By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – June, 2016 It seems like each year brings a new infectious disease worry, last year it was Ebola virus, this year it is Zika virus. Don’t underestimate the economic impact though. There is speculative talk about cancelling or moving this summer’s Brazil Olympic Games. Years in planning and billions of […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – May, 2016 I’m like many of you. I never liked to do my homework as a kid. When my mother asked my elementary school teacher why my younger brother had so much more homework than I did, the teacher answered that I rarely did it, and when I did, it […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – April, 2016 Las month on March 28th, I was invited by my good friend and fellow North Andover Board of Health member, Mr. Joseph McCarthy, to hold an interactive discussion at the North Andover Senior Center on colon cancer awareness and health matters related to aging. Though we discussed some ideas […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – March, 2016 Acid or proton-pump inhibitor drugs (PPI) are among the most widely prescribed medicines in the world. They include brand names such as Nexium, Dexilant, Prilosec, Protonix, and generics such as omeprazole and pantoprazole. The first medicines in this class of drugs were first available in the late 1980s. […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – Jan. 2016 Years end is a good opportunity for us to look back and take stock in what is good and what is not so good. Yes, the turning of the calendar year is an artificial boundary, but why not use this as an opportunity to leave the old behind […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – December, 2015 As a college student in the mid 1980s, I studied and received my bachelor degree in economics prior to attending medical school. Also In the mid 1980s, I took note that one component of the new wave in health care was insurance paid prescription drug coverage. As a […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – October, 2015 One of the most difficult jobs I have has been the honor of being tasked with giving bad news. It is both dreadful and an honor. It is dreadful because we all know that in ancient times, bad news given to the emperor was likely to result in […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – Sept, 2015 I may be a medical doctor, but I am also somebody’s son, brother, husband, father, and friend to many non-medically educated people who might need to engage the health care system. Patient safety and prevention of medical errors is a matter of deep importance to me and should […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – July, 2015 The US Supreme Court recently ruled in King v. Burwell that the health insurance subsidies written into the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) not only applied to insurance exchanges run by the State, but also to exchanges run by the Federal Government. Ruling otherwise would have thrown the […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan, MD June, 2015 Human beings are hardwired towards addiction. Modern society has evolved a mind-boggling number of traps that ensnare members of the human family in all sorts of compulsions or addictions. Compulsion drives a large part of our economy. Think about it. Advertisers and marketers want to know what buttons […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – May, 2015 This month, twenty years ago, I had conferred upon me a Doctor of Medicine degree. It has been both an honor and a privilege and I have had an amazing experience practicing in our community, from Lowell to Newburyport, and from Boston to Manchester, NH. During this time, […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – December, 2014 While I consider myself well read and I work hard to remain connected to and aware of changes happening in medicine, I have only recently become knowledgeable about a new program being rolled out by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) on January 1, 2015 that may […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – October, 2014 Over the past several months, I have tried to bring to the Valley Patriot readers a mix of what’s new in medicine, and what is happening in the world of healthcare from the perspectives of patient access, business and politics. Since this edition of the Valley Patriot is […]
By. Dr. Frank MacMillan – August, 2014 Health care consolidation is a bad deal for Massachusetts’s consumers. Over the past two decades, our hospitals, physicians, and health plans have been concentrating market power to a degree that is unprecedented, and this trend has been stimulated and accelerated by government intervention. This has led to monopoly […]
By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – July, 2014 Without my even asking, people will say to me that they don’t drink coffee for health reasons. I have always found this perplexing, since I typically drink 2-3 cups in the morning, almost every morning since I was in high school, and never considered it to be a […]