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Daily Rounds:'That's My Data'; Texting Homicide; Medical Pot Fight; Miralax Mania

Patients crusade for access to their medical device data (NPR) - "Even though Campos' Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator can wirelessly transmit data twice a day about his heart and the ICD itself, that information goes only to his doctor. Campos has to make an appointment and ask for a printout. And that, he says, just doesn't seem fair. 'It's my body, my life, my health. Why shouldn't I have access to do as I please with this data?' Campos says."

Homicide while texting trial to begin for teenage driver (The Boston Herald) - "As the state’s first prosecution of a motor-vehicle-homicide-while-texting case gets under way against a Haverhill teen tomorrow, new statistics suggest the one message plugged-in drivers of all ages aren’t receiving is to hang up their phones."

Medical marijuana opponents fight AG on ballot question (The Boston Herald) - "Opponents of a November ballot question to legalize medical marijuana want the state’s highest court to force Attorney General Martha Coakley to spell out for voters the exact details of the proposed law, which would open dozens of pot dispensaries and allow home-grown marijuana."

Drug for adults is popular as children's remedy (The New York Times) - "But the way many families use Miralax and its many generic equivalents has strayed far from its original intent. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for use only by adults, and for only seven days at a time.Instead, Miralax has become a long-term solution for childhood constipation — a problem that can be troubling not just physically, but also emotionally — rather than a short-term fix so that parents can change their children’s diets to include more fruits and vegetables. “I’ve had kids on it daily for years,” said Dr. Scott W. Cohen, a pediatrician in Beverly Hills, Calif."

Haves and Have-Nots In Massachusetts Health Care (Ellen Zane in the Boston Globe) "For the well-heeled, the system is working. The reality is that for most providers, and more importantly, for most consumers, it is not. An inconvenient truth about Massachusetts health care system is the fact that the income profile of where you live is a better predictor of what insurers will pay for your health care than almost any other factor. This reality has not been changed by any of the payment reform experiments currently under way, nor by anything that has been recently proposed. So I remain deeply unsettled by wishful thinking that our market will solve our health care cost problem if left to its own devices."

This program aired on May 28, 2012. The audio for this program is not available.

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