So it’s Friday and I go to pick it up. As luck would have it, the same pharmacy technician from yesterday is there to help me again today. The conversation went like this:

Me: I’m hear to pick up my prescription
Her: Name?
Me: [says name]
Her: [After looking in the computer..] looks like you are not in here.
Me: I dropped it off yesterday…
Her: I know, I took your prescription yesterday myself.
Me: Sooo…
Her: Let me look again.
Me: [waiting]
Her: Ahh here’s the problem, the product that your doctor wrote doesn’t exist
Me: That’s kind of crazy, I told my wife who is a pharmacist about it, and she recognized it immediately.
Her: Well, it doesn’t come in a lotion.
Me: What does it come in? Is it an ointment? Are we just splitting hairs? [It's clearly a topical cream of some sort.]
Her: We have to get a clarification from the doctor any time it doesn’t match.
Me: [with sarcasm] Great, and they are out of the office for one of the typical three day weekends! (My doctor’s office is closed every Wednesday, and this week they took off this Friday too. It has to be nice to work three day weeks.)

So if you are wondering where our health care dollars are going, here’s a start. It was not only my time wasted, but also the pharmacy technician’s. The clarification fax back to the doctor’s office is going to take more of her (or her secretary’s) time.

This could have been easily fixed if there was some kind electric prescription system. Such a system wouldn’t allow a doctor to write a prescription for something that doesn’t exist… or at the very least it should ask twice to make sure that the doctor really wants to do that. Another advantage to a system like this is that I wouldn’t have to drop off the prescription. I know this system is coming, but I really hope it comes faster. Sometimes it feels like health care is stuck in 1982 when it could be at least in 2001.

I realize some of you might not know much about HPV – I know I didn’t until it affected the life of someone close to me – so I wrote up this little primer:

HPV Information

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 20 million Americans are infected with the Human Papillomavirus, or HPV, making it the most common sexually transmitted infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites that over 50% of sexually active adults will contract HPV at some point in their lives. This is a particularly startling fact since different types of the virus can cause genital warts, cervical cancer, and a variety of other cancers.

Most people who have HPV are unaware of the fact that they are carrying the STI. This is because most will not develop any symptoms, or develop any adverse health conditions. Even years without having sex, it is still possible to have HPV and to pass it on to a partner.

HPV can be of extra concern to pregnant women or those who may become pregnant. In very rare cases, HPV can be passed to the child during natural birth, and appears in the child in the form of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, or RRP. RRP manifests itself in the form of warts in the throat or larynx. This is a condition only occurring in about 2,000 newborns per year, but is another reason why women who are or may become pregnant should be screened for the virus.

For most people, a healthy body and immune system will clear the virus, and no other conditions will develop. Some women experience multiple infections and slow changes to the cervix that ultimately lead to cancer. Cancer development as a result of HPV in men is extremely rare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that around 11,000 women develop cervical cancer annually, and around 3,700 of those cases become fatal.

There is an HPV test available today for women. Testing is usually only advised for women over 30, when it is most likely to contract cervical cancer, or in the event of an abnormal pap smear. The test detects high-risk types of HPV which are responsible for the development of cancer.

HPV Vaccine Information

The vaccine is recommended for young women, ages 11-12, who have not yet become sexually active. This is because the vaccine is most effective in women who have not yet contracted any form of HPV, and many adults contract the virus within their first year of sexual activity. The vaccine does not immunize against all forms of the virus. It does, however, protect against the strains that are responsible for causing 70% of cervical cancer cases and 90% of genital warts cases. In preventing for these strains that it covers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cite a nearly 100% effective rate.

Photo Credit: alicia.anne

1. It was a rat’s heart, not a human one.
2. It required cells from a newborn rat’s heart. Those cells were then added to a cadaver’s heart
3. The heart only beat in a dish. It was not transplanted into a rat.

None of those conditions should come as a surprise as innovation always has to start somewhere. The possibilities seem endless. Cancer got your lungs from smoking too much? Why not just get new ones? If we can replace body parts as simply as one replaces a water pump for a car, how long could the average person will live? It seems like science is on the brink of being able to expand our longevity significantly.

Let me stop you before you go get that pack of Camels. I think I’ve been reading articles of amazing medical breakthroughs for about 20 years now. Some of them translate into true medical procedures – others fade away. There’s no guarantee that this, or any other early medical success is going to help you down the line. It’s best to remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The Travelin’ Man is 35 years old, a non-smoker, and otherwise has none of the risks for cancer. Baz Luhrmann was right when he said, “The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.” I was paralyzed by the e-mail, so I can’t imagine what it must be like for him to get the diagnosis from the doctor.

I tried to put myself in his shoes for a minute and think of what I’d do. I’d probably grab myself the world’s biggest bowl of organic broccoli and start chowing it down. As soon as I finished that, I’d hit the web to learn everything I could. I became an expert on diamonds when I got engaged, saving me a few dollars. You can bet that if my life depends on it, I’d probably get to the point where doctors are asking me questions about bladder cancer.

What advice would you give The Travelin’ Man?

It’s a very wise plan. When I worked as a pharmacy technician in 1996-1998, I was completely floored at all the inefficiencies. I’m sure things have changed. However, at the time it shocked me that I could use e-mail college to chat with a friend, but doctors were faxing barely legible subscriptions to the pharmacy. The pharmacists would dispense the medication with little computer aid to check interactions. They then would send the medications up to the patients’ floor where another factor of human error, nurses was put into play. (Note: My fiancee is a pharmacist and my mom a nurse, so I love these people and they do important jobs. I just believe it’s possible to come up with a better system. In fact today there better systems are already in place.

With Andy Grove serious about entering the health field, there’s a chance that health care and technology will really advance. This is just another reason why Lazy Man and Money is an investor in both technology and health care sectors of the stock market.

I did a little research myself and found a Stanford article as well as a medical device that cools the head. Knowing this, what would you do if you were in crowded room and someone shows the signs of stroke? Obviously call 911, but while you were waiting, for the paramedics to arrive, would you suggest cooling the head? If you were a doctor this is an easy call. I am not, so while I would suggest it, I’m betting that the crowd would out-vote me by suggesting to do nothing to prevent themselves from doing the wrong thing.