“The report defines a low-income working family as those earning less than twice the Census definition of poverty. In 2006, the most recent year for available data, a family of four earning $41,228 or less qualified as a low-income family. The number of jobs with pay below the poverty threshold increased to 29.4 million, or 22 percent of all jobs, in 2006 from 24.7 million, or 19 percent of all jobs, in 2002.”

This obviously means there is a problem with the rise of poverty in the US.

“This was a time when we had solid and robust economic growth,” said Brandon Roberts, co-author of the report.

“The number of low-income families rose to nearly 9.6 million, or 28 percent of the total population, in 2006 from 9.2 million, or roughly 27 percent, in 2002, according to the report. The number of children in low-income families rose by roughly 800,000 during the same period, climbing to 21 million from 20.2 million.”

And it is not as if these people are not working. “72 percent of low-income families work, with adults in low-income working families working, on average, 2,552 hours per year in 2006, the equivalent of one and one-quarter full-time jobs.”

So how does this relate to medication non-adherence? If patients are finding it difficult to pay for food and clothing for their family, medications are very low on their priority list. I wonder what the cross reference of the people in low income working families to those who are uninsured?

So take today (scratch that, everyday) to remember how fortunate you are, even if you have lost a lot of money in the stock market. Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day, and at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.

Go make a donation to your local foodbank or donate to Heifer International which provides you the opportunity to donate small amounts of money towards larger purchases of livestock to transform entire communities in 53 countries and 28 US states.

Please do something if you can. Thank you.

“Researchers will study the genomes of up to 10,000 employees and family members of the Scripps Health system in San Diego who volunteer for the project and will monitor changes in their behavior over a 20-year period. Under the plan, Affymetrix will scan participants’ genomes and Navigenics will interpret the results and provide participants with guidance on how to lessen the chances of contracting diseases to which they may be genetically predisposed. Participants will be able to store their tests results, and related data, in a Microsoft HealthVault account.”

This study is pretty significant to me and I’m sure to the Genomics community – too bad we will have to wait 20 years to see the results. I have had a few conversations, online and off, about the importance of genetic testing and what it will really do to change patient behavior.

One person claimed genetic testing has to be covered by insurance to determine risk factors to enable behavioral change – ie. if you are at risk for diabetes, control your weight and diet. Another person thought that no matter what people know about their “health future” and possible conditions, they will do little to change their behavior.

I am on the fence about testing on a personal level, but feel that people who want to have it done and can afford it, should have it done. 23andMe now offers a $399 personal genetics service – which is pretty hard to pass up. I know that if I found out something horrible, and shared it with my wife, she would want /make me to change my lifestyle to reflect what “might” happen – so that is a deterrent. On the hypocritical flip side, I would like to have my children tested for just that reason.

Last month, Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google and husband of Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe’s co-founder) wrote on his personal blog about 23andMe and his higher risk of developing Parkinson’s. This created a lot more buzz around 23andMe, genetic testing and PD – bringing the issue back into the national forum. I wonder if Google Health and 23andMe will launch their own study?

I am very interested to see what becomes of Scripts study and to see if people will change their behaviors based on their genetic makeup. Perhaps they will start reporting at the 5 year mark to give us a taste of what how patients are trending? Unless there are incentives provided, I doubt many people will change their behavior. ie. people smoke for years, knowing it can kill them, but as soon as their company /health plan offers them an incentive to quit, they try to quit.

I already know I am at risk for diabetes, cancer and heart disease, based on my family history – but one day soon I will get tested to see everything else that is in my DNA. Perhaps it will be this year’s Christmas present to the family.

So far Group 7 have only posted a few posts which mention the causes of non-adherence and what you can do to help stay adherent.

I look forward to seeing how their blog develops.

First off I was very flattered today to be included in a Cancer Research Blog Carnival on Highlight HEALTH. I checked my email at 3 am while feeding Gray this morning and there was an email from Walter Jessen (author of Highlight HEALTH, neuro-oncology research scientist and bioinformatician) stating he included me in the Carnival.

This is significant for a few reasons:

1st: The Carnival is in support of Stand Up To Cancer a fundraiser tonight at 8 PM on ABC, NBC and CBS benefiting Cancer Research. “In 2008, over half a million Americans are expected to die of cancer, more than 1,500 people a day. Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the U.S., accounting for 1 in every 4 deaths. Nevertheless, since 2003 the U.S. government’s cancer research budget has been cut every single year”.

Matthew Zachary and Dr. Leonard Sender from I’m Too Young For This! will be in the front row, making sure their voice is heard, as there is barely any funding for young adult cancer research.

2nd: I never thought I would be included in a blog carnival, however my post was added because it is an abstract about a video game improving medical adherence in cancer patients. It made me wonder the reach and importance of my blog posts, and also made me think of what I am doing with this blog. My intentions have changed a few times since creating the blog last year, and they keep evolving each month.

3rd: I “met” Walter Jessen on Twitter. I don’t remember how exactly, but I was following someone who was following him, so I started following him and he reciprocated with a follow. We have communicated a few times over tweeets about various topics. I count this as one of the reasons I was included in the Carnival.

I have been working on a blog post about Twitter for health, and how I use it. This is a prime example. I never would have have crossed paths with Walter outside of Twitter – he is in Ohio and although in a somewhat related field, I probably would not have sought him out. I could have discovered his Highlight HEALTH blog, posted some comments and emailed him – but this still relates to social media and its importance in connecting people of like minds.

To further exalt Twitter, I have had a few “conversations” with MDs all over the country about medication adherence, hospital readmit rates, and other front line problems they face with patients. These communications would not have taken place without Twitter.

Another Twitter praise is for conference coverage. I cannot go to Medicine 2.0 in Toronto (started Wednesday), and there is a presentation by the NextHealth team I really want to see. Luckily I am following a few people who are there, and twittering the event. Of course I will read blog posts, see the Slideshare, and probably speak with the presenters next week, but Twitter brings an immediacy that I cannot find elsewhere.

Of course you can also mention the disaster coverage, and the DNC, RNC coverage – Twitter breaks all the news before others. But that is further off the topic.

In conclusion, I am very honored to be included in the Blog Carnival and hope to have something more substantial to add next time; watch and donate to Stand Up To Cancer and support I’m To Young For This!; and join the conversation on Twitter – you can follow me.

Here are Walter’s final thoughts from his post on Highlight HEALTH:

The Cancer Research Blog Carnival is looking for future hosts. You can find both the hosting schedule and past editions at the Cancer Research Blog Carnival website .

For more information on the U.S. investment in cancer research, you can read the NCI’s plan and budget proposal for fiscal year 2009.

Tara Parker-Pope writes about the dangers /effects of early cancer screenings in today’s NYT Well. This is particularly haunting for me as a recent ER X-ray found something on my lung, and my wife wants me to get a lung cancer screening tomorrow. I will write a post about my whole ER experience soon. Thanks to Kevin MD for the tip.

Health on MSN has picked up a Forbes article about the most medicated US States. National average for 2006 was 11.1 prescriptions per capita. I think it is now 14 per capita.

In-Pharma Technologist writes about the shake-up of Pharma top sales spots in 2014.

The Health Care Blog turns 5 today. I have only been reading it for about 18 months. Interesting to read Matthew Holt’s take on the evolution of healthcare blogging and its effect on the space. Congrats Matthew and the whole team @ THCB who has been providing brilliant content for years!

New blog I discovered today is the blog for the Placebo Journal. The blog to the magazine, who’s tagline is “Medical Humor With a Purpose”.

PyschCentral has a good article on BiPolar Medication Adherence Issues.

I’m Too Young For This! has posted their Summer edition of  The Stupid Cancer News. If you look really closely in one of the pics from the Stupid Cancer Gala, you can see me and my friend Vanessa in the background!

Thanks to all on Twitter for the tips. You can follow me on Twitter @knightsicre.

Enjoy!

However, in reading this post and doing some research (thanks Twitter), I see there are actually 883 blogs that are the Top 100 list, so I am going to throw my hat into the ring. A handful of the blogs that I read are in the Top 100, with a handful of the blogs I really like and respect ranging between 300 and 600.

The question is, what does it say about your blog if you have a “high” ranking or no ranking at all? I don’t think it discounts what the author has to saw with a “high” ranking, however if a blog is in the top 20, more readers will flock to it, thus keeping the blog’s “low” ranking.

eDrugSearch has an algorithm that tracks the “popularity” of your blog based on various other website ranking systems. Here is the outline. If I spend some more time looking into figuring out how to get a higher rank, I might be able to move my number up, but what would be the point? More exposure equals more readers mean that more people will learn about the problems of medication non-adherence and hopefully realize that it is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. And that is the point of this blog, right?

I usually think that rankings and reviews should happen organically, however the more I read about blogging and social media, the more I realize there sometimes you need to be a little PR. Also, you have to register to have your blog reviewed, so here I go into the fray.

So that is great for the blog, and I didn’t even know about it.

Check out AllTop Health and the other sections to find the information you are looking for.

Here is their “purpose” taken from their About page:

We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — “aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs.

You can think of an Alltop site as a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points—they are not destinations per se. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. In other words, our goal is the “cessation of Internet stagnation” by providing “aggregation without aggravation.”

I have linked AllTop Health in my BlogRoll to the right if you are interested in going straight to the source. As you can tell, it not only is great for health blogs, but for almost everything else you can think of! I like the analogy to a “digital magazine rack”, and have found some interesting blogs I did not know were out there.

Great job AllTop Team!

Here is my email to them to ask for inclusion on their site:

Dear AllTop Team:

I have been following Guy’s tweets for the last few weeks about AllTop and am constantly amazed at how quickly you are adding topics and feeds. My own blog is about Medication Non-adherence, a pandemic that effects everyone involved in healthcare. 1 in 2 patients do not take medication as prescribed, costing the US over $300 Billion annually in unnecessary healthcare costs and lost revenue.

I discuss this issue, what is being done to address it, Health 2.0, pharma, and the healthcare industry in general. I do not think there is another blog quite like mine, save my inspiration, AllignMap, although I often pull information from different sources. With full disclosure, my company, Intelecare Compliance Solutions, is a healthcare technology company focused on increasing medication adherence, which I state front and center.

Today has been about following advice for me. I read @chrisbrogan’s Mashable post about online branding, and followed some of his tips. I also read AllTop’s About section and am now following your hints as to how to get on AllTop. I wrote a post about AllTop and have linked AllTop Health in my blogroll (which I would have done anyway since I use it).

Thus, I am submitting my blog for consideration to be added to AllTop Health. If accepted, I will add a badge, most likely “Kick Ass” although I do like “Bribes Work”. I thought it inappropriate to add one without actually being accepted.

Thank you for consideration and I look forward to be listed on your site.

Best,
Alex Sicre