Half of medical device professionals looking to change jobs this year: MedCity Morning Read, Jan. 11, 2010

Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of health care:

More than half of medical-device professionals to look for work in 2010: According to a poll of 2000 medical device professional conducted earlier this month, 28 percent will “definitely” pursue new employment this year, while another 28 percent say there’s a “strong possibility” that they will do so, Medical Device guru reports. Only 11 percent expected no change in their employment. Most unhappy are sales professionals, with just 9 percent saying they’re completely satisfied with their positions. Perhaps that’s to be expected, given that employment number for drug reps are plummeting. A medical-device recruting executive said she wasn’t surprised by the numbers:

“For the past eighteen months, professionals in all aspects of the medical industry have had to work harder – many times for less pay and with fewer resources – to make up for reductions in staff. I’m not certain if this trend is sustainable with the first glimmers of hope in medical starting to become evident.”

Probelms with federal EHR incentives: The public comment period regarding the definition of what it takes for doctors to qualify for federal incentives that promote adoption of electronic health records lasts until March 15, and plenty more comments will be made, says Bnet blogger Ken Terry. Known in the industry as “meaningful use,” the standards that doctors must comply with for EHR adoption are “overly complex” and difficult to understand, according to a trade group that represents group physician practices. Another big problem centers around hospitalists, physicians who practice at hospitals rather than independent doctors’ offices, many of whom would not be eligible for the incentives, which would subidize around $40,000 of the costs of adopting EHR systems.

One health executive estimates that about 27 percent of physicians wouldn’t be eligible for the incentives due to the narrow definition of who qualifies. For doctors and those believe that electronic records will improve care and/or cut costs (both of which are questionable assertions, by the way) the ultimate definition of “meaningful use” may seem wonky and overly technical, but it’s well worth monitoring.

Obama’s pet: After attacking Big Pharma‘s top lobbyist Billy Tauzin as an example of what’s wrong with Washington when he was running for president, Barack Obama has now embraced the lobbyist as his “pet,” a Washington Examiner columnist says. Tauzin, a former congressman and now the top lobbyist for PhRMA, vistited the White House at least 11 times during Obama’s first six months in office. Some of those visits, no doubt, were spent hammering out the much-publicized and much-derided deal in which PhRMA agreed to give up $80 billion over 10 years in reduced drug prices. PhRMA, the trade group representing prescription-drug manufacturers, spent more on lobbying than any single-industry group, $20 million, through the first nine months of 2009. If you include spending by individual companies that figure reaches a whopping $199 million, the Examiner reports. So what did Big Pharma get for its efforts?

Among other subsidies, the bill preserves the very government favor candidate Obama attacked — that Medicare subsidizes prescription drugs but is prohibited by law from trying to get lower prices. The bill also expands subsidies for drugs, grants lengthy monopolies to some complex drugs, continues the ban on reimporting drugs and hinders over-the-counter drugs that try to compete with prescription drugs.

Next time you go to a fast-food restaurant…: You may want to bring a bottle of water. A study published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology showed 48 percent of drinks from soda machines contained coliform bacteria, which indicates possible fecal contamination. A couple caveats: First, this was a small study performed on 30 soda machines in Virginia. Second, while the 48 percent number is scary, just 20 percent of the machines contained an amount of bacteria that exceed federal standards for drinking water.

Many restaurant owners say they clean the machines’ nozzles frequently, but the likely suspect is the machines’ plastic tubing. While the study’s reality isn’t quite as disturbing as the classic, wonderful headline “Soda fountains squirt fecal bacteria” (thank you, ABC News) would suggest, it’s certainly enough to get you to think twice about ordering that large coke with your value meal.