“The recent deaths of Anna Nicole Smith and Michael Jackson have made clear to the whole world just how dangerous prescription drug abuse can be,” said California Attorney General Edmund Brown Jr., as he unveiled the state’s new CURES internet database which provides physicians, pharmacists and law enforcement officers instant access to any patient’s prescription drug use history. Although not necessarily targeted for patients like the above named celebrities, the main use of the database is in an effort to curb prescription drug abuse, especially among patients who seek out and receive multiple prescriptions from different doctors. With 7,500 pharmacies and 158,000 prescribers reporting prescription information annually, CURES is the largest online prescription-drug monitoring database in the United States. Its goal is to reduce drug trafficking and abuse of dangerous prescription medications, lower the number of emergency room visits due to prescription-drug overdose and misuse, and reduce the costs to healthcare providers related to prescription-drug abuse. [via ABC KERO 23]
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Tags: Anna Nicole Smith, california, CURES, drugs, Edmund Brown, Michael Jackson, prescription
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
September 16th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Does the citizens of California truly expect that the government is going to keep their medical record private? Yeah Right. Too many people with hidden agendas will use that information against someone else. Just because a couple of high profile druggies (Jackson, Smith) die shouldn’t dictate that the rest of the citizenry have their right to privacy jeopardized.
September 16th, 2009 at 9:43 am
The way I see it is people rely too much on government and government is too wiling to “Help”. Yeah right, they’re willing to help in order to increase revenues and spending that winds up in the wrong hands.
Makes no difference at what level of government we speak of whether it be your city council, county, state or federal. In the end as long as we the citizens remain quiet, we’ll continue to take it on the chin. Government entities no longer pay any attention to the Constitution nor do they care.
September 16th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
It is a good idea to have some sort of database set up so that your own doctor can monitor what medications you take and what medications you can’t take.
I feel that this sort of system would deter “patients” from doctor-hopping to get their “medications” (several Rx from different doctors)
September 17th, 2009 at 5:23 am
Big pharma, big government. Makes sense. I’m tired of both! I’m a chronic pain patient who can’t get anything that helps because of the very slim chance of addiction. I don’t have an addictive personality or history. Just pain (8-10) due to surgery 6 years ago. I’m tired of hurting and can’t get any help.
September 17th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Pain Management is realy a big problem for the doctor.When the patient is in pain Doctor
has no choice Because he is responsible to remove the suffering of the patient
If the patient is going to the different Doctor for prescription Nobody can stop him or her doing this.When the patient is in pain He become desperate .Moreover most painkiller drugs loose their effectiveness with the time.That why patient is running after one prescription to another
September 21st, 2009 at 7:47 am
This simply illustrates that at some point in time, during a period of sobriety, one must make a decision that doctors treat symptoms, not root causes and therefore patients run the risk of dependency. Once the patient realizes this he/she can seek out a doctor that practices real medicine and not that determined by big pharma, whose goal is profit as opposed to real health, true relief is possible.