radio interview tonight

[Guest guest]

with Dr. Abramson of "Overdosed America".....available on AM radio

PDX area Coast-to-Coast program with Noory host. His part of

the show starts at 11PM I think....

J. Pedersen DC

About Dr. Abramson

Dr. Abramson served as a primary care doctor in Appalachia as

part

of the National Health Service Corps. He was a Wood

Fellow at Case Western Reserve University, studying research design,

statistics, epidemiology, and health policy and then researching the

health effects of enrolling a low-income urban population in an

innovative health maintenance organization.

In 1982, he took over a fledgling family practice in Hamilton, MA,

where he served as a small town family doctor for the next 20 years.

While in practice, he continued his interest in health policy by

joining the faculty of Brandeis University's Heller School of Social

Policy for two years, working part-time on a project designed to tailor

local health care expenditures specifically to local health needs. And

he had the opportunity to observe the evolution of HMO coverage from

the inside as an associate medical director for seven years in an early

HMO in Massachusetts.

In the mid-1990s, Dr. Abramson merged his private practice into Lahey

Clinic, a large doctor-run multi-specialty group practice. Lahey Clinic

showed its commitment to family medicine by setting up a Department of

Family Practice for which he served as chair for seven years.

After he had been practicing for about 10 years, Dr. Abramson started

teaching Harvard Medical School students in his office. As his students

became comfortable with the basics of primary care, he helped them to

develop their skills in the "art" of medicine - understanding that the

person-to-person connection they were making with their patients was

not just a pleasant amenity but an integral part of good medical care.

He also taught a course for several years at Harvard Medical School

with Dr. Herbert Benson of the Mind/Body Medical Institute exploring

the importance of the doctor-patient relationship in the healing

process.

As the 1990s progressed, Dr. Abramson became aware that patient

care was increasingly being compromised by the growing waste and

commercialism in American medicine. By "researching the research," he

found that the clinical studies presented in even the most respected

medical journals were often biased by drug and medical device company

sponsorship, and that the medical information available to even the

most dedicated doctors often differed from what the scientific evidence

really showed about the best way to take care of their patients.

In 2002, Dr. Abramson left practice to devote himself full-time to

researching and writing Overdosed America, with the goal of helping

patients and doctors to reclaim the basic

mission of medicine, optimizing health most effectively and

efficiently.

Articles, Reviews, and Appearances

Medical

Reporting in a Highly Commercialized Environment, Nieman Reports,

Summer 2003.

"Move

to switch statins to non-prescription in US" article in the British

Medical Journal

British

Medical Journal review of Overdosed America

WBUR: On

Point: "Cholesterol Nation" 7/14/04 --

Dr.

Abramson comes into the show at 22 minutes, 50 seconds to rebut the

latest recommendations to lower the threshold for starting

cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, making the point that there is no

evidence that the drugs help women of any age or men over 70 who do not

already have heart disease. Listen to the response of the lead author

of the recommendations.

WBUR: The

Connection: "Prescription Drug Wars" 8/20/04 --

Dr. Abramson comes into the show at 25 minutes to rebut PhRMA's

concerns about counterfeit drugs from Canada, with the fact that there

has not been a single instance of a counterfeit drug coming the US from

a registered Canadian pharmacy.