacists have agitated about the persistent issue of insurance reimbursement for their prescription drug sales. More recently, that distraction has been joined by the prospect of a looter with a gun, a possibility that is warping what it means to work in a drugstore." (The New York Times)

Market pressures hit UMass Memorial (Worcester Business Journal) - "The financial performance of UMass Memorial Health Care Inc., the largest employer in Central Massachusetts, fell well below expectations in its recent fiscal year, raising the possibility of layoffs and cost-cutting in 2012. John G. O’Brien, the system’s CEO and president, acknowledged that the results have him and his executive team analyzing the business model, a process that could include the elimination of some full-time positions, shedding of some ventures and pursuing changes to employee pension plans." (WBJ)

Occupy Geriatrics" Seniors in walkers shut down local Bank of America (SF Weekly) - "What some healthy and spry Occupy Movements across the nation couldn't quite accomplish, San Francisco geriatrics have! KCBS reports that a small group of senior citizens between the ages of 69 and 82 successfully shut down a Bank of America in Bernal Heights on Thursday with nothing more than walkers and oxygen tanks. That's right: No shouting, chanting, tear gas, or window-smashing. The group, which dubbed itself "Wild Old Women" set up camp right outside the BofA, holding signs in what they were calling "a run on the bank." (SF Weekly)