Breaking News, Business, Financial and Economic News, World News from EconoTimes

Become a contributor

Bookmark Econotimes

Wed, May 15, 2024 08:42 PM All times are UTC

Follow Series

©Econometrics LLC . All Rights Reserved.

Barbara Mintzes

Dr Barbara Mintzes is a research scientist specialising in the study of pharmaceutical policy. Her research focuses on the effects of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs and other forms of pharmaceutical promotion on the prescribing and use of medicines. She also performs systematic reviews of clinical trial evidence regarding the health effects of medicines, including both benefit and harm, in terms of outcomes of importance to patients’ health. Dr Mintzes has has a doctorate in Health Care and Epidemiology and was Associate Professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada prior to joining the University of Sydney in April 2015. At UBC, she worked with the Therapeutics Initiative, a research group that evaluates new drugs as a background to provincial reimbursement decisions and produces an educational bulletin on drug treatments. Currently, she is the lead investigator on an international comparative study examining the influence of national regulations on the amount of safety information that pharmaceutical sales representatives provide to primary care physicians. Dr Mintzes was a lead member of an international WHO and Health Action International (HAI) project that involved developing an educational manual on drug promotion, for pharmacy and medical students. This manual has been translated into Spanish, Russian and French, and incorporated into education curricula in a range of settings. Dr Mintzes maintains strong community engagement, having worked for many years with women’s health and consumer groups, including DES (diethylstilbestrol) Action Canada, and Women and Health Protection (a Canadian non-profit organization). She co-authored the book “Sex, Lies and Pharmaceuticals” with Ray Moynihan, published in 2010.

We can't trust drug companies to wine, dine and educate doctors about the drugs they prescribe

Apr 07, 2016 05:40 am UTC| Insights & Views Law

If a drug company treats a doctor to a nice lunch and a presentation on their newest products, is prescribing affected? Doctors generally think not, but the research evidence overwhelmingly says yes. And if these events do...

Economy

What should you do if you can’t pay your rent or mortgage?

The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

Reducing energy demand and improving efficiency will help prevent the next gas crisis

Gas prices have relaxed, Europe has come out of the winter with record gas storage levels and a surfeit of liquefied natural gas is set to reach the shores of Europe over the coming years. Many commentators are hopeful...

Minimum wage for South African farm workers: study shows 2013 hike helped reduce poverty even though compliance was poor

Minimum wage policies are typically aimed at reducing poverty. Yet there is little direct evidence of this effect, especially in developing countries. And none for South Africa. In a recent paper, we consider the...

If the RBA’s right, interest rates may not fall for another year. Here’s why.

The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. Thats a big change compared to just three months ago. Back...

Some experts say the US economy is on the up, but here’s why voters don’t think so

Many Americans are gloomy about the economy, despite some data saying it is improving. The Economist even took this discussion to TikTok. When its US editor John Prideaux examined inflation, wage and employment numbers,...

Politics

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

Former President Donald Trump reportedly proposed a $1 billion deal to oil executives, offering to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in return for campaign funding, according to The Washington Post. This move underscores...

US Supreme Court upended decades of precedent in 2022 by allowing voters to vote with gerrymandered maps instead of fixing the congressional districts first

For the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use congressional districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens. A 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in February...

Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections

Ahead of the European parliament elections in June, Germany has lowered the age limit on participation to 16. This makes it the largest of just a handful of states in the EU to allow people under the age of 18 to vote....

South Africa will be president of the G20 in 2025: two much-needed reforms it should drive

South Africa will play an important international role in 2025 as president of the G20. The G20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the African Union and the European Union. Between them they represent 85% of global...

Taiwan is experiencing millions of cyberattacks every day

Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety of grey zone tactics to pressure...

Science

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without...

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

Technology

Dovish CPI Inflation Boosts AI Coins--Is WienerAI The Top Crypto Pick?

The April Consumer Price Index bodes well for risky assets, with US stocks and cryptocurrencies rallying in the aftermath. The YoY headline CPI data came in at 3.4%, exactly in line with market forecasts. The MoM...

Bitcoin Soars on Cooling US CPI Inflation Data, Investor Sentiment Improves

The Bitcoin price remains constant, as investors appear to have dismissed inflation concerns, particularly following the recent U.S. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been released. Notably, market investors were keenly...

Shiba Inu Rep Lucie Makes Major Bullish Statement on Shibarium Coins

Lucie, the Shiba Inu teams official marketing head, has taken to her X social media account (previously known as Twitter) to declare the SHIB, BONE, and LEASH pricing behavior she expects to see during a hypothetical...

Tesla Cybertruck to Receive Full Self-Driving V12.5 Update in June, Elon Musk Announces

Elon Musk provided a new update on the Tesla FSD development, which appears to be moving faster than anticipated. FSD V12.4, which aims to enhance miles per intervention by tenfold over V12.3, is set to begin internal...

Spot Bitcoin ETF: Vanguard Might Join BlackRock in Major Market Shift

With the appointment of new CEO Salim Ramji, Vanguard may soon enter the spot Bitcoin ETF market, potentially joining industry leader BlackRock and marking a significant shift in the investment landscape. Vanguards New...