balmofgilead: (Default)
2008-11-08 12:14 pm
Entry tags:

PSA

(which, as always in this journal, stands for Public Service Announcement rather than Prostate-Specific Antigen.)

November is Marrow Awareness month, and the National Marrow Donor Program has received a grant to cover the costs of tissue-typing for new registrants. (Usually it costs $52 to register - sometimes that's paid for by people organizing drives, but sometimes not, so this is a good opportunity if you're poor but want to register.)  Here's a brief description of what's involved in being a donor.

You can register by mail - they'll send you a kit to take a swab of your cheek cells. I think you may have to use that link to do it for free.

And three cheers for Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, which I've never heard of before, for sponsoring it.

balmofgilead: (Default)
2007-07-01 06:40 pm
Entry tags:

(no subject)

One of the bits from Sicko (which I haven't yet seen) that people keep mentioning is that Hilary Clinton is the Senate's second-highest recipient of campaign donations from the health-care industry.  Some people have wondered who the highest recipient is.

It's...Rick Santorum!  I can't laugh too much, though, because my own senator, Ben Cardin (D) is also in the top 20.   
balmofgilead: (Default)
2006-09-27 08:47 am

(no subject)

It is very, very interesting that in the US, estrogens for hormone replacement therapy are available in generic form for less than 1/3 the cost of estrogens+progestins for contraceptive purposes. I don't think it's because progestins are expensive to produce.

HRT isn't even recommended anymore--the dangers have largely been deemed too great for the benefits.