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FRIDAY, Feb. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- American doctors prescribe more brand-name medications after they get a free lunch or other incentives from drug company marketers, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed drug prescribing between 2013 and 2015 for a large sample of enrollees in Medicare Part D. The federal program, which subsidizes prescriptions for 37 million seniors and disabled people, accounts for nearly one-third of U.S. retail prescription drug sales. That data was compared with a database in which drug companies report incentives provided to doctors, including meals, travel or continuing education expenses. While those incentives tended to be modest -- 95% were meals, of which 80% were valued at less than $20 -- they were common and had an impact, according to the...

FRIDAY, Feb. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Ambulances outfitted as "mobile stroke treatment units" provide faster treatment and reduce patients' risk of severe disability and death, German researchers report. The new study examined the use of three mobile stroke units in Berlin. Each unit is staffed with emergency medicine neurologists and has a CT scanner and lab on board that enables treatment at the scene. Treatment may include clot-busting drugs to restore blood flow to the brain. Timing of this treatment is crucial because the clot-busting medication alteplase should be given within 4.5 hours of stroke symptoms. "Just waiting until the patient arrives at the hospital is not enough anymore," said lead author Dr. Heinrich Audebert, a professor in the Center for Stroke Research at...

FRIDAY, Feb. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that last summer's spate of severe lung illnesses tied to vaping prompted many Americans to consider giving up e-cigarettes. Online searches about how to quit vaping spiked after serious lung injuries among vapers started being reported, the study authors found As of January, more than 2,700 hospitalizations for vaping-associated lung injury had been reported in the United States. Sixty deaths in 27 states have been confirmed, with more under investigation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before these lung illness cases were connected primarily with vaping of marijuana and additives, many people who used nicotine-containing e-cigarettes were concerned, the researchers noted. "We were...

FRIDAY, Feb. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- It's been overshadowed by the new coronavirus outbreak in China, but this year's flu season could be near its peak after surging throughout the United States for months. At least 14,000 people have died and 250,000 have already been hospitalized during the 2019-2020 flu season, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 26 million Americans have fallen ill with flu-like symptoms. "There is a deadly respiratory virus that is circulating throughout the United States, and it is at its peak. It is not novel coronavirus," said Dr. Pritish Tosh, an infectious disease specialist with the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn. This flu season has come in two waves and has been particularly hard on children,...